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- The lobby had a pretty high clearance, ordinarily.

And when they installed that arched ceiling, it lowered the ceiling and gave that long hall a sense of intimacy that it wouldn't have had.

And so, it was cozy.

Made it you fell wonderful to go in there.

- To see the Christmas decorations at the Centennial home, it almost made you think of Mardi Gras, in the sense that everybody's coming together for this festive thing.

It was, I mean Christmas is everywhere, but in some way this place made Christmas into a New Orleans event.

(children chattering) - Mr. Bingle was a little snowman doll, and he had like an ice-cream snow cone on his head.

I think it was either wreath holly, a little holly berry thing stuck on the side, and I think his tie was candy-cane looking.

Something was a candy-cane on him, but he was the cutest little thing.

- [Girl] Christmas day!

- As a reform jew in New Orleans, I think we treated Christmas more, almost like a national holiday, than a religious holiday.

It was sort of like Thanksgiving, or the Fourth of July.

It was a holiday, we got presents.

At the same time of year, we celebrated Hanukkah.

The story that my mother would tell is that Santa Claus is in the parlor, right?

And he's putting the gifts, and she'd look in, she saw, and she'd say, "Okay, Santa's gone now, "so we can open the door."

So we would open, and there was this, you know, the tree, and all the gifts.

And I'd always wondered, "Now, how did Santa Claus "get down that chimney, with a gas heater in front of it?"

(angelic Christmas music) - I'm Peggy Scott Laborde.

There are two phases of Christmas, the spiritual feast day, and the winter festival embraced by many cultures.

New Orleans, a city with a spiritual legacy, but that also likes to party, celebrates both.

And has added its own embellishments, including the sounds of "Jingle Jangle Jingle."

(angelic Christmas music) ♪ Jingle jangle jingle ♪ Here comes Mr. Bingle ♪ With message from Kris Kringle ♪ ♪ Time to launch the Christmas season ♪ ♪ Maison Blanche makes Christmas pleasing ♪ ♪ Give galore for you to see ♪ Each a gem from MB ♪ Hello everybody ♪ Hello ♪ I hope you will like my little show ♪ - [Peggy] In New Orleans, with it's semi-tropical climate, how unlikely is it that a little snowman with an ice-cream cone hat and holly wings would become a symbol of Christmas?

His name, Mr. Bingle.

The concept for Bingle came from Emile Alline senior, the display director from Maison Blanche department store.

On a buying trip to Chicago, Alline discovered that some department stores had their own Christmas mascots.

Marshall Fields featured Uncle Mistletoe, a whimsical Santa's helper.

Looking as if he sprang from a Dickens novel, this tiny gent had a sprig of mistletoe on his top hat, and a pair of wings on his back.

Montgomery Ward department stores promoted a holiday character that ultimately became a national treasure, Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer.

Emile Alline pitched the mascot idea to Maison Blanche executives Luis and Herbert Schwartz.

He called his pint sized personage a snow doll.

- I want it to appeal to kids, and I want it to be flexible, that we can tie him into all kind of displays.

And so, I thought of the ribbon, I thought of the ornaments, and the holly leaves, and the little mittens, of course.

Just to make it extremely cute.

- [Peggy] A contest to name the snow doll was held among employees, and the general manager chose the winning entry, Mr. Bingle.

Ashleigh Austin, a Mr. Bingle fan who has part of a website dedicated to the snowman, thinks the name may have come from a 1915 novel called "Mr.

Bingle."

This is the story of Mr. and Mrs. George S. Bingle, a childless New York Couple who provides gifts, and a meal to less fortunate little ones on Christmas Eve.

Also fitting in nicely was that Mr. Bingle's initials were MB, a popular local reference to Maison Blanche.

Mr. Bingle, the snowman, made his debut during the 1948 Christmas season.

- I loved it, I thought he was the cutest little thing.

(laughs) I didn't have a Mr. Bingle doll, but I thought he was kinda cute.

- Oh, I do remember Mr. Bingle 'cause my mother used to takes us window shopping on Canal Street, around Christmas.

And we'd look in all the displays in the store window, and Maison Blanche always had a big Mr. Bingle display in the window, with Mr. Bingle flying down.

And then they would make Mr. Bingle talk, after while.

You know, they had the tape, music, and stuff that they could put in the store window.

- [Mr. Bingle] I help Santa makes the toys for all the good little girls and boys.

For him, for her, for Christmas glee.

There isn't anyone quite like me.

- I remember once we had this nun in the seventh grade, Sister Francina.

She was giving us this lecture, you know.

But anyway, she was going on-and-on, and she said, "You know Children, you shouldn't be taken in "by this commercial Christmas.

"'Cause this is the feast day of the birth of Our Lord."

She said, "This whole Santa Claus thing, "it has all been commercialized, "and Mr. Bingle is merely a substitute "for the Christ child."

Suddenly she had completely changed my attitude towards Mr. Bingle.

- [Mr. Bingle] I'll trim the tree, and even more.

- [Peggy] Even before the arrival of Mr. Bingle, plans were already underway to present Christmas shows in Maison Blanche's Canal Street windows.

The shows would include marionettes, wooden figures with strings, or wires.

Alline found someone to create them.

His Geppetto was working just a few blocks away from the store, on racy Bourbon Street.

