By RHEA-FRANCES TETLEY
Historian
The weather has always shaped the way Christmas has been celebrated here “on the heights,” as the area was referred to in the 1800s. Those earliest years do not have many Christmas events recorded, since the sawmills were closed because of the weather, allowing the workers to spend the winter with their families in the valley. Those few men who guarded the mills during the winter would take a day off from working and get together to celebrate Christmas by having a nice dinner with friends.
Christmas on the mountain often brings snow, as seen in this 1963 postcard view of Lake Arrowhead Village.
As the decades passed, motorcar roads and vacation cabins were built in the 1920s. However, most of those cabins were built for summer use, to escape the blistering heat of the valley. Subsequently, the summer cabins were not insulated and inside could be as cold as outdoors, so few of those cabins were visited in the winter. But, when electricity was installed in the 1930s, families began living year-round in the mountains, schools were built and community holiday traditions began. As communities began, so did holiday celebrations.
In 1934, the Crest Forest School celebrated Christmas with a full school program attended by most of the community. The PTA served hot cider and cookies and seventh and eighth-graders sang “The First Noel,” “We Wish you a Merry Christmas” and “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear.” The first and second-graders performed an original Christmas play, while the fourth through sixth-graders read their essays about “The Meaning of Christmas.” Afterwards, all the community members joined in a Christmas carol sing-along.
The churches that were starting up offered Christmas Eve services. After the war years and into the 1950s, the church services became very popular. All mountain visitors were invited to the Christmas morning church services, preaching to larger than normal crowds at each church.
Childhood Christmas vacation memories are vivid. Santa always found the children while vacationing in the mountains. White Christmases came often, and Santa delivered sleds, toboggans, ski jackets and skis to enjoy the winter wonderland. Spending Christmas afternoon at the outdoor Blue Jay ice rink was a tradition for many families.
Santa’s Village has attracted visitors to the mountain for decades after it opened in 1955.
Over the years, many resorts and communities planned special events for the Christmas holidays. The Club San Moritz in Crestline always had a Christmas Eve Santa visit and maybe a play for the children, after a large family buffet dinner on the afternoon of Christmas day. Families would return year-after-year to celebrate Christmas with the friends they had made on the mountain.
The Blue Jay Christmas parade has been a tradition for 46 years, bringing smiles to many a youngster and oldster, alike, with unique floats, music from violins to fifes and the snow shovel drill team. For many years, the nighttime parade had Santa arriving on the Santa’s Village sleigh, pulled by reindeer. The parade was moved to an afternoon parade for the comfort of the participants and parade goers due to chilly temperatures in December. Then, the local firemen had Santa on Crestline’s original 1929 engine, flanked with large engines and their sirens blaring, until recently when SkyPark sent their cute Santa cars. A couple of years ago, the Women’s Club of Lake Arrowhead began coordinating the parade to keep the shortest parade tradition going.
From 1955 through 1998, millions of children visited Santa’s Village to see Santa and his reindeer in Skyforest. The amazement in the children’s eyes as they drove up the mountain into a land of cold and snow to meet Santa at “his home” was a sight to behold. Many old-timers have personal memories of working at Santa’s Village, as it provided most teens their first jobs on the mountain, with many playing a character such as Alice in Wonderland, the March Hare or one of Santa’s elves.
They have colorful stories of working with the reindeer or the goats eating their clothes or cooking (and eating) the delicious hot gingerbread with lemon sauce and whipped cream at the Good Witch’s Bakery or Mrs. Claus’ Spice Kitchen. Santa’s Village’s rides – Swirling Christmas Tree, Bumble Bee Monorail, Carousel, Ferris Wheel, Bobsled Roller Coaster, the frozen North Pole, Toy House, Candy Kitchen and Pixie Pantry – were a memory etched into each youngster’s mind for a lifetime. Today, oldsters still reminisce about happy childhood memories formed at Santa’s Village.
Christmas in the mountains is a unique experience, often with snow, rarely found elsewhere in Southern California.
The Crest Forest School in 1933 after it had expanded to two rooms.
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