Magic Tinsel" from Tom Fitzmorris ... the stories behind your favorite Crescent City holiday traditions!

The Christmas- Wreathed Streetcar

This is the beribboned voice of Tom Fitzmorris with more Magic Tinsel. Nobody seems to remember the first time somebody got the idea to drape Christmas wreathing over a streetcar, but it’s gone on as long as most of us can remember. You wouldn’t put it on a bus, but the world’s oldest street railway, with its eighty-year-old streetcars, has the same timeless quality that Christmas has. It makes us feel good enough to see the decorated streetcar go by that some people will let a few unadorned trolleys go by to catch the Christmas edition. Tourists take pictures of it. One year, New Orleans Magazine depicted the Christmas streetcar on its cover, with Santa Claus as the motorman. Now that’s a unique local wrinkle for Kris Kringle.

Reveillion (historic)

This is the historic voice of Tom Fitzmorris with some more Magic Tinsel. One of the least known and most interesting holiday programs in New Orleans brings famous people from the city’s history back to life. It’s part of The French Quarter Festival’s Christmas New Orleans Style. Actors dress as Bienville, Jean Lafitte, Andrew Jackson, Mark Twain, and other figures from the early years of Louisiana. They get completely in character, and stroll around the French Quarter along a route that leads them from one restaurant to another. If you encounter one of the historic characters, you can engage him in conversation as if he were the person he’s depicting. It’s quite entertaining. Combine it with a Reveillon dinner, and you have yet another reason to celebrate at least some of the holidays in the French Quarter.

The Centanni House on Canal Street

This is the colorful voice of Tom Fitzmorris with some more Magic Tinsel. Many families around New Orleans decorate their homes fantastically at Christmastime, but the Centannis set the standard. Their house on Canal Street–a striking place even without the decorations–attracted more holiday traffic than some stores did. For decades through the 1960s, it wasn’t Christmas unless you drove out of your way to see the spectacle that the Centannis built. It’s what inspired Al Copeland to create his own eye-popping displays on his Metairie house, keeping the tradition alive. The Centanni House is on the National Register of Historic Places and worth a look. The present owners are still repairing storm damage, but say they may resume the Centanni tradition in 2008.

Neighborhood Lights

This is the brilliant voice of Tom Fitzmorris with some more Magic Tinsel. So many people drive through so many neighborhoods looking at the Christmas lights that some twenty years ago, New Orleans City Park decided to give them something really spectacular to look at. So was born what is now called Celebration in the Oaks. It and City Park itself were badly damaged by the storm, but the walking portion of the show is as fine as ever. Walking was always the best way to see it, anyway. In addition to marvelous displays of lights in the botanical gardens, the Carousel Gardens Amusement Park is back open, there’s a new laser light display, and a multi-media telling of the Cajun Night before Christmas. The Celebration is open most nights in December. It’s best on cold nights.

Downtown Shopping

This is the shopping bag voice of Tom Fitzmorris with some more Magic Tinsel. Few aspects of the holidays in New Orleans have changed in the last fifty years as much as they way we do our Christmas shopping. Until the sixties, no matter what neighborhood you lived in, Christmas shopping meant a trip to Canal Street. All the big department stores decorated to the maximum, from the window displays along the sidewalks throughout all their floors. Between stops at the big stores to see Santa Claus and the toys you could only wish for, we’d stop at the lesser Woolworth’s and Kress or K&B, there to get a bag of popcorn or a lunch at the soda fountain of a grilled cheese sandwich with a Cherry Coke. Sometimes your parents would splurge in nice place like Meal-A-Minit or the D.H. Holmes Cafeteria. Maybe even Galatoire’s.

