16/Dec/2008
What are Your Earliest Christmas Memories?
As the big day draws near we all are moved to think of Christmas last year or the year before, but unless we are pushed none of us is likely to think of the first Christmas we can remember.
In those early years thoughts of Santa and his elves hard at work at the North Pole caused our hearts to skip a beat in anticipation of Christmas morning.
Just for fun we asked several prominent South Baton Rouge citizens to think back to their earliest Christmas memories for us. What they told us is reported on these pages. If you would like to add your own memories of Christmas to our list just go to neighborsmag.com and tell us what you recall from the time when everyone was bigger than you and Christmas was new. You’ll enjoy recalling it and we would love to hear from you.
Father David Allen- Pastor of St. Jude’s
Growing up with five children in a small northern Baton Rouge home, Father David Allen’s childhood Christmas was filled with laughter - and chaos. The big family lived on a tight budget, but they always decorated the tree to mark the beginning of the season. They “played together, prayed together and fed each other with food and faith.”
He remembers one Christmas morning when he ran to the tree and saw his first bicycle. “It meant so much because I know my parents had to work so hard for it.”
After a long morning of celebration, his Italian family gathered for their traditional holiday meal: spaghetti and meatballs.
Father David Allen is now the pastor at the St. Jude the Apostle Church. During the holidays, he spends countless hours with the church’s Environment and Art Committee and professional decorators to make the church visually speak to people. “The goal is to make people say ‘Ah! This is the House of God.’” He doesn’t stay in town long after the hectic Christmas season is finished before he retreats to his condo in Gulf Shores for much needed relaxation.
Becky Prejean- Public Relations Director, Dreams Come True
Family. Food. Toys. This is what Becky Prejean remembers about the holidays of her childhood. She grew up south of Lafayette, and spent Christmas with extended family at her grandmother’s house for a traditional holiday meal.
Family was the highlight of her holiday, but she never forgot the childish anticipation of Santa Claus. She recalls many Christmas mornings spent opening Tonka trucks. “I always tried to keep up with my brother and our cousins so I was very much a tom-boy,” Prejean said.
Far removed from the days of Tonka trucks, Prejean now celebrates the holidays with her own children and grandchildren. They rotate houses each year, but she always spends Christmas day with her mother.
Prejean is the public relations director of Dreams Come True, a nonprofit organization that grants “dreams” to children with life-threatening illnesses. During the holiday season, Dreams Come True hosts a party for children whose dreams are now a reality thanks to the organization. She is currently working with one dream child to build a tree house in the child’s backyard.
Prejean is pictured with the tree house that will soon have an 8-foot ceiling, porch, personalized furniture and cable television suspended in the air.
Jairo Alvarez- Alvarez Construction Owner
Jairo Alvarez spends the holidays celebrating with family and friends in the Baton Rouge area, but celebrates the season very differently than he did growing up in Latin America.
Alvarez grew up on a farm in the mountains of Colombia without electricity, but that did not stop his family from celebrating Christmas. He distinctly remembers gathering orchids, moss and grass from the jungle for the landscape of his family’s nativity scene. The Alvarez family built the symbolic birthplace of Jesus in the corner of their house and invited neighbors who lived nearly half of a mile away to join in observance of the holiday.
“My father would take this time and give back to those around us. We didn’t have much ourselves, but he invited neighbors for a special dinner celebration,” Alvarez said.
Alvarez follows in his father’s footsteps and gives back to those who need it most. For the past ten years, Alvarez Construction has built the Baton Rouge Dream Home, part of the St. Jude’s Dream Home program. All proceeds from the home benefit St. Jude’s Children’s Research Center and their work with pediatric cancer.
Bill Cassidy- State Senator
Cassidy (who will soon be sworn in as the new Congressman from the sixth district of Louisiana) remembers Christmas as a time when his family played lots of Christmas music.
“One of my first memories is of a Christmas album cover that had an idealized picture of a family celebrating Crhistmas,” he said. “Actually, that was the kind of Christmas we had at our home. There was lots of family and the tree and the gifts.”
Cassidy said he did not realize it at the time, but his was not a very wealthy family so some years there were not a lot of gifts under the tree. “One year I remember the only thing I got for Christmas was a new pair of blue jeans,” he said. “In other years my mom gave us books with Merry Christmas written on the title page along with the year. I still have a copy of Swiss Family Robinson from back then and also T. Harry Williams’ Pulitzer Prize Winning book Huey Long.”
One special memory for the new Congressman is the midnight service his family attended regularly at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church. “It was a beautiful service and I remember the excitement of staying up late.” Cassidy’s grew up in Westminster Subdivision and his mother and father still live there.
“We have a very traditional Christmas each year at our home,” he said. “Of course my kids do a lot better than I ever did when it come to presents because as soon as we have Christmas in Baton Rouge we leave for Mobile where my wife is from and we have a second Christmas over there with more presents and more of everything.”
Rodney “Smokie” Bourgeois- Owner of George’s Restaurants
Rodney “Smokie” Bourgeois says the holidays are a time to get the family together and celebrate the excitement of the season for children. When Smokie thinks about Christmas from his own childhood, he mostly remembers huge Christmas trees. His family would proudly place the enormous tree in their front room for everyone to see. “Thinking back, it was only five or six feet tall,” Smokie laughed, “but it was a big part of our Christmas.”
Both of his parents were fantastic cooks so his family would also celebrate with a delicious meal. As an only child, Smokie was “properly spoiled rotten,” but he remembers one specific holiday better than any other. On Christmas morning, he ran to the living room to find a red and green electric train that nearly took up the whole living room. Smokie still has the train today. He is also the owner of the local George’s City Deli restaurants and a newly elected Councilman of the East Baton Rouge Parish Metro Council.
