Katie Schaffer’s home smells like Christmas.
As the door swings open, the aromas of sugar cookies and coffee waft through. The warmth of the restored Victorian on West Broadway in Bangor envelops those who enter. A Christmas tree stands in the corner of the living room, and a wreath adorns the kitchen window. Stockings are hung on the mantle, and a fresh seasonal holiday flower arrangement sits in the dining room for others to admire.
The anticipation of the onset of a decades-old tradition called Christmas Coffee hangs in the air. Christmas Coffee has been held in the West Broadway neighborhood since the 1960s, and after all these years residents still keep it alive.
In Schaffer’s home, a crystal light fixture is suspended above the dining room table and ironed linens cover the tables, topped by a sparkling set of polished silver that holds Christmas treats, from coconut macaroons and raspberry-topped panna cotta to nut-filled fruit cake and classic sugar cookies. A collection of tea cups and saucers fill a side table in the corner of the dining room. The countertops in Schaffer’s kitchen are littered with serving trays awaiting spreads of cheeses, crackers and breads.
“I need to check my list,” Schaffer said as she scurried around the space, preparing for the neighborhood to come into her home. One of her neighbors, Chris Szal, helps arrange various treats on serving pieces in the kitchen. Dee Ette Bruns soon arrives and assists as well, sprinkling powdered sugar over a pan of lemon squares. They all await two special guests in particular.
Those guests — Frances Godfrey and Connie Russell — began the Christmas Coffee tradition in the 1960s, and it isn’t until they arrive and other guests begin to pour in that the event officially begins.
“It was Frannie’s idea,” Russell said from the head of the dining room table, where she acts as one of the honorary hostesses, serving guests coffee and tea from a set of silver she received as a gift when she was married many years ago.
Russell wears a light blue cardigan embellished with a wintertime scene and sits beside Godfrey, 94, her quiet companion. They both wear red rose corsages on their sweaters.
In 1958, the Godfreys moved into their home at 10 West Broadway, where the very first Christmas Coffee took place a few years later. Down the street at 47 West Broadway — now the residence of Stephen and Tabitha King — Russell was raising her family. Once the home of the lumber barons of the late 19th century that built Bangor, in the 1950s and 1960s, the neighborhood housed families of esteem — doctors, lawyers, businesspeople.
“This was a very active neighborhood. The kids were all in and out of each other’s houses, but the mothers didn’t really get to see one another, ” Russell says, recalling the neighborhood’s dynamic in the 1960s. “It was just supposed to be a get-together.”
The Christmas Coffee began as a way to bring the mothers of the West Broadway, Cedar Street and Hayward Street neighborhoods together during the holiday season. Traditionally, it took place two days before Christmas. Russell and Godfrey made breads and finger sandwiches and served coffee and tea from Russell’s polished silver, which remains a staple of the event.
As the years went by, the neighborhood changed. The “wall-to-wall” kids, as Russell described it, became fewer and farther between. The tradition fizzled out for several years but returned in 1999, when Cheryl Wixson, a resident of the neighborhood, revived the Christmas Coffee with Russell and Godfrey’s help.
It has since become a mainstay of the neighborhood’s culture, held by different residents throughout the years.
Schaffer, who moved to the West Broadway neighborhood in 2009 from Rhode Island, began hosting the tradition at her home that same year. She has missed only one of the coffee events since then — in 2014, when she was away for the holiday and it was hosted by another resident — but the tradition returned to her home for yet another holiday season on Dec. 22.
For Schaffer, the Christmas Coffee has been an important part of her integration into the neighborhood. She learned about the event from Dee Ette Bruns, a previous hostess of the Christmas Coffee and massage therapist, when Schaffer was in for a massage during her home’s renovation.
“We had met her getting massages during our renovation. And on the table one day, she says, ‘Hey, the Christmas Coffee is a tradition in this neighborhood,’” Schaffer said with a laugh.
Bruns, who has attended the tradition since her son was 6 years old (he is now 33), explained the tradition and introduced Schaffer to Russell. Soon enough, the Christmas Coffee was scheduled to take place at her home.
“I really love it because I don’t have a lot of family here. It gives me an excuse to decorate the house, which I love to do,” Schaffer says.
Over the years, the Christmas Coffee has welcomed esteemed visitors. Stephen King, who Russell sold her home to in 1982, was the first man to ever attend the Christmas Coffee. This year, Sen. Susan Collins sat at Godfrey’s left hand.
“This is my third year in a row,” Collins says. She and her husband, Thomas Daffron, moved to the neighborhood three years ago, and she has made sure to attend each year since then.
Other attendees, such as Wilma Bradford, 95, have attended the event since it began in the 1960s.
“This is one of the highlights of the Christmas season,” Bradford said with a smile, glancing around Schaffer’s kitchen. “I came to Bangor in 1945 as a bride, and I lived right down on Cedar Street, and my kids were always up here. They played with the Russell kids. The kids all grew up together, and they’re all friends. Isn’t that nice?”
The Christmas Coffee tradition has evolved over the years. What began as a simple get-together of the neighborhood moms has turned into a refined gathering with a beautifully decorated home as the host space and a treasure trove of treats for those who attend.
“We had no idea when it began that it was going to be like this,” Russell said, glancing around at the many guests who surround her and the spread of food laid out in front of her.
For Schaffer, the preparation begins well ahead of time, with invitations containing a history of the tradition sent out around Thanksgiving. Schaffer adds people to the invitation list every year — people who have moved away that she has discovered and new neighbors who have moved in. Russell also keeps her updated with current addresses and periodically adds the children of previous residents she remembers.
“If I can find you, you can come,” Schaffer said.
Russell delivers her silver ahead of time and always sends along a Christmas flower arrangement. The food is prepared and finally, the guests arrive. But for Schaffer, the event means so much more than the work that goes into it.
“I love all the neighbors getting together and meeting each other,” Schaffer said. “It makes us care more about each other. … It makes us a close neighborhood.”