Edwin Oscar Eisentrout's Bourbon Street show consisted of marionettes that performed a strip-tease, one of many Vaudeville-style acts that were sandwiched in between the exotic dancer's performances.

Originally from New York, the puppeteer had a Vaudeville background.

He also traveled around the country with a Marionette troupe, and on a whim bought a bus ticket to New Orleans.

Eisentrout initially retained his Bourbon Street nightclub engagement, but his nightclub schedule made it difficult to work for Maison Blanche, all day.

He sought the help of two teenagers, Ray Frederick and Harry J. Ory.

Achieving some acclaim around town with a marionette act of their own, the two assisted Eisentrout in the early years.

- Oscar came in there one morning, and he was holding a snowman, and it looked pretty cute.

He said, "Well, Helene wanted to use "the snowman as the star of the show, "rather than our little blond-headed fella."

We said, "Well, maybe it's a good idea."

So, we went along with it.

- [Peggy] Eisentrout and his assistants created a winter wonderland with an assortment of characters.

But Bingle was center-stage.

The puppeteer became the voice of Mr. Bingle.

- [Harry] But Oscar, he gave it personality.

- [Mr. Bingle] Oh, Santa's magic is plain to see, now every boy and girl can have a ball, like me.

For Maison Blanche has toys galore in Santa's toy land, in The South's greatest store!

- And he brought it to life.

And of course, we had a part in that because we designed the mechanical bodies, and you can't have life without movement.

So, Oscar gave it personality.

- [Peggy] For Eisentrout, performing with Mr. Bingle was much more than a job.

Jeff Kent, an apprentice to the puppeteer, recalls the first time he met Eisentrout in the 1980s.

- And there was this old, thin, skinny, old man smoking cigarettes.

Without filters too, he was a workaholic.

All he had was Mr. Bingle.

When someone come up to him, and starts talking to him, and if he says, "Oh, I'm the voice of Mr.

Bingle."

Then they just go nuts.

It's almost like meeting a star, so that was very important to him.

- [Peggy] And much of that popularity can be attributed to the personality that Eisentrout gave Bingle.

- Mr. Bingle is a child.

H is a child that likes to have fun, he gets into mischief.

It's usually Mr. Bingle gets into trouble, and Santa Claus usually gets him out of trouble.

- [Mr. Bingle] Oh Santa, that was a wonderful story!

The spirit of Christmas is really in the air.

- And people would wait in line, and you'd have to walk on the street, bypassing the sidewalk, in order to get by.

And they would wait, just there, to see the show.

- [Mr. Bingle] Here's all of Santa's little friends.

Lots of room up front, so that they can see.

- And we were back there, we were way high.

We were back there, looking down on the marionettes.

We had a fan on both sides, cooling us off.

We got kind of sweaty, you'd get a little tired doing the same thing over, and over, and over again.

You know, and hearing the same record.

- [Peggy] In addition to the snowman's appearances in the windows, a giant Bingle was erected on the front of the Canal Street store.

- We made a 54 foot Mr. Bingle, and put him on the front of the store.

I had to go up to Chicago to manufacture that.

It took two flight cars to get in down from Chicago.

- It was frightening too, I mean, when you were a kid to see that thing dangling off of the side of a building.

- The giant Mr. Bingle that was, you know, sort of one of the Hallmarks of Christmas.

You know, to see him up there on Maison Blanche.

- [Peggy] By 1950 Mr. Bingle was making personal appearances, and arrived in New Orleans along with Santa, courtesy of Eastern Airlines.

(Christmas music) From Thanksgiving to Christmas, the snowman even had his own television show, on WDSU.

- Kids used to make a special effort to watch, you know, Mr. Bingle on television, every evening.

And it was little comics, along with merchandising, from all the merchandise.

They had one town there, a competitive store had Santa Claus in, at the same time, and the kids would sit on Santa Claus's lap, and he would say, "What do you want for Christmas?"

And this is live television, and they'd say, "A Mr. Bingle doll."

- Well, there it is, the day before Christmas.

- [Peggy] This episode was hosted by New Orleans actress, Linda Mintz.

- After tomorrow, you'll all be heading back toward the North Pole, right, for Christmas?

- Oh, there's just one thing I'd like Ms. Linda, but promise not to laugh.

- Oh, I promise.

- I'd like to have you tell us all the Bingle story, just one more time.

- In the afternoon, when all the kids were back from school eating their graham crackers in front of the TV, then it would come on.

Isn't this wonderful?

This little snowman, out of the goodness of his heart, coming to us everyday, and showing us all these wonderful things that we can write to Santa for.

But I used to love that show, it was like a hit, a fix that I needed to get, I had to see Mr. Bingle.

- [Peggy] Bingle even visited children in hospitals.

More than a pitch man, Bingle was also a good-will ambassador.

(gentle piano music) Other downtown department stores, including Krauss, tried to find ways to compete with the popularity of the little snowman.

- Well, I think, you know, I was envious of Mr. Bingle.

That's not very nice Christmas thing to be thinking about, but I wish we had something like that.

We were always trying to think of what kind of gift could we get that would be like Mr. Bingle.

But Mr. Bingle, I think for New Orleans, was real special.

- The snowman laughed, and sang a jingle so Santa named him Mr. Bingle.

And that's how he came to be each year, at Maison Blanche, with Christmas cheer.