Bonfires in River Parishes

This is the eggnog voice of Tom Fitzmorris with more Magic Tinsel. Well before Thanksgiving, they start cutting trees behind the levees upriver of New Orleans. Not for decorating, but for burning. These trees become logs, and the logs become Christmas tree-shaped piles on top of the levee. The weeks of hard work are go up in flames in a few hours on Christmas Eve, when the bonfires are lit. The tradition is that they light the way for the Christ Child to our homes. You can see them for miles on both sides of the river. I hear the best viewpoint is on an airplane coming in for a landing. And from Santa’s sleigh, of course. Along River Road, thousands of people drive along slowly–the only way they can–to take in the spectacle of the Christmas bonfires.

The Angel Hair Lobby at the Roosevelt Hotel

This is the fluffy voice of Tom Fitzmorris with some more Magic Tinsel. Someday, the Angel Hair Lobby will return to the Roosevelt, for a hundred years the city’s grandest hotel. Beginning in the 1940s, the Roosevelt decorated its impressive, block-long lobby with a canopy of angel hair. Lights glowed from within it, and it was surrounded by elves, angels, toys, Christmas trees, and all the other icons of the season. It was a necessary stop on every Christmas shopping trip to Canal Street. It ended during the years the hotel was the Fairmont, but returned until the hurricane shuttered the hotel. Plans are in the works for the renaissance of the Roosevelt, and nobody doubts that the angel hair Christmas lobby will be part of that. And the teddy bear tea, which I’ll tell you about another time.

The Snow in City Park

This is the flurry voice of Tom Fitzmorris with more Magic Tinsel. City Park’s Celebration in the Oaks is its most famous contribution to holiday cheer, but another annual event there has gone on even longer. Beginning in the 1970s, the Radiophone company paid to turn a chunk of the park white for a morning. A snow machine blew a blizzard of snow all around the children’s swimming pool. Kids who’d never seen snow in their lives–and in New Orleans, that was most kids–come out to make snowmen, throw snowballs, make snow angels, and just roll around in the blizzard until it inevitably melted a few hours later. Although the company was long ago sold to a big national outfit, the employees and former owners continue to pay for the snow extravaganza in City Park every year. One of them says, “The smiles we see make it worth every penny.”

Reveillion (Modern)

This is the Christmas banquet voice of Tom Fitzmorris with some more Magic Tinsel tale. In the 1980s, the French Quarter Festival organization thought up a plan to draw New Orleanians and maybe even a few visitors to the Vieux Carre during the holidays. In a revival of the old Christmas feast called The Reveillon, they persuaded restaurants in the Quarter to develop special menus with holiday themes. They had to be at least four courses long, with a little something extra, like a glass of wine or egg nog, and an attractive price. It worked, and now for many people going to Reveillon dinners throughout the month of December is as much a part of the holiday celebration as decorating a tree. The Reveillon has spread to all parts of town, and gets better every year. You can look over all the Reveillon restaurants and their menus at nomenu.com.

This is the feasting voice of Tom Fitzmorris with some more Magic Tinsel. The Reveillon was a tradition among New Orleans families dating back to the 1800s. In those days, Catholics who wanted to take Communion at Midnight Mass had to fast for a full day before. When the service ended in the wee hours of the morning, everyone was famished. They’d meet at the home of a relative or friend, where something like a Sunday brunch buffet was waiting. The word “Reveillon” means “awakening,” and that’s what happened. Everyone came alive, and Christmas was off to a fine, festive beginning. There was also a Reveillon on New Year’s morning in many families. When the Church’s rules changed, the Reveillon faded away. It was revived in the 1980s in a different form. I’ll tell you about that another time.

This is the iconic voice of Tom Fitzmorris with another Magic Tinsel tale. Most characters involved with Christmas traditions are known nationwide. But New Orleans is lucky enough to have a home-grown icon of Christmas: Mr. Bingle. Mr. Bingle, whose initials told us that he worked for the big Maison Blanche department store, was a puppet created by a store decorator named Oscar Isentrout. He was a little snowman who wore an ice cream cone for a hat. Mr. Bingle began his life in the sidewalk windows of MB, but he was so well liked that he got his own radio and TV shows, with a supporting cast of other puppets. And his own memorable theme song:

Jingle jangle jingle
Here comes Mr. Bingle
With another message from Kris Kirngle
Time to launch the Christmas season
Maison Blanche makes Christmas pleasin’
Gifts galore for you to see
Each a gem from MB.

