Unique Texas (and Close By) Christmas Traditions (Part 1 - Nov 26, 2023)

by Scott Sosebee

Between now and Christmas, this space will once again put a spotlight on unique Christmas traditions. In past years, the column has ranged all over the world, providing some insight on holiday traditions found in many places and culture. This year, we are going to remain close to home and look at unique traditions in the Lone Star State, with a couple from its nearby neighbors.

Texas Tech University’s Carol of Lights In Lubbock

This one is near and dear to my heart because it happens on the beautiful campus of my Alma Mater, Texas Tech. During the first week of December every year, Texas Tech holds an annual event called the “Carol of Lights,” a ceremonial “lighting” of more than 30,000 lights that adorn the surrounding buildings of the Science Quadrangle, Memorial Circle, Holden Hall, and the Engineering Key. It also includes a 40-ft. tall Christmas tree, over 3,000 luminaries, and a 20-ft. Christmas wreath. The ceremony may happen during the first weekend in December, but the anticipation starts to build in October when the physical plant crews begin the laborious process of placing the lights on the soon-to-be-illuminated buildings.

Texas Tech is one of Texas’ newest institutions of higher learning, opening its doors in 1923. It remained a relatively new—and a somewhat small—college in 1951 when Gene Hemmle, the chair of the Tech Music Department, started a tradition of gathering his students in the Science Quadrangle where they sang carols, ate cookies baked generally by members of the department, and enjoyed hot chocolate delivered by the Tech cafeteria. It was a small, understated affair and may have remained that way for some time if not for a Plainview businessman named Harold Hinn.

Hinn, who was appointed to Texas Tech’s Board of Directors (as its Regents were then called) in 1957, decided that Texas Tech was capable of “doing it better and bigger.” Hinn had visited Kansas City in 1959 and saw that city’s huge Christmas light display in their downtown shopping district. He decided that he could bring that same spirit and wonder to Texas Tech’s campus. Hinn donated the materials and also paid for all the labor to decorate what were then the only three buildings in the Science Quadrangle: the Chemistry, Science, and then Library (what is now the Math and Statistics Building). Hinn had bought 5,000 lights, which was said to have exhausted the whole available supply of lights and sockets between Lubbock and Dallas.

Harold Hinn got a late start that first year, and the music students had already held their caroling event, but in 1960 the two annual holiday events were synchronized. The Lubbock business community also got into the act that year and donated 6,000 more lights, which allowed the illumination to grow to include the West Engineering and Textile Engineering buildings. The Residence Halls Association added sponsorship of the caroling, and the event became known as the “Christmas Sing.” It would be 1961 when the real modern iteration of the Carol of Lights took on its model. More donations meant there were now 16,000 lights, and a young student named Bill Dean was Student Body President. If that name sounds familiar to Texas Tech Alums, that is because he is the same Bill Dean who retired from a 54-year tenure as head of the Texas Tech Alumni Association in 2022. That year, in a spirit of cooperation, University President Robert Cabiness Goodwin asked Dean to “flip the switch” to illuminate the lights when the students had finished their carols. That remains how the ceremony works today, except for the great increase in the number of lights and that more than 20,000 people usually gather to watch it unfold.

This year, Texas Tech’s Carol of Lights will take place on December 2, and since it is Texas Tech’s centennial year, it will feature a drone light show in addition to the now over 30,000 lights. If you are in the Lubbock area don’t miss it. I plan to enjoy it for the first time in almost twenty years and can’t wait.

The Concho Christmas Celebration

Let’s remain in West Texas for our next tradition, one that is more recent in origin but just as festive as the one that takes place about a hundred miles up the road in Lubbock. In the late 1980s and the early 1990s, the City of San Angelo began an improvement project along the banks of the North Concho River that runs through the center of that city until it merges with the middle and the South Concho on the south side of San Angelo. They built a sidewalk along the riverside, landscaped and beautified the path alongside the river, and built a footbridge that then connected the area to the remaining restored buildings of Fort Concho, which were the beginnings of the modern city. When the project was nearly fully finished, in 1994, a small, simple “Christmas Lights Walking Tour” began along the center portion of the pathway. It featured some minor lighted scenes and lights illuminating the pathway.

The display began to expand in 1995 and 1996, running the length of Rio Concho Drive, an avenue that wound around the river in the middle of the city. That meant the tour became a driving one instead of a walking tour. The Concho Christmas Opening Ceremony began in 1997, on the Bill Aylor, Sr. Memorial River Stage. The San Angelo Independent School District’s various student choirs came to sing, and the San Angelo Community Band provided the musical accompaniment. The lighted displays had grown to seven major scenes along with the now twelve minor ones and included twenty-four angels, thirty-six Christmas Cards, and forty-six other lighted decorations. It contained—wait for it—over two million lights and local radio station KCSA offered holiday music through an access community station frequency to play as one drove through the displays. The city and sponsors have added more lights each year, which now includes an impressive “Tunnel of Lights” sponsored and fabricated by local business Hirschfield Steel. This is another can’t-miss tradition if you are in the area.

Next week we’ll light a big ole pecan tree in Dallas and drive through another light tour in Austin.

The East Texas Historical Association provides this column as a public service. Scott Sosebee is a Professor of History at Stephen F. Austin State University and the Executive Director of the Association. He can be contacted at sosebeem@sfasu.edu; www.easttexashistorical.org.