by Paul R. Spitzzeri
This evening, the City of Industry, which owns and funds the Homestead, held its annual holiday tree-lighting ceremony at the Museum with the tree remaining on the grounds near the Gallery and entrance to the historic houses through the first several days of the New Year. We’ve been happy to be the site of the community tree on several occasions and this seemed an opportune time to extend our “The Evolution of Christmas” series of holiday posts to look into some of the early history of the community tree concept in greater Los Angeles.
In 1912, New York City established a community tree at Madison Square, located on Fifth Avenue between 23rd and 26th streets in Manhattan and this was generally attributed to be the impetus for similar programs bursting forth throughout the United States in short order. This included greater Los Angeles, where community trees were introduced the following year, with a notable example being at White Park in Riverside, located adjacent to the downtown area (where the famed Mission Inn remains today and appears to be going up for sale.)
In fact, the Los Angeles Times of 21 December 1913 remarked that “a Christmas celebration not only embodying the spirit of the old mission days and old Christmas customs, but one at the same time typical of this ‘land of out of doors,'” was to be part of a holiday pageant. The paper further declared that “Riverside, the city beautiful, with its wonderful Mission Inn, is indeed perpetuating the old days, perpetuating them in a spirit in keeping with the past and yet also in keeping with the present.”
It noted that the city was already renowned for its Easter sunrise service atop Mt. Rubidoux, so, with the Christmas festivities, “its unique celebration is destined to become one more festival in keeping with the spirit and the memory of those old Spanish fathers [missionaries] who have so deeply left their impress on the wonderful Southland.” This was all very much in keeping with the romanticized mythology embodied in the recently launched Mission Play at San Gabriel, which debuted in 1912, “restoration” work at some of the missions, the surface-level displays at the La Fiesta de Los Flores in Los Angeles and elsewhere.
The article went to note that “Christmas day breathes of hope and faith in life, and what more fitting than that of the Christmas tree . . . should be a living tree, spreading wide its branches in welcome to all, with promise in the future to those gathering beneath its outspread arms.” Moreover, it remarked, there were “myriads of multi-colored lights spread across the uptown streets” and the community event was a “gathering together a unified community filled with true Christmas thoughts of helpfulness and hope, giving heartfelt welcome to the stranger within the gates, with true reverence toward Christmas and all that Christmas means.”
The importance of the Riverside gathering was that “for the first time in [its] history a pictorial pageant will be used to bring out the Christmas spirit.” Also highlighted was that “a living tree, breathing the spirit of the woods, of conservation and not destruction, such will be Riverside’s Christmas tree,” so that “appropriately garbed,” the tree embodied “the spirit of the woods lead[ing] the spirit of Christmas.” As the community took its places, “around this tree, bright with its thousands of colored lights, gay with its decorations, will be held the pageant and celebrations” and, specifically cited were “the flare of colored lights” and “calcium lights.”
The event was to feature a united choir from several churches, members of a club dressed as monks to evoke the missionary spirit, 80 children in costume representing Europeans, Asians and Eskimos as an effort to “represent the universal spread of the Christmas spirit.” Rather strangely, a “Merrie England” element, with a King and Queen of Revels, the Lord of Misrule, a Wassail bowl and more was included, with buglers, heralds and mummers in costume coming from the Sherman Institute, an off-reservation boarding school for indigenous persons then about two decades old, but long controversial for its segregation of its students from their culture.
The piece reiterated that, through “Everybody’s Christmas Tree,” Riverside was celebrating the holiday “conjuring up not only thoughts of the past, of Spanish missions and Spanish days, of olden times and the celebration in older countries, but at the same time drawing all closer together in joyfully celebrating this Christmas day.” It was claimed that the unique event, said to be “perfect in its details,” and invoking the spirit of the Mission Inn, “will perhaps bring every participant more nearly in harmony with old Spanish days and the true spirit of the sunny Southland than will any other celebration or festival hitherto planned.