- Oh, thank you Ms. Linda.

I hope everyone has the merriest Christmas ever.

Merry Christmas everybody, goodbye!

- [Group] Goodbye!

- Goodbye children, merry Christmas everybody!

(Christmas music) - [Peggy] A parade was a fitting kick-off to the holiday season, the busiest for downtown New Orleans merchants.

- Oh, Canal Street at Christmas.

The big thing was the parade, of course.

Then that would come, I think, the Saturday after thanksgiving.

Big balloon-type of figures that would come along.

I remember, sometimes they would be held by the boy scouts, who would be pulling them along.

And then some regular floats, and then of course, what everybody waited for was Santa.

- [Peggy] While Mr. Bingle was the main attraction at Maison Blanche, Santa took center stage at other department stores.

For over 40 years, a four-story tall Saint Nick was a stand-out in front of Sears, on Baronne Street.

- Just that that was just massive, you know, you'd see that Santa with the pack of toys on his back.

And of course, Sears was a big popular place for all kinds of toys, and presents.

- [Peggy] Forget the sleigh, at one local florist Santa actually arrived by helicopter.

Follies's decorated, and the big thing of that was Santa would land, he'd come in a helicopter.

That was really something, everybody would be waiting, and waiting, and Santa would come from that helicopter, and just walk through the crowd.

- [Peggy] And then, there was Santa's helpers who pitched in when the big guy was unavailable.

- And I remember there was a picture taken of me in a full Santa Claus costume, coming out of the chimney, a fake chimney, on the top of One Shell Square.

And it appeared on the front of Orleans magazine.

You know a politician will do anything for votes, don't you?

- [Peggy] Prior to chimney hopping, Santa could be spotted on the balcony of D.H. Holmes Department Store, waving to passers by.

But most of the time, Saint Nicholas was busy inside the stores, where children were eager to tell him what they wanted for Christmas.

- Oh, first time I didn't like it.

I didn't like Santa Claus, I was scared of him.

(laughs) I was scared of him, saying, "Who's this white dude, with these all."

(laughing) They didn't have black Santa Clauses then, they were all white, and I was scared of them.

- [Peggy] In addition to shopping, and paying a visit to Santa.

Yet another reason for going to D.H. Holmes was to see the lavishly decorated holiday windows.

New Orleans historian Sally Kittredge Reeves was married to a Holmes executive.

- They hired a very talented young architect L. Richard Russel, and gave him a budget that, my late husband used to joke, was a secret in the store.

And he traveled to Europe, and bought all those mechanical pieces that eventually he assembled into a sort of a Nutcracker-set-looking village.

It took years, and years to accumulate all the artifacts that were in those windows.

- We had villages, and little people moving around, I guess, in a little circle of things.

They always moved in circles, for some reason.

They never moved back and forth, or anything.

But it was something moving in the window that you could, as a child you could relate to, and you could, you know, dream about, and wish you were there.

- We didn't get that elaborate, but of course, and then our lights from the canopy would shine up on the building.

We tried to do those in red and green.

Tried to get flood lights like that, that was what we did, but the streets were very festive, and the poles that were in the neutral ground were decorated.

So, an open air shopping center, you might say.

- [Peggy] From the 1930s until the early 70s the city of New Orleans employed an official decorator, said to be the only position of its kind in America.

Betty Finnan was assigned the task of adorning the historic cast iron Canal Street lamp posts for the holidays.

Just a few steps from Canal Street, the St. Charles Hotel reflected the spirit of Christmas in its lobby.

But there was another Downtown hotel that went all out, The Roosevelt, today known as The Fairmont.

Visiting the hotel's decorated lobby during the Christmas holidays was a local tradition that began in the 1930s, with occasional interruptions.

Almost a ton of cotton-like fiberglass called angel hair was used to create a snowy cavern, dotted with nearly a thousand ornaments.

- Fairyland, lots of like white cotton candy all over, from one end to the other, and you just walked through in amazement.

I do remember that strongly, more than any other thing of Christmas decoration in New Orleans.

- And I would bring my children down there, as a father, to see it.

It always been a tradition, and a spectacular sight to walk through that.

And children just look at it, can't believe that they're in another world.

- One of my best friends was Roberta Maestri, is Roberta Maestri, and she lived at 1140 Roosevelt Hotel.

Her father was Robert Maestri, the former mayor.

We had, sort of, the run of the hotel.

It was the neighborhood block to Roberta, and her friends.

And so I have many, many memories of going into that hotel with the entire length of that lobby covered with angel hair.

- I used to play at the Roosevelt a lot, during the 50s and 60s, so you know, I'd come into contact with it almost every year.

It looked like Spanish moss in there, with all the angel hair.

- I thought, you know, this is what heaven must look like at Christmastime.

You know, looking up, but really like a wonderland, like snow, and just real magical, you know, angelic-like.

We're so fortunate to have had that.

(gentle Christmas music) - [Peggy] Decorating outdoors at Christmastime is of course, an international tradition.

And visiting certain homes in the New Orleans area became part of the local ritual.

- The David home was a beautiful 1850s Greek revival, with full-length columns.

And I do believe it stood on the corner of Saint Charles, and Washington.

And it was a focal point of beauty, and decoration.

- And they put on this huge affair.

I mean, this big Christmas crèche.

It was like a big stage, it was like an outdoor stage.