Maison Blanche is gone, but Mr. Bingle lives on, as much a part of New Orleans culture in the holidays as egg nog.

Caroling on Jackson Square

This is the caroling voice of Tom Fitzmorris with some more Magic Tinsel tale. Since the end of World War II, the public Christmas caroling on Jackson Square has been a much-loved New Orleans tradition. It’s orchestrated by the Patio Planters, a club of French Quarter residents, it fills the square with people, candles and singing. The most-asked question among the carolers is, “How many years have you done this?” Many have participated every year for decades. It’s free, including the candles and song sheets, and nobody cares if you’re not a good singer. The only thing yuou have to do is show up early–at six in the evening, to get a good spot for when the singing begins at seven. This year the caroling is Sunday, December 16. Do it once, and you’ll start staking up the years, too.

The Elves

This is the Santa’s helper voice of Tom Fitzmorris with some more Magic Tinsel. My parents had a unique pre-Christmas ritual that I recall with such fondness that I could hardly wait to have kids of my own so I could delight them with it, too. I told them to hang up their stockings weeks before Christmas. You never knew who’s checking things out. One night, I put small toys in the stockings, with notes from elves named Blik and Noki. Every night till Christmas, Blik and Noki left new surprises, along with a note. The kids wrote notes back, and woke up at the crack of dawn as much to read the rely notes as to see what the elves had left. They were delighted out of their skulls. We kept this going for about five years. The challenge grew to create credible new elves every year. The kids finally figured out what was going on, of course. But instead of being let down, I think they resolved to keep the tradition going with their own kids. I hope they do, if only so they can experience the joy the elves brought us.

The White Christmas of 2004

This is the glistening voice of Tom Fitzmorris with more Magic Tinsel. A white Christmas in New Orleans is highly improbable. Something we can only dream about. That’s why the Christmas of 2004 was unforgettable. A strange weather confluence: drifting moisture from the Gulf collided with an unusually frigid, fast-moving mass of air from the northwest. Most of us were in the throes of our Christmas dinners when somebody said, “Hey, it’s snowing outside!” Even a few flurries are cause for shouting here, but this was much more than that–big flakes, really coming down, enough that it wasn’t long before all the kids were outside rolling around in it. Later in the afternoon, it warmed up fast and it all melted. Good thing, because Orleanians don’t drive well in snow. Finally, we understood what Irving Berlins’ song was about.

The Twelve Nights

This is the Yuletide voice of Tom Fitzmorris with some more Magic Tinsel. We all know about the Twelve Days of Christmas. They have special meaning around New Orleans–and I’m not talking about Bennie Grunch and the crawfish he caught in Arabi, either. By local tradition, we keep the Christmas tree up for twelve days after Christmas, until January sixth. That’s King Day, in honor of the three kings who brought gifts to the baby Jesus. That night, the Twelfth Night Revelers and their king, the Lord of Misrule, hold a ball and serve a King cake. It inaugurates the Carnival season. So we go from one big holiday season into another. Yes, that sounds like us here in New Orleans.

Christmas Tea

This is the cuddly, warm voice of Tom Fitzmorris with some more Magic Tinsel. In the glory days of the Fairmont Hotel, when people would go downtown just to see how they’d decorated the grand lobby at Christmas time, somebody came up with the idea of having a British-style afternoon tea for children and their teddy bears. The Blue Room was in full Christmas decoration. Tea, little sandwiches, cookies, pastries were served. The kids dressed up and loved it. It was liked more by girls than boys, as you might imagine, but the boys who showed up were much appreciated. It was a very special occasion–but only once in a child’s life. The next year’s teddy bear tea always failed to live up to the expectations created by the first. Ah, they grow up. The Fairmont is gone, but the teddy bear tea survives in a number of downtown hotels. If you have a child that age, go.