New York’s first Christmas tree

For New Yorkers, the lighting of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree marks the start of the holiday season and is a tradition that brings our city together. It began in 1931, when workmen set up a tree in the middle of the construction site, and the management has installed a great tree every year since. In 1942, with the nation at war, three large Christmas trees were set up, one with red ornaments, another white, a third blue as a patriotic gesture. Rockefeller Center did not originate the idea of a great public Christmas tree, however.

New York had a long Christmas heritage. Political cartoonist Thomas Nast, best known for his withering depictions of Boss Tweed, originated the classic image of the American Santa Claus. O. Henry (William Sydney Porter) penned several short stories about the holiday, most notably “The Gift of the Magi.” The New York Sunday World intended to publish the story on Dec. 10, 1905, but with the illustration at the ready, O’Henry was suffering through severe writer’s block. He wrote from a booth in Pete’s Tavern on Irving Place, and as a messenger stood by he drank enough whiskey to finally finish the story.

Even as Christmas assumed an important role in the city’s annual calendar, there was never a centerpiece for a public celebration. In 1912, Emilie Herreshoff decided there should be. She was the wife of James Brown Francis Herreshoff, president of the General Chemical Company, vice-president of the Nichol Chemical Company, and affiliated with the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company of Bristol, R.I., builders of yachts for the New York Yacht Club, including several America’s Cup defenders. Mrs. Herreshoff announced there would be a public Christmas tree.

Support for the idea was immediate. The Adirondack Club donated the 60-foot specimen; a railroad executive arranged for free transport; the Edison Company donated and installed the 3,500 colored lights. Singing societies from across the city and representing many nationalities volunteered their talents — Germans, Bohemians, Welshmen. An anonymous donor paid the band that would play for the crowds at the tree lighting.

The tree would rise in Madison Square Park. A police officer stationed there remarked that no place needed seasonal uplift more. “It’s the loneliest place at night in all New York,” he told a reporter. “There’s nothing but loneliness there.”

On Christmas Eve, 10,000 thronged the park for the ceremony. At 10 minutes before 5, the chimes rang from the Metropolitan Life Tower, completed only three years before, and at 5, church bells across the city joined in. At 5:30, the “Star of Bethlehem” atop the tree began to glow to the sounds of a trumpet fanfare, and the thousands of lights gradually grew in brightness as cheers rose from the crowd.

From then until midnight music filled the park. Choruses and the brass band performed Christmas carols from many lands, Bach chorales, hit tunes from operas, “Stars and Stripes Forever” and other marches, national anthems, and patriotic songs. The crowd joined in singing the familiar carols, the men, women, and children raising voices in their native tongue. The festivities ended at midnight with all singing “My Country ’Tis of Thee.”

It was common then for newspapers to publish topical verse, and the Times printed a poem from Jean Dwight Franklin, “The Christ Child’s Christmas Tree (Madison Square, 1912).” It began, “Above the bustle and wear and tear/Of a city’s life in a busy square,/The Christmas Tree stands with its open hands/A symbol of love for all to share.” As Mrs. Herreshoff had hoped, the tree brought New Yorkers together, rich and poor, immigrants and native born, young and old.

The tree was lit every night through New Year’s Eve, but the music had been scheduled for the first and last nights only. The public asked for more. “Why don’t they have music every night,” one asked. “We want to sing around the big Christmas tree.” Band music was added by popular demand, accompanied by spontaneous song.

A woman in the Christmas Eve crowd was heard to remark, “This is a real Christmas for me. Those rich people who give so much money away on Christmas always get the idea that the poor need something to eat. They forget that we also like to look at nice things and hear lovely music.” The appreciation of beauty and culture cuts across class, race, ethnicity, gender, and religion and is as essential to urban life as are daily necessities. Food for the body is nothing without food for the soul. It behooves civic leaders to keep that truth in mind as they embrace plans to improve and reform our city.

Kroessler is professor and interim chief librarian, Lloyd Sealy Library, John Jay College of Criminal Justice.