And almost these statues of Jesus, and Mary, and Joseph, and the three wise men, and then there were the shepherds.

(gentle piano music) - And it was demolished in the 1960s.

Its demolition was the catalyst that compelled people to found the Saint Charles Avenue Committee, which is now the Saint Charles Avenue Association, to deal with the demolitions that were occurring on Saint Charles Avenue.

Because that was a landmark.

- [Peggy] There was another home on the avenue that was decorated, but on a much tighter budget.

George Schmidt's parents ran the Lauralee Guest House.

- My mother, you know, right at Christmas time.

So, she said she was gonna do a crèche, right?

And she couldn't afford the plaster statues that, you know, the Davids had, so she made them up herself, right?

Out of chicken wire, and cloth.

And I remember the Virgin Mary had a pair of stuffed white gloves, right?

So that she couldn't get them to do this.

It only did that, you see?

And of course, you know, it was homemade, it was homemade.

She put on top of the dining room building, she put a star.

And you could see she had the, she got the carpenter to build her a model crèche, you know.

And it didn't come out, it wasn't like Centanni's, you know, on Canal Street.

- [Peggy] From the early 1950s until the mid 60s at Christmastime the Salvador Centanni family, on Canal Street, in the mid-city neighborhood, attracted quite a crowd.

- The Centanni house was a big, that was like a journey, to go see that.

It was on our nights that we'd go visiting houses, and we'd make our way to Canal Street.

And that was like a circus atmosphere, around there.

I mean, it was just droves of people, you'd have to park blocks away.

Some people just wanted to drive by, some got out, as we would, walk all around and see it.

And I think there may have even been some vendors selling things around, but it was just a real carnival-like atmosphere.

- I mean no body could beat it, it stopped traffic, they had to have the police there to maintain order.

And I remember there was a cotton candy man, out on the street.

- [Peggy] Mrs. Myra Collin Centanni and her husband, Sal, lavishly decorated their home.

- You had the crèche, you had Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.

You had the three wise men, and the shepherds, and you had attendant other things, little animals.

And you had, you know, the sheep and the cow, and all that kind of stuff.

Plus, you had Mickey Mouse and Pluto.

You know, it was like Disneyland had come to worship at the foot of the Prince of Peace, right?

So, and that went on for years.

- [Peggy] This holiday tradition began with a chance encounter.

- My mother would always put like a wreath on the door.

You know, a few colored lights around the porch.

One day she was outside, just enjoying her garden, and a gentleman stopped and he wanted to sell her an idea of a Christmas decoration for the yard.

And he explained it to her, and she said, "Sure bring it over, I'll purchase it from you."

And then she added the Christmas sled, and the nativity scene.

But every year my mother would always wanna add more to her lawn decorations.

- [Peggy] Mrs. Centanni decided to have a theme for each year's presentation.

- It was like a big elephant, as I recall.

That was like, my favorite.

Even though I don't know what that had to do with Christmas.

But as a child, it's a big animal, so you're fascinated by it.

- She'd go to stores around Christmastime and find children's books.

And she found one one year, it said Santa's circus is coming to town.

And it showed Santa coming in on an elephant.

She'd call up the lady she had making stuff for her, and they made big elephant.

I mean, it was life-sized elephant.

And put that on the lawn, with Santa Claus sitting in it.

(gentle Christmas music) - [Peggy] The decorations even reflected current events.

- It was around the time of the space program, she found a book and it said, "Santa's Going to Outer Space."

And they did a theme with a rocket ship, with Santa Claus standing by it.

And that's how she got her ideas, just from children's books.

And she tried to make it just for children to enjoy, that was her thing, you know.

- [Peggy] And a must for any Christmas display, is a nativity scene.

- They bought mannequins, old mannequins from like, maybe D.H. Holmes?

And my aunt was a sew-er, and she would take old carnival costumes.

My dad was involved in Mardi Gras, like duke's costumes with the capes, and you know, made the king's, the wise men's.

That was all part of my mom's deal, my mom and my aunt's deal was the nativity scene, the giant nativity scene.

- [Peggy] With all the effort of putting up such an elaborate display, the payoff was ultimately the reaction of those who came to view it.

- My dad would through the front door, and he'd peek through the curtain, and he'd look and turn around, and he'd say, "Hey mom, we got a good crowd tonight."

Stuff like that, you know.

And I'll never forget, they had a cotton candy vendor that ended up on the corner, one night.

And my mother was upset at first, she said, "This is kind of commercial looking."

And my dad said, "Oh, Marty somebody's gotta make a living.

"You know, it's just people out here working."

And it ended up, our grandchildren were the biggest customers, you know, running out there to buy.

- The Centanni house had, of course, lights.

It was festooned with lights and all, but much more than that it had these little elves, and these mechanical things going, elves sawing, and see-sawing, and making, you know, hammering toys, and little workshop, and a Santa, and a sleigh in the middle of the lawn.

With the decorations it was just like, this seas of light and color.

And theses kind of mannequins that were automated, and they were doing all these things, and it was just like magic.

It almost made you think of Mardi Gras, in the sense that everybody's coming together for this festive thing.

♪ Oh what fun it is to sing ♪ A sleighing song tonight ♪ Jingle bells ♪ Jingle bells ♪ Jingle all the way ♪ Oh what fun it is to ride ♪ In a one-horse open sleigh - [Peggy] And then one day, tragedy struck.

