Ye Olde Palos Verdes Christmas

How were the holidays celebrated in 1930?

Thanks to our first local magazine, the Palos Verdes Review, we can answer that question.  

On Christmas Eve, two children wearing robes—one blue, one brown—led a procession from the north end of Malaga Cove Plaza. Behind them, children and adults walked in pairs, holding candles. The group sported ponchos, serapes, swirling skirts or lacy shawls—anything that looked Mexican. This was a mini-version of Las Posadas: a re-enactment of Mary and Joseph's journey to Bethlehem.

The folks in Palos Verdes walked to a darkened house and knocked on the door. "There's no room," they were told, in true Las Posadas fashion.

The procession rounded a corner and knocked at another door of the same house—one built and owned by Frederick Law Olmsted. Again they were turned away, but they tried another door. Finally, the homeowner invited everyone inside.

All the lights were out; only candles illuminated the room, throwing eerie shadows as the group sang carols. The story of the first Christmas was read aloud, the reader holding a Bible close to one large candle.

Finally came the big event: The children, starting with the youngest, were blindfolded, given a stick, and allowed to take a few whacks at a bag suspended from the ceiling. When it burst open, wrapped gifts and candy spilled out and all the kids dove for the bounty.

Host Frederick Law Olmsted was our local celebrity back then. He built his home on a bluff on Rosita Place and lived there for several years while designing and planning out the parks, schools, golf course, and (most important to many) areas to be left alone on the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

While he was here, he was a big part of the new and growing community. The Christmas Eve re-enactment of Las Posadas ended when Olmsted finished his work in Palos Verdes and moved his family back to Massachusetts. His house, which he called "Villa Felicias," still stands.

Another traditional event started about the same time when the Palos Verdes Sunday School put on a Christmas Vespers Festival at Malaga Cove School. The children wore costumes to act out the Nativity scene, sang carols and passed out presents. Does that sound like the last school pageant you attended?

Remember, though, in the early 1930s, this area was rural and sparsely populated, and the Depression was starting. Getting together meant more than putting the Blackberry on vibrate and watching the same old, same old.

The Nativity Play, written by Sunday School teacher Elizabeth Schellenberg, was performed for many years. Everyone in the audience received a candle, and at the end of the play, one of the actors came down the aisle and lit each candle at the end of each row. The flame was passed down the rows, candle to candle. Flickering lights spilled into the darkness as the audience went their separate ways.

Old-timers in Palos Verdes have fond memories of acting in the Christmas Vespers Festival, starting out as toddler angels, graduating to speaking roles, all the while seeing the candles flicker through the auditorium and out into the night.