Life in the late 1870s wasn't easy, especially for the poorest of the poor. Many people from southwestern Ontario who didn't have family ended up at a facility called the poor house.

The Wellington County Museum held a special exhibit on Sunday, known as Christmas at the Poor House, illustrating what Christmas was like for the many who called it home.

The doors of the Poor House in Fergus opened for the first time in December of 1877. A few weeks later, 24 destitute men, women and children celebrated the first Christmas in the building.

Curator Susan Dunlop says their first present back then was a good meal, "That seemed to be what they focused on, was beef dinner and a plum pudding."

Years later, there are records indicating that Christmas was much more festive, with banners and decorations made of Union Jacks.

Small and simple gifts of oranges, nuts and candies were given to the inmates by the community.

"I think people appreciated things a lot more than they do now. Not too many kids thank you for an orange or an apple for a gift," says visitor Mary Doyle.

Doyle says the simpler times made everyone more grateful.

"I think it would be nice for Christmas to have the simplicity again, instead of all the celebrating and gifts."

For those who lived at the Poor House, life wasn't easy, but it was an improvement. They had a roof over their heads, they had hot meals and medical attention when they needed it.

The early roots of social assistance stem from the concept of the Poor House. The idea was to give people who were very young, sick, old or mentally and physically disabled, a home.

"The research that I have before the house was built, I came across one record of an elderly man quite paralyzed living in a hollow log. On one of the farms in the winter, he was suffering from frostbite" says Dunlop.

Bill Slack is a regular visitor to the house. He brings his son and family to get a sense of what life was like.

"We like to bring him out here and show him what it was like in his grandparents' days, or lets say his great grandparents days, how they lived, how they worked, how they did things, what they didn't have."

Which wasn't much, but back then, it was more than they could have hoped for.

The Christmas at the Poor House exhibit runs until January 6th.