- My mother died at a New Year's Eve 1966, 1967 first day of the year.

At a party for my father, his birthday was New Year's.

And that was the last year we were, it was her project, and that was our last year.

- [Peggy] One young fan of the Centanni's decorations was very impressed by what he saw through the years.

- Well, I guess it goes back to when I was a kid.

When I was a kid, you know, I kind of lived in the projects.

We didn't have any money, and we used to go look at their Christmas lights every year.

And I used to go there every year, and I'd see it, and I'd say, "You know one day, "if I ever have the money, I'm gonna do this."

And it was a period of time after Centanni's wife passed away that he stopped decorating.

And that maybe was 10 years, or so.

And I started doing it again, and started to pick up that tradition again.

- [Peggy] For almost 30 years Al Copeland, the founder of the Popeye's Fried Chicken chain, lit up his suburban Metairie neighborhood.

His elaborate Christmas displays sparkled with over a million lights.

- Our father died 1995, at the funeral home.

And they brought it a big Christmas wreath, and they set it in the room, and it plugged in, it had Christmas lights all over.

I said, "Where did this come from?"

So I went and looked, and it had card on.

It was from Al Copeland, it said, "To the real King of Christmas."

And we thought is was wonderful.

(gentle Christmas music) - [Peggy] Upriver from New Orleans, there has long been illumination at Christmas, with fire.

- The bonfire tradition in Louisiana's probably the oldest, longest-lasting tradition of celebrating Christmas in North America.

- [Peggy] Nearly 45 miles from downtown New Orleans there's an ancient ritual that still survives.

It's the setting of bonfires on levies, along the Mississippi river.

Willow, cane-reed, and other tree branches are used to construct what amounts to wooden structures.

Most resembling a teepee.

These structures are ignited on Christmas Eve night, at the stroke of seven.

(firecrackers popping) Popular belief of this tradition's origin includes lighting the way for Papa Noel, or lighting the path to church for Midnight Mass.

But the actual reason is a bit more complex.

- It started with our ancestor, my ancestors that came to this area in the 1720s around Germany and France, along the Rhine river.

They brought with them this 2000 year old tradition that the Celts had of burning bonfires at the winter solstice, and the summer solstice.

It became a celebration, it became a religious event.

The Catholic Church took over the Celtic winter solstice, and called it Christmas, when light is coming back into the world, darkness will not take over.

And the bonfire is the celebration, a visible realization of that light coming, in the middle of the darkness.

- [Peggy] Today, the majority of the bonfire activity takes place along the east bank of the river, in Saint James parish, with some additional activity in Saint John, and Saint Charles parishes.

Residents set over 100 bonfires.

- It was a tradition that was passed on through generations, after generations.

And then you had wood available, 'cause they didn't have all these subdivisions like you have now.

So we had woods to go in, to get the material.

And we used to haul them, haul the wood with biceps, with our saws, we didn't have pickup trucks and chainsaws.

We had K knives, and bow-saws to cut the wood.

Now, it's a lot easier with pickup trucks, and chainsaws.

- [Peggy] The communities of Gramercy, and Lutcher are where much of the activity takes place.

With Gramercy hosting a festival of the bonfires, two weeks before Christmas.

The money raised is used to obtain liability insurance for the Christmas Eve bonfire event.

- I mean, there's bumper-to-bumper traffic.

People from all over the world come into town, and the levy is just full of people celebrating Christmas, and Christmas on the levy.

- And we sit, we have gumbo, we have all those drinks, and we invite everybody in to visit with us.

We've had people from France come into the home, we've had people from Virginia.

And we eat, and we go on the levy.

We stay up on the levy the whole night.

It's about 10 o'clock, and then everybody goes home, and opens up their Christmas presents.

And a Midnight Mass, a lot of people go to a Midnight Mass.

- In the last generation, it became very creative.

It's amazing that you don't have architects building these, but young teenagers are doing it themselves.

It's a perfect event for the visitor to come here, and to get a sense of how tradition determines our culture, in Louisiana.

- [Peggy] 19th century visual documentation of the bonfire tradition comes from Laura Plantation, in the Saint James parish town of Vacherie.

- It's like on the levy, next to the river.

And people are dressed up, and it's probably the oldest photograph we know of.

We have written records of the bonfires, of people coming in for parties, a lot of dancing, drinking, eating, family reunion-type things, dating from the 1840s, 50s, 60s, 70s.

- This tradition is something we do, and we enjoy doing it.

And I couldn't imagine Christmas without it.

- [Peggy] While the traditional time for bonfires along the river was Christmas Eve, in a similar spirit, some Orleaneans built their own a few days later, on New Year's Eve.

Relatives of artist George Schmidt created a bonfire in front of their home.

- When midnight came along they'd take the tree, and throw it out in the front yard, and burn it, they'd burn it.

And you know, like the Christmas fire?

And she'd burn it with all the ornaments, too.

The whole thing would go up, and we'd get a whole brand new set of ornaments.

- Every holiday we had a bonfire right at the corner of my house, right on Collins, and Marinee Street.

All the neighbors would contribute something to this bonfire.

You know, they'd bring pieces of furniture, old Christmas trees, newspapers, rags, pieces of wood, and they'd all pile them up in a great big pile on the corner, for New Year's Eve celebration.

