| The Christmas Kettle back to 'Christmas Kettle'
Captain (or Major) Joseph McFee was raising funds for a soup kitchen and shelter in the San Francisco waterfront district, c1892-94. He thought of the idea of hanging a large cooking pot on a tripod and put a sign over it: "Keep the pot boiling". So, the first Salvation Army collecting kettle came into being. The idea soon spread, and by 1900 kettles were in use across America for Christmas collections. In time, some other countries also adopted the kettles, though in Britain we usually have groups of musicians playing Christmas carols in the shopping centres and our collectors use small hand-held collecting boxes. We think of kettles and "bell-ringers" as typically American.
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