(Second of a Three-Part Series on the History of Christmas in Dorchester)

By Peter F. Stevens

Streets teeming with holiday shoppers, stores emblazoned with decorations, Christmas parties at schools and churches, food and presents for the needy &emdash; sound familiar? Does it sound like the Christmas season of 2001? Of course it does &emdash; and it also describes Christmas in Dorchester 75 years ago, in 1926.

In a town whose Puritan settlers had once banned Christmas celebrations, Dorchester in the Roaring Twenties was a place where Santa Claus was king. The Dorchester Beacon ran weekly holiday columns reassuring kids that "the jolly old elf" did exist, the articles juxtaposed with ads urging shoppers to spend on everything from toys to furniture. Local banks ran ads exhorting parents and children alike to "deposit your Christmas money" in savings accounts that could be used for next Christmas. "Your Christmas Money &emdash; What Shall I Do With It?" ran an ad by the Dorchester Savings Bank with the rejoinder "Our 1927 Christmas Club is still open for new membership."

Among the events kicking off the local Yuletide season of 1926 was the Ladies' Aid Society's Christmas Sale and Supper on Thursday December 8. Held at the First Baptist Church, on Ashmont and Adams Streets, the event raised money for food and gifts for the poor.

Virtually all of the churches, Catholic and Protestant alike, organized holiday sales, dinners, and parties for their parishioners, as well as "attractive, well-balanced programs of Christmas song" with choirs and musicians. Christmas Eve was full of church pageants and parties at the local churches. On Christmas Day, services featured a mix of religious hymns and Christmas songs, everything from Handel's "Messiah" to the "Christmas Pipes of County Clare."

Each parish and congregation evinced pride at the skills of their choirs, each "trumpeting" their programs and prowess in church circulars and in the newspaper. Diplomatically, the Beacon praised the local singers, musicians, and clerics collectively: "Choirs have been enlarged, musical selections well arranged, sermons of the day prepared, and the services it is expected will be well attended."

One of the highlights of the holiday season 1926 for the choirs and the entire town was the Nativity Pageant at Fields Corner on December 23. The event began at 7:30 p.m., with much of Dorchester turning out "at the Town Field." According to the Beacon, "singers from churches of all denominations and from various societies have been invited to assist in the singing of the carols which accompany the pageant, and Howard A. Ellis with a quartet of trumpeters will lead the music."

The pageant featured a Nativity play with local men and women playing the roles of Mary, Joseph, angels, the Wise Men, and other figures.

A local noted: "The play is presented by Dorchester House and financed by the Directors of the house and others who have interest in this expression of community Christmas spirit for Dorchester."

The churches evinced that spirit with religious and festive decorations alike. "Large spruce trees," an onlooker observed, "dazzling in silver, with a wreath of laurel in front," decorated several of Dorchester's Protestant churches.

St. Peter's and Dorchester's other Catholic parishes turned their attention to the city's poor in 1926, determined that each girl and boy would have a Christmas present and a Christmas feast at parish halls and clubs. Typical was the party thrown by the Catholic Daughters of America for "100 poor children at the Columbus Club."

At Police Station 11, then located on Arcadia Street in Fields Corner, the officers held a Christmas party every year for the town's underprivileged children. One officer, John Ward, recalled: "As a patrolman, I was down at Station 11 for 25 years. Every Christmas we used to run parties for the poor children and get them down to the station and fill up their bellies with goodies and give them warm clothes."

Among the most popular events was the Christmas Party "held by the nurses of the Community Health Association, at 204 Adams Street" on Tuesday December 21, 1926. A reporter wrote: "Sixty-five children were present. Games were played, and christmas carols were sung by the group. The refreshments served were donated by the physicians' wives of Dorchester, and the gifts given to each child were also donated by a local physician. A very merry time was enjoyed by all."

Much has changed in the 75 years since Christmas of 1926. Still, in looking back at how Dorchester celebrated the holiday all those decades ago, several cornerstones of Christmas Past remain in Christmas Present of 2001. A sense of community, family, and a desire to help the less fortunate were Yuletide watchwords in Dorchester of 1926 and remain so today in many respects.