Of course, people would call the police, and the police would come over, and the property owners would give them a fifth of whiskey, or something, and they'd leave.

(laughs) They'd put that fire out, and they'd leave.

Then they'd come back, the fire truck would come back, and they'd do the same thing with them.

(laughs) And that just go to show you, the show must go on.

(laughs) - We pretend the weather is not hot, at Christmas.

It's amazing, for me even today, to ride down the road, look at people's decorations of the house, and they just have these huge snowmen.

So, we have to have a huge leap of faith to celebrate Christmas here.

(Christmas bells music) - [Peggy] Usually, folks who live in the New Orleans area can only dream of a white Christmas.

But in the recent past there have been a few times when the area was lightly blanketed by the white stuff, such as on Christmas Day, 2004.

- It was falling pretty heavily, and even though my parents are both frail, they both bent over and we got into a snowball fight, 87 year old parents, and it made the day.

It was just fabulous.

- [Peggy] In 1989, novelty turned to nuisance.

- When that hard freeze came, and the streets were all freezing over, I remember they said, "You can go home."

And my car was starting to slide, and I thought, "Well, if I turn it off, I won't slide."

Not realizing it's the ice, I'm thinking, "If I turn the motor off, "the car's just gonna stay in one place."

But it still was sliding, and I mean, I passed all kinds of people, you know, off to the side, smashed into cars.

But that was really something, because on Christmas Day there was no water, all the pipes were broken.

I remember having to eat our Christmas dinner off of like, paper plates.

- [Peggy] And yet, it was hard to overlook the beauty.

- I will never forget how beautiful Saint Charles Avenue looked covered with snow in 1989, and it was almost unrecognizable.

There was quiet over it.

The streetcar, of course, wasn't running.

And the entire neutral ground was white, and the old houses were emerging from this blanket, and the oak trees were standing, blanketed in snow.

- And it really shut the city down, but we had a ball.

(laughs) It wasn't quite enough to make a snowman but we tried, we made some little-bitty snow-people.

(laughs) - I was writing "The Witching Hour," and I ran to the window, and I looked out at the snow, and this entire lawn was caked with snow.

And my son had gone out, and skating in his tennis shoes, had written in giant letters, "I love you mom and dad" in the ice, which I thought was great.

But I ran right to the typewriter, and I had it snow in "The Witching Hour."

I instantly had it snow, and so "The Witching Hour" contains scenes, key scenes at the end, where Michael is having a terrific battle with the villain Lasher, in the snow, in the ice.

And actually falls into the ice cold, half-frozen swimming pool, and no one's every questioned this, but it is a fact, it actually snowed.

I was describing exactly, I wouldn't have dared to put a fictional snowfall in New Orleans.

- [Peggy] Still remembered is the snowfall on New Year's Eve, 1963.

- To have it during the holidays was unbelievable.

And then, to have it last through New Year's Day, it's like we used to say, "Oh, it snowed for two years, you know."

That was unbelievable, and it was such a heavy snowfall for us, you know.

So to get out there, and you had your decorations out, still.

And throwing snowballs, and there was Mr. Bingle up on the house, as one of our decorations, you know.

So it was, that was fabulous.

- [Peggy] Not so fabulous is what snow does to outdoor Christmas decorations.

- I think it was just a problem to the electrical system when the snow came, 'cause it kind of stayed there, and it shorted things out.

- I think I might have put some snow in a little, like, Tupperware, a little plastic container, and put it in the freezer.

I do recall having that for years, just didn't want it to go away.

We rode around looking at everybody's snowmen, that was really something.

There was one that somebody had put like, food coloring all over the snowman, and that was really something to see.

(gentle Christmas music) - [Peggy] While snow could be found in the refrigerators of some New Orleans's homes, there are actual dishes associated with this area's celebration of Christmas.

Fruitcake may be a universal Christmas dessert, but local cooks have added their own twist to the recipe.

- Oranges and all that dried, that candied fruit.

You know, the cherries, the green, and the red cherries.

And pecans, pecans which we had trees in the yard.

So, that would figure in big time.

I used to think it was a nut-cake, more than a fruitcake.

- Traditionally I cook gumbo no matter what.

(laughs) No matter what, even if I have to put it in the freezer afterwards, I cook gumbo.

And it's just there for those who wanna have it.

- Well, we would have to get oysters the day before Christmas Eve from P&J.

Then, get our patty shells from McKenzie's.

Then, go pick up our Swiss Champagne patties from Swiss Confectionary, which was little red and green icing, with the jelly inside.

And that was a Christmas ritual.

You know, you had to have that.

But my mother's urge to dress it, more than anything.

- [Peggy] One adventurous young cook tried to inject a bit of Victorian England into his family's Christmas celebration.

- I had just finished reading Charles Dickens's, you know, "A Christmas Carol."

Maybe not reading it, maybe I saw it was Alice, you know, it played at The Civic.

- He said that Christmas was humbug, and he believed it, too.

- I told him to.

- And so I said, "Well, I'm gonna make a wassail bowl, right?

So, I went back in the kitchen, and all that afternoon I was making this wassail bowl and it said, you make it with ale, and all sorts of other things, like brandy.

I asked somebody, they said, "Oh, ale?"

"That's like beer."

