Unique Texas (and Close By) Christmas Traditions (Part 5 - Dec 24, 2023)
by Scott Sosebee
In our last look at Unique Christmas events, we are going to move a little bit east, just over the state line, and take a gander at some of the unique ways our cousins in Louisiana celebrate Christmas in New Orleans and Natchitoches.
The History of New Orleans’ Réveillon Dinners
New Orleans is one of my favorite cities to visit and, as my friend Harry Tervalon—a native son of the Crescent City and one who revels in the city’s traditions—will tell anyone who asks, it is also one of the best “eating” metropolises one can visit. No trip to the “Big Easy” is complete without a sampling of all the wonders present in the city’s restaurants. One of the best ways to try New Orleans’ culinary traditions and dining customs is to come to the city during the holiday season and engage in the Réveillon dinner, the reincarnation of an old New Orleans custom that has gotten a modern facelift to happen in dozens of the city’s eating establishments.
“Réveillon” is a derivation of the French word réveil, which means “to reawaken.” The tradition goes all the way back to eighteenth-century New Orleans when the city was a French—and then a Spanish—possession. New Orleans in the 1700s was a Catholic city, which meant that there was always a midnight mass on Christmas Eve, and almost everyone in the city would appear. After the services, families would return home and have a traditional feast and usher in Christmas in a further celebration of Christ’s birth.
The United States gained possession of New Orleans with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, and throughout the nineteenth century, American customs began to replace the old French and Spanish ones. That included the American way of celebrating Christmas—which incorporated many German traditions—such as gifts for children, Christmas trees, and, by the twentieth century, the shopping and decorations that signaled the coming of the Yuletide month. Those celebratory Christmas Eve dinners in family homes had, by the 1940s, all but ended in New Orleans.
New Orleans had entered into some tough economic times in the 1970s and 1980s; tourism—scared off by an increase in crime and an emphasis on “debauchery” in the French Quarter—had begun to decline. That led the French Quarter Festivals Inc., the group charged with organizing events for the city’s tourist areas, in the 1990s to revive, or “reawaken,” old holiday traditions in a new form with what they called “réveillon dinners.” They approached local restaurants and asked them to develop special holiday menus and promote the tradition among out-of-town guests as well as locals. The result was the “new, old” tradition that today includes almost eighty restaurants and runs throughout the month of December. Restaurants offer meals that run the gamut from old-line Creole dishes all the way to contemporary and modern incarnations of “New Orleans cuisine.” It gives visitors a chance to sample a number of different New Orleans restaurants. Reservations fill up quickly, and the city’s visitor’s bureau recommends securing spots for the places one wants to visit at least six months in advance.
The Natchitoches Christmas Festival
If you have seen the film “Steel Magnolias” you know that perhaps the most central holiday celebration in the northwestern Louisiana city of Natchitoches is the annual Christmas Festival, an extravaganza that features light displays along the Cane River, fireworks, food booths and trucks, and the added bonus of Christmas themed shopping in the historic district along the river downtown. The annual celebration begins on the first Saturday after Thanksgiving and runs each weekend through the first Saturday after New Year’s Day.
Natchitoches is the oldest European settlement in the Louisiana Purchase and traces its origin to a trading post established by Louis St. Denis among the Caddo in 1714. While not that old, the city’s Christmas Festival has been around since 1927 when in that year, Max Burgdorf—the Superintendent of Utilities for the city—purchased Christmas lights that he then strung along Front Street and also made a lighted display, a “Star of the East” that he set up along the riverbank. From such humble beginnings, the Natchitoches Christmas Festival grew. Charles Solomon, another utility employee who would become known as “Mr. Christmas” in Natchitoches, constructed first a bigger “Star of the East” and then other lighted displays such as a Nativity scene and Santa Claus in the 1930s and 1940s. In all, Solomon built almost forty lighted pieces that were displayed along the Cane River by the time Solomon retired in 1976. The city also expanded its celebration through the years, such as a fireworks display in 1936, adding a Christmas Parade in the 1940s, and by the 1960s and 1970s, the food venues and other vendors along Front Street.
Solomon’s displays were permanent and remained along the bank the entire year, although they were only lit at Christmas time. As mentioned, they became a central part of the film “Steel Magnolias,” filmed in the city in 1989, a movie that “introduced” Natchitoches to the rest of the country. However, it would be another film not made in the city that would change the Christmas Festival. When the producers of the movie “The YaYa Sisterhood” scouted and planned to film in the city in 2002, they found out that the displays were permanent and could not be moved. That led them to decide to make their movie in North Carolina. Chastened, the city utility department made the decision to take down the set pieces and reconstruct them into mobile ones that could be put up and taken down each year. The city will celebrate its 96th Christmas Festival this year, and there is still time for East Texans to make the short drive and see the wonder. I guarantee it is worth the trip.
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.