In 1925, Santa Barbara welcomed the holiday season with a sense of gratitude and a spirit renewed. Just six months after the earthquake devastated the downtown commercial district and the iconic Mission, the community was well on its way to fulfilling its promise of a “bigger, better Santa Barbara,” and continuing its treasured traditions.
One of those had been established in 1919 by Pearl Chase and her friend Adele Herter, who were determined to provide a sense of spiritual comfort and a bit of joy for those in need. They established the “Annual Christmas celebration, with its tree, its carols and its exquisite tableaux, given at Recreation Center, in order that strangers within the city may have some participation in the Christmas spirit,” reported Western Woman magazine.
The Morning Press reported about the 1925 Christmas Day festivities in greater detail: Recreation Center will climax its Christmas week of celebration and parties by keeping “open house” all day with big log fires burning and staging a real community dance this evening.
Greenough’s orchestra will furnish the music for the dancing tonight and it is free for all who care to come — an old-time community get-together affair for everyone to have a good time.
Recreation Center has been busy all well, with Miss Bertha G. Rice and her force of workers moving about actively to supervise and take part in everything going on.
Wednesday afternoon the annual party for 260 children of the poorer families of the city was held, with ice cream and apples for the youngsters and their mothers. Horns were also given the youngsters so that there was no need of an orchestra. Several reels of pictures were shown, including one of the “Felix the Cat,” which these youngsters always request as a part of their Christmas entertainment.
The affair revolved around a magnificent Christmas tree, which has in face furnished the central setting for all affairs in the Center this week, including the carol singing by the Community Arts group last night. There are several other smaller trees, nicely decorated, scattered about Recreation Center in cosy corners and convenient spots and holly and the red Christmas streamers are everywhere, so that the atmosphere of cheer is apparent throughout the building.
Wednesday night a number of boys and girls from the night school who have no homes in Santa Barbara were guests of the Center at a Christmas party, and one night this week members of a gym class in charge of Recreation Center workers were entertained in the temporary Salvation Army home.
An accompanying article was titled, “Tableaux are Witnessed by Two Thousand: Hundreds Turned Away from Recreation Center as House Fills.” It described two separate performances, each seating one thousand:
With the conclusion of the performance in the center, the choir marched to the giant pine tree in the courthouse yard which was lighted with hundreds of colored lights. Here they sang Christmas carols.
Hundreds of persons lined the sidewalks and blocked the streets in the vicinity of the huge Christmas tree and it was necessary to put several extra police officers on duty to keep the traffic moving.
The report continued with a description of the musical performances and series of tableaux that depicted “the complete Christmas story.” It added, “Santa Barbara’s community Christmas celebration has not become an institution and is being taken up by many communities in southern California … and has attracted nationwide attention. A number of persons in the cast last night have played the same parts since the first production.”
Those cast members were treated well, as noted in the Morning Press, “Mr. and Mrs. Bernhard Hoffmann gave a supper last evening in El Paseo de la Guerra for all the people in the tableaux and the Carol singers in the Community Christmas entertainment in Recreation Center. This is an annual hospitality which Mr. and Mrs. Hoffman dispense.”
As Vie Obern, one of “Pearl’s Girls,” described it, “Every Christmas Day, Miss Chase personally planned a friendly reception at the Recreation Center for those who are alone.” Pearl’s vision for providing special holiday experiences and warm memories and support for those in need continued with the Council of Christmas Cheer and today as the year-round Unity Shoppe.
Cheri Rae is a longtime neighborhood advocate and the author of A String of Pearls: Pearl Chase of Santa Barbara. She is a board member of the Pearl Chase Society, and the longtime editor of the society’s newsletter, “The Capital,” where this article first appeared. Email Cheri at pcs@pearchasesociety.org or visit pearlchasesociety.org.
You must be logged in to post a comment.