So I went out and I got, I don't know those days if they'd sell beer to kids, you know.

I got a big Dixie beer, a big six-pack of Dixie beer.

So I used dixie in the (laughs).

And so I was cooking it on the stove, and it turned into this huge gelatinous mass, right?

It smelled of hot beer, is what it smelled like.

And I brought it into the party, and nobody touched it.

Not a single soul touched this glue.

It was like, "The heck is this brownish glue?"

You know?

(gentle piano music) - [Peggy] In earlier days, Christmas dishes in New Orleans reflected the city's French Creole heritage.

After attending Midnight Mass at Saint Louis Cathedral, many families would sit down to a lavish meal called a "reveillon," in French meaning "to awaken."

A jellied-beef dish called "daube glace" was served, as were pastries, such as a cake roll named "buche de noel," or yule log.

Other elaborate pastries also graced the table.

Today, several local restaurants offer what they call "Reveillon Dinners," in the spirit of this Creole Christmas meal.

Yet, the reveillon is a tradition that was still practiced in some homes, in the more recent past.

- You know, in the country what we had, we always had gumbo, you always had gumbo at festive meals.

Gumbo, coming home after Mass, after Midnight Mass.

And that's when we had what we called, the reveillon.

And our reveillon would be to come home to stewed chicken, and baked macaroni, and some wine, and sit up all night.

We didn't go to bed on Christmas, adults didn't go to bed on Christmas Eve.

They just said, "So, we had reveillon all night long, on there."

- [Peggy] While the current celebration of Christmas includes the opening of presents, such was not the case in 19th century New Orleans.

- And the children received their presents on New Year's Day, so the "jour de l'an" was the most important day of the year for children, and for families.

When the gentlemen went calling, and the ladies stayed at home, and served punch.

And I do believe that the punch was slightly spiked, although they would never admit it.

- A lot of my friends wanted to know about the double dipping of Christmas and Hanukkah, for gift giving.

My memories definitely are of smaller gifts on Hanukkah.

The major gifts were Christmas morning.

My sister and I would definitely get up early Christmas morning, and see what Santa had left under the tree.

So, I guess we started following a 19th century tradition of smaller gifts on one holiday, and larger gifts on another.

So that's my memory, that Christmas was the good day.

- [Peggy] Growing up in a mostly Catholic city there are Christmas memories that are, of course, entwined with the faith.

- When I was a first grader I remember being an angel, at Midnight Mass in Saint Alphonsus Church, and walking down the aisle with some little wings clipped on.

I remember the wings were awful, the wings weighed a ton.

They put the wings on us with straps, and it was really just awful.

But I'll never forget that moment when we stepped out by the altar, and I saw that whole church filled with lights, and I realized that us, little angels, were gonna parade all the way down the aisle.

I thought it was great.

- My mother, being such a devout Catholic, had a tradition of starting a Christmas pageant in her home.

And of course, she had all of the cast of characters in the nativity, right in-house.

The role I liked to play the best was the shepherd's, 'cause we didn't do nothing.

(laughs) We just stayed there.

I have 13 brothers and sisters, including myself.

And we've always had a new baby Jesus, almost every year.

- We had to go to almost every church we could find to go visit the crèches.

And my thing was to go up, and of course, at that time, they have a little plate, and you put a little donation in, right there, by baby Jesus's feet.

And I would love to kneel down, and smell the Christmas trees.

They'd always had these, just plain Christmas trees surrounding the crèche scenes.

And just to take that in, and looking at little baby Jesus's face, there.

You know, it was just, I loved to do that.

♪ And the tree tops glisten ♪ And children listen - [Peggy] Since 1947, on a Sunday before Christmas, the Patio Planters, a French Quarter civic association, has presented an annual sing-along in Jackson Square.

Giving out candles, and song sheets to the thousands of people who attend.

♪ With every Christmas star ♪ I rise (upbeat jazz music) - [Peggy] Every year there are French Quarter-based holiday activities called "Christmas New Orleans Style," coordinated by French Quarter Festivals Incorporated.

(upbeat jazz music) There are cooking demonstrations by local chefs.

Also on the schedule are free concerts, at St. Louis Cathedral.

♪ He's got the whole world ♪ In his hands ♪ He's got the whole wide world ♪ Come on, everybody.

♪ In his hands - [Peggy] Adding to the ambiance are strolling characters depicting personages from the city's past.

And where's Mr. Bingle these days?

Dillard's department store chain purchased the Maison Blanche stores in 1998, and Mr. Bingle came with the sale.

The department store chain continues to produce Bingle memorabilia.

Year-round, Bingle fans can visit websites dedicated to the snowman, who's popularity continues to snowball.

Bingle was even the subject of a recent novel.

Part of the proceeds of the book's sales went to create a tombstone for the gentleman who gave Bingle his voice, and much more, Oscar Eisentrout.

The tombstone is located in Hebrew's Rest Cemetery Number Three, in the Gentilly neighborhood of New Orleans.

A stand-out among New Orleans holiday events is City Park's Celebration in the Oaks.

It started in the mid 1980s, and in those early days the centerpiece of the display was the nativity scene that once graced the lawn of the Centanni family home.

Today, City Park's decorations include over two million lights, miniature trains, and carriage rides.

(cheering) And in 2005 the addition of the giant Mr. Bingle, that once hung outside Maison Blanche, and later Dillard's department stores.

