History with ‘Hud’: Memorable Christmas moments over the last century in the Port City
WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — When most people think of Christmas they picture Santa, indoor trees and lots of decorations. But that hasn’t always been the case.
The modern Christmas experience didn’t begin to form until just over 100 years ago. Carols, cards, presents and time spent with family first arrived in widespread fashion to the United States and Wilmington in the early 1900s.
Around that time, one in five Americans was estimated to have a Christmas tree, decorating them with nuts, strings of popcorn and even lemons. Electricity gave rise to a safer alternative to lighting the tree, switching from the previous use of candles. Popular gifts included radios, model trains and Kodak cameras given around the tree.
Christmas trees cotinued to pick up in popularity as the 1900s went on, with a 300-year-old Oak Tree in Hilton Park just east of the Cape Fear River being used as a holiday gathering place starting in 1928. The tree stood at 75 feet tall and 210 feet wide. Thousands of festive lights, pounds of spanish moss and tinsel were used as decoration, with a shimmering star on top earing the tree its ‘Star of the East’ name.
Following a four year hiatus during World War Two, the lighting ceremony returned in 1946 bigger and brighter than ever. Dubbed the World’s Largest Christmas tree, the tradition peaked with 7,000 lights and more than 100,000 annual visitors in the 1950s. The tree even appeared on postcards and magazine covers before time took its toll. The tree shrunk to just 50 feet tall and 75 feet wide by 2011, putting an end to the tradition with the tree being uprooted in 2015.
Another more-temporary Christmas tree popped up each year from the 1950s through late 1970s in an unusual spot. The Belk Berry Department Store in downtown Wilmington was constructed in 1951 at the corner of Second Street and Chestnut Street. Each holiday season, the outside of the store was decorated with a large tree along with a Santa Sleigh and reindeer, with festive window displays strategically catching the eyes of passing children. The Belk store moved to the newly constructed Independence Mall in 1979, with the New Hanover County Public Library replacing it in 1981.
While Christmas decorations are a common sight, Wilmington was treated to a rare weather phenomena in 1989. A coastal storm met up with cold arctic air just before Christmas, with 15.3 inches of snow falling from December 22nd through the 24th. Although the snow was no longer falling on Christmas Day, 13 inches was on the ground, marking the only White Christmas in Wilmington history. The snow also helped to drop the temperature to an all time low of zero degrees.
Most Wilmington Christmas Days since have been much warmer and snowless, but that doesn’t stop the Holiday Spirit from filling the air across the Cape Fear at this time each year.
