No matter how much political correctness grips the country, an old-fashioned Christmas – wearing ample red and greenery — descended from the clouds late yesterday afternoon and draped itself across the cherubic faces of excited young families jammed into merry old Town Plaza.
The Christmas season voice of late cowboy legend Gene Autry was not available, but the melody was revived by students on stage in front of the gigantic centerpiece Christmas tree.
“Here comes Santa Claus,
“Here comes Santa Claus,
“Right down Santa Claus Lane…”
Christmas, not the artificial secular made-up season of Holiday, rang all across Downtown in the forms of children’s voices singing 150-year-old Christmas carols and familiar lights lining adjacent Culver Boulevard.
As the hour turned chilly near the top of the Christmas throng, three of the most important persons in City Hall were kind of huddled – City Manager John Nachbar, new Assistant to the City Manager Jesse Mays and Public Works chief Charles Herbertson.
What does Christmas mean to these gentlemen who have attained the pinnacles of their careers?
“It means coming to the tree-lighting ceremony every year,” said Mr. Nachbar, freshly minted as a first-time grandfather.
Christmas Day? “Probably spend time at home with (wife Patti and) family.”
For Mr. Herbertson, “Christmas means celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ,” and he will mark the morning by attending services at his favorite church.
“On Christmas Day, I usually get together with friends and family, exchange gifts and have a nice meal.”
Christmas is just as important to Mr. Herbertson as when he was growing up on the East Coast. “I celebrate it differently though now,” said the father of three.
Youthful Mr. Mays, the Culver City newcomer on the top floor of City Hall, is a native Chicagoan who came to Southern California 15 years ago to study at Pomona College.
“Yes, Christmas always is a big deal, warm and fuzzy feelings,” said the married father of two children, ages 5 and 3.
Mr. Mays unwraps Christmas Day by creating “a special breakfast,” pancakes or waffles.
Meanwhile, his children “run to the tree and begin opening presents. They only now are getting old enough to do that.”
Mr. Mays said Christmas is “probably not” as meaningful as when he was a boy. “Christmas is everything when you are a kid,” he said.
Despite the sharp change in Christmastime weather from the rugged Chicago blizzards of his boyhood, “I have adapted. I have gotten used to soap bubbles as snow and certain smell in the air that tells you it is winter.”