By the way, Al Copeland also donated some lighting displays to City Park in those early days.

Each year, Christmas books with a regional flavor pop up in local bookstores, including artist James Rice's the "Cajun Night Before Christmas."

The saga of Santa, in muskrat from his head to his toes, in his sleigh pulled by alligators began over 30 years ago, as a Christmas message for a local car dealership.

The first of more than 50 books by this author-illustrator, Rice went on to create a series of night-before books, all from Pelican Publishing.

Over a half-million copies of the "Cajun Night Before Christmas" are in print.

A gingerbread boy's adventures in Cajun country is the plot of "The Cajun Gingerbread Boy," by New Orleans children's books author Berthe Amoss.

And there are songs that are played every year that evoke a New Orleans take on the seasons.

Benny Grunch and the Bunch sing "The 12 Yats of Christmas," including some only in New Orleans items.

♪ On the fifth day of Christmas ♪ ♪ We stopped at A&G ♪ For fried onion rings ♪ Before ya drive me nuts ♪ Three French breads ♪ Tujaque's recipe ♪ For the crawfish they caught in Aribi ♪ - [Peggy] Vince Vance and the Valiants, a national band with local roots, created a seasonal hit with "All I Want For Christmas Is You."

♪ I don't need sleigh rides in the snow ♪ ♪ Don't want a Christmas that's blue ♪ ♪ Take back the tinsel ♪ Stockings and bows ♪ 'Cause all I want for Christmas is you ♪ - [Peggy] And Louis Armstrong's 1952 rendition of Christmastime in New Orleans continues to be played each year.

♪ Magnolia trees at night ♪ Sparkling bright ♪ Fields of cotton ♪ All winter-y white ♪ When it's Christmas time ♪ In New Orleans - [Peggy] In 2005 Hurricane Katrina destroyed and damaged much of New Orleans, and the gulf coast.

Even Mr. Bingle, that symbol of New Orleans Christmas, battered by Katrina.

The actual marionette that danced for so many years in the window of the Canal Street Maison Blanche, was damaged and subsequently repaired by puppeteer Jeff Kent.

♪ I help Santa make the toys ♪ For all the good little girls and boys ♪ ♪ For him, for her, for Christmas glee ♪ ♪ There isn't anyone quite like me ♪ ♪ Hello everybody ♪ Hello ♪ I'm here with my very Christmas show ♪ - [Peggy] In Metairie, the 2005 rendition of the annual toy train village at Lakeside Shopping Center reflected the times.

On view were miniature versions of the all-too-present blue tarpaulins that covered many a damaged roof in the area.

And some folks who suffered damage retained a Christmas spirit by decorating their temporary homes.

By December 2005, almost four months after the hurricane many residents celebrated Christmas under trying circumstances.

- Suddenly said, "Oh, well it'll be over.

"Everything, we'll be back home, "and we'll have Thanksgiving and Christmas."

Did not happen, so here we are, in a house in Baton Rouge, with about 15 people in a three-room house.

So we had good people in Baton Rouge, and you know what?

They brought us Christmas table cloths, Christmas candles, Christmas everything, and I cooked gumbo, and I did all of our Christmas things on Christmas day.

People gave us a lot.

It was fun, we had Christmas, and we had all of us together.

We had about 25 to eat, in that house.

So, Christmas was great.

(gentle Christmas music) - Katrina made us aware of the importance of appreciating the past and enjoying the present.

May the holiday seasons of the future continue to bring the spirit of generosity, and the feeling of joy to our world.

♪ Oh holy night ♪ The stars were brightly shining ♪ ♪ It is the night ♪ Of our dear Savior's birth ♪ Long lay the world ♪ In sin and error pining ♪ 'Til he appeared ♪ And the soul felt its worth ♪ A ray of hope ♪ A weary world rejoices ♪ For yonder breaks ♪ A new and glorious morn' - You know, when you're a kid it's toys, and socks, and things like that.

But once, I got an overcoat, right?

And it was about 75 degrees out, and we had to go down to the drugstore, it was on Louisiana's Avenue, in St. Charles.

I put the overcoat on.

I was so happy to have this overcoat, that I wore it down to the drugstore.

But it, you know, it was like, I'm sure my mother wanted to see what it looked like on me, so I put it on.

- My father thought that he, just being Italian, and I was his only child, his only daughter, that he just wanted, I was named after the Blessed Mother, that I should just be a nun.

And so he just, you know, find some nun dolls it would kind of like make me think, you know, more about being a nun.

Of course, there was the movie "The Nun's Story," you know, with Audrey Hepburn.

- If you think of "A Christmas Pageant" it's the story of a nice Jewish family.

Mother, father, and child couldn't get a room at the hotel, had to go sleep in a barn.

I mean they're all Jews, so I guess you'd say that that is the Jewish story, in a way, of the holiday season.

- It was in that Midnight Mass I would sing, "Oh Holy Night" and my mother would be so proud.

She'd look up in the choir loft, and see her son singing.

One particular Christmas Eve I drank some of my father's wine before I went to Midnight Mass.

And my mother said she never heard me sing so beautifully.

(laughs) (gentle Christmas music) - [Male Presenter] Christmas in New Orleans is made possible by the WYES Producers Circle, a group of generous contributors dedicated to the support of our local productions.

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