This led the Times to proclaim:
A merry Christmas. A joyful Christmas. These are assured to all in Riverside this Christmas day, for nowhere have Christmas plans been made more in harmony with the season, the true meaning of Christmas-time, to the individual himself and to the community at large.
So, while it was claimed that the community tree and pageant were part of old customs and in “the spirit of the old mission days,” what was not told to readers of the region’s largest, most powerful and most influential media source was that there were no Christmas trees in the Mission period of California or anything else that was even remotely tied to modern celebrations of the holiday, except for those who held the religious meaning of the holiday foremost in their minds.
Close to the Homestead, the Times of Christmas Eve reported that in the Quaker-founded town of Whittier,
Arrangements are rapidly being completed for Whittier’s first community Christmas tree, and at exactly 5:30 o’clock Wednesday evening [on Christmas Eve] lights will be thrown on, the Whittier City Band will play an overture, and the star surmounting the great tree will gradually grow into a glowing gem . . . The tree selected is a beautiful eighty-foot evergreen in the center of Central Park [bounded by Bailey Street, Friends Avenue, Park Street and Washington Avenue], a tree marked for its perfect symmetry. In front of the tree is a circular open space which affords a natural auditorium for gathered crowds.
A woman’s glee club was to sing “Silent Night,” with the mayor greeting the assemblage and the band to play a program of religious holiday music. Children were also to receive gifts, including walnuts supplied by a prominent Whittierite and apples and candies provided by another anonymous donor. The account concluded that “all Whittier children attending are sure of a toothsome remembrance from a special committee appointed to assist Santa Claus for the evening.”
Also close to the Homestead in the San Gabriel Valley citrus center of Covina, the Argus of the 27th issued an editorial on “A Community Christmas Tree” regarding the event held for the holiday and told readers,
It must be confessed that the promoters of the open-air Christmas tree [event] that was held in Covina this week did not realize that 2,000 people would come out to see the entertainment. [Because of an economic downturn due to massive orange crop losses during the last season] The merchants of Covina were sure that only a moderate number of people would come to the festival, and for that reason the preparations were not made on a large scale . . . But the entertainment was quite a success, and points the way to doing something on a larger scale the coming year.
The paper remarked on the upsurge of outdoor community tree programs following the Big Apple’s example and it concluded by commenting, “another year perhaps Covina may decorate the streets and the shade trees with colored lights, and give an opportunity for all the lodges and churches to get together on a community Christmas tree on a big scale.” It proclaimed the concept an excellent one that could be planned throughout the year to realize as it needed to be for a truly successful event.
For 1914, Riverside held its second community Christmas tree event, as did Whittier, where for the 13th time on Christmas, J. Everett Frazer climbed to the top of the belfry of the Friends Church to play, as the day dawned “Joy to the World” on his cornet. The Times of the 26th recorded that “the contour of the [Puente] hills north and east of the city is such that the musical marriage is carried far south and west into the valley below and dwellers in the distant groves have come to expect this regular Christmas morning call.”
On Christmas night, the account went on,
An immense crowd thronged Central Park . . . to gather around Whittier’s beautiful Christmas tree and hear the programme put on by the State [Reform] School [including a performance by the institution’s band after a march through town].
The formal opening of Christmas week at the big tree was held last evening, at which time the tree was first illuminated.
In its coverage, the hometown News, also of the day after the holiday, ran a banner headline of “CHRISTMAS SPIRIT REIGNS SUPREME” as it recorded that hundreds attended the event and added “the large cedar tree, topped with the ‘Star of the East,” glowed with hundreds of lights and formed a magnate [sic] for the crowds which gathered early.” There was actually a Christmas Eve component featuring the singing of carols, but this kept brief to allow for other celebrations in town, with the Christmas Day program under the auspices of the reform school, led by Fred C. Nelles, for whom it was later renamed.
When the Rev. Louis Tinning of the United Presbyterian Church addressed the assemblage, he reminded his hearers that “Christmastide is the season of happiness” and that “this festival is essentially a home festival,” before he turned to a more solemn reference given the terrible tragedy unfolding in Europe:
But this day has been tinged with an undertone of sadness because of the awful strife in Europe [the First World War erupted in August and would, in four years of battle, lead to millions of deaths] . . . And we in America cannon rejoice when our kinsmen in Europe are overwhelmed with sadness. Today it is literally true that “man’s inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn” [this a quote from a 1784 poem by Robert Burns].
