![\"img\"](\"http:\/\/www.seecalifornia.com\/images\/xwedd.jpg\")
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by Craig and Franklin MacDonald, Ph.D.<\/p>\n
The rainy season was on once more
\nThe rain all day was steady
\nWhen Christmas Eve was ushered in
\nUp there in Rough and Ready.<\/p>\n
At 8 o’clock the candles beamed
\nThe hotel bell was rung
\nAnd soon the hall was crowded
\nWith miners old and young.<\/p>\n
John Saunders played a Wedding March
\nUpon his violin
\nAnd in the wedding party came
\nAmidst an awful din.<\/p>\n
Read why the\u00a0Christmas Wedding of 1853<\/a> was a real “Shotgun Wedding!”<\/p>\n We live in a fast-paced world, but at Christmas it’s nice to know that some things are timeless. According to historian Craig MacDonald,\u00a0the Holiday Season during the early days of the Gold Rush was for many a very harsh, lonely and difficult time to cope with<\/a>. Miner Elisha Perkins wrote in his diary in 1849: “Oh, how I wish I could spend this day at home, what a ”Merry Christmas” I would have and what happy faces I should see, instead of the disappointed set around me.”<\/p>\n Stories of goodwill abound. Thanks to Good Samaritans, who let strangers in a snowstorm spend the night, everyone witnessed a Christmas miracle, Sierra Style, in Finders Keepers<\/a>.<\/p>\n In the 1880s, when a 10-year-old named Carl Browne, was told by older friends that Santa was a fake, he refused to disbelieve. He witnessed his own Christmas miracle when Santa Came by Stage<\/a>.<\/p>\n Women were such a rarity in some areas that\u00a0miners considered a real holiday treat on Christmas Day was a woman giving birth to a Golden Child<\/a>.<\/p>\n