In the San Fernando Valley, the town of Van Nuys, established three years prior, the Christmas Day edition of the News of that community reported that a community Christmas tree program at the elementary school drew some 800 persons, said to be “the largest crowd of local people ever assembled in Van Nuys.”
Seats were filled with many standing in corridors as the superintendent welcomed the crowd, an invocation was offered by a minister from the Presbyterian Church, and costumed students provided a Santa Claus-themed drill. The audience sang “Silent Night” and a playlet called “How Christmas Was Saved, or the Sorrows of Santa Claus” performed to conclude the event.
Mr. and Mrs. Claus arrived to give a gift to every child in attendance, so that some 400 boxes of candy and gifts were handed out amid “a joyous scene” that “brought much happiness into many hearts.” Refreshments followed and included cake, donuts and coffee to adults while children enjoyed gingerbread and chocolate in a separate space on the second floor.
The News informed readers that and concluded,
The large tree, placed in one corner of the auditorium, near the stage, presented a beautiful appearance with its tinsel decorations and electrical illumination . . . The community tree, we hope, will become an annual event at Christmas time in Van Nuys.
The Los Angeles Tribune of 12 December offered an editorial on “Community Christmas Celebrations,” in which it observed that it was “an idea that is ‘catching on’ in California this year, more than ever in the past.” It cited examples in Fresno, San Francisco and Santa Barbara, as well as in Riverside. The Central Valley city put up two trees in its municipal auditorium, while the Bay Area metropolis put up a tree on grounds used for the great Panama-Pacific Exposition, one of the signal events of the era with the completion of the Panama Canal and California’s burgeoning role in trade tied to that vital project. It was noted that every child attending the Santa Barbara event would “receive a remembrance from Santa Claus,” while Riverside conducted its exercises at the high school stadium.
The paper commented that “throughout the length and breadth of this generous and favored commonwealth, communities large and small are moving to make Christmas day one which will leave a bright memory with all the little folk.” It went on, though, to suggest that “the community Christmas tree plan is an old one,” with smaller towns places in which “it was the custom for large bodies of people to assemble and make merry around the tree at Yuletide.” Moreover, it was asserted that “it is only latterly, since we have begun to dress the tree at home, that the public celebration has become less common.”
It is true, for example in Los Angeles in the mid to late 19th century (as our “Evolution of Christmas” posts looking at newspaper references have shown, including one this week looking at celebrations in 1869), that there were communal gatherings in churches or halls operated by community groups. In 1904, the Whittier Register of 9 December recorded that the Baptist Church Sunday school had “a genuine, old-fashioned community Christmas tree with loads of presents, candles, etc.” and it exhorted “Parents, remember this. A community Christmas tree!.”
This, however, is distinct from a municipal event of broader import and more widely attended by citizens of a community, which is what New York City pioneered in the early 1910s and which cities and towns throughout the country followed en masse with their events. The Tribune, though, was right in remarking that 19th century celebrations tended to be in groups, including Christmas balls, but private festivities increasingly became more common, especially as the 20th century dawned.
The editorial concluded, with a recognition of the Gilded Age condition of growing wealth inequality and mounting poverty that was especially hard to see during the holiday season:
It is a fine thing for the people of a city to co-operate in making humanity glad—in seeing that the message of Christmas, as attested by remembrances, reaches every home, however humble. What a bitter sight it is to see an empty-handed, empty-hearted child on the Day of Days!
We’ll return to continue this examination of early community Christmas tree celebrations in greater Los Angeles during the 1910s, as these continued to grow in number and scope, so be sure to keep a look out for that, as well as “The Evolution of Christmas” posts looking at the rise of the use of electric lights, which became enormously popular during that decade, and which were in abundant evidence at tonight’s tree-lighting ceremony at the Homestead.