Smokie Bourgeois shows off his famous George’s burger.
As the big day draws near we all are moved to think of Christmas last year or the year before, but unless we are pushed none of us is likely to think of the first Christmas we can remember.
In those early years thoughts of Santa and his elves hard at work at the North Pole caused our hearts to skip a beat in anticipation of Christmas morning.
Just for fun we asked several prominent South Baton Rouge citizens to think back to their earliest Christmas memories for us. What they told us is reported on these pages. If you would like to add your own memories of Christmas to our list just go to neighborsmag.com and tell us what you recall from the time when everyone was bigger than you and Christmas was new. You’ll enjoy recalling it and we would love to hear from you.
Father David Allen- Pastor of St. Jude’sGrowing up with five children in a small northern Baton Rouge home, Father David Allen’s childhood Christmas was filled with laughter - and chaos. The big family lived on a tight budget, but they always decorated the tree to mark the beginning of the season. They “played together, prayed together and fed each other with food and faith.”
He remembers one Christmas morning when he ran to the tree and saw his first bicycle. “It meant so much because I know my parents had to work so hard for it.”
After a long morning of celebration, his Italian family gathered for their traditional holiday meal: spaghetti and meatballs.
Father David Allen is now the pastor at the St. Jude the Apostle Church. During the holidays, he spends countless hours with the church’s Environment and Art Committee and professional decorators to make the church visually speak to people. “The goal is to make people say ‘Ah! This is the House of God.’” He doesn’t stay in town long after the hectic Christmas season is finished before he retreats to his condo in Gulf Shores for much needed relaxation.
Becky Prejean- Public Relations Director, Dreams Come TrueFamily. Food. Toys. This is what Becky Prejean remembers about the holidays of her childhood. She grew up south of Lafayette, and spent Christmas with extended family at her grandmother’s house for a traditional holiday meal.
Family was the highlight of her holiday, but she never forgot the childish anticipation of Santa Claus. She recalls many Christmas mornings spent opening Tonka trucks. “I always tried to keep up with my brother and our cousins so I was very much a tom-boy,” Prejean said.
Far removed from the days of Tonka trucks, Prejean now celebrates the holidays with her own children and grandchildren. They rotate houses each year, but she always spends Christmas day with her mother.
Prejean is the public relations director of Dreams Come True, a nonprofit organization that grants “dreams” to children with life-threatening illnesses. During the holiday season, Dreams Come True hosts a party for children whose dreams are now a reality thanks to the organization. She is currently working with one dream child to build a tree house in the child’s backyard.
Prejean is pictured with the tree house that will soon have an 8-foot ceiling, porch, personalized furniture and cable television suspended in the air.
Jairo Alvarez- Alvarez Construction OwnerJairo Alvarez spends the holidays celebrating with family and friends in the Baton Rouge area, but celebrates the season very differently than he did growing up in Latin America.
Alvarez grew up on a farm in the mountains of Colombia without electricity, but that did not stop his family from celebrating Christmas. He distinctly remembers gathering orchids, moss and grass from the jungle for the landscape of his family’s nativity scene. The Alvarez family built the symbolic birthplace of Jesus in the corner of their house and invited neighbors who lived nearly half of a mile away to join in observance of the holiday.
“My father would take this time and give back to those around us. We didn’t have much ourselves, but he invited neighbors for a special dinner celebration,” Alvarez said.
Alvarez follows in his father’s footsteps and gives back to those who need it most. For the past ten years, Alvarez Construction has built the Baton Rouge Dream Home, part of the St. Jude’s Dream Home program. All proceeds from the home benefit St. Jude’s Children’s Research Center and their work with pediatric cancer.
Bill Cassidy- State SenatorCassidy (who will soon be sworn in as the new Congressman from the sixth district of Louisiana) remembers Christmas as a time when his family played lots of Christmas music.
“One of my first memories is of a Christmas album cover that had an idealized picture of a family celebrating Crhistmas,” he said. “Actually, that was the kind of Christmas we had at our home. There was lots of family and the tree and the gifts.”
Cassidy said he did not realize it at the time, but his was not a very wealthy family so some years there were not a lot of gifts under the tree. “One year I remember the only thing I got for Christmas was a new pair of blue jeans,” he said. “In other years my mom gave us books with Merry Christmas written on the title page along with the year. I still have a copy of Swiss Family Robinson from back then and also T. Harry Williams’ Pulitzer Prize Winning book Huey Long.”
One special memory for the new Congressman is the midnight service his family attended regularly at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church. “It was a beautiful service and I remember the excitement of staying up late.” Cassidy’s grew up in Westminster Subdivision and his mother and father still live there.
“We have a very traditional Christmas each year at our home,” he said. “Of course my kids do a lot better than I ever did when it come to presents because as soon as we have Christmas in Baton Rouge we leave for Mobile where my wife is from and we have a second Christmas over there with more presents and more of everything.”
Rodney “Smokie” Bourgeois- Owner of George’s RestaurantsRodney “Smokie” Bourgeois says the holidays are a time to get the family together and celebrate the excitement of the season for children. When Smokie thinks about Christmas from his own childhood, he mostly remembers huge Christmas trees. His family would proudly place the enormous tree in their front room for everyone to see. “Thinking back, it was only five or six feet tall,” Smokie laughed, “but it was a big part of our Christmas.”
Both of his parents were fantastic cooks so his family would also celebrate with a delicious meal. As an only child, Smokie was “properly spoiled rotten,” but he remembers one specific holiday better than any other. On Christmas morning, he ran to the living room to find a red and green electric train that nearly took up the whole living room. Smokie still has the train today. He is also the owner of the local George’s City Deli restaurants and a newly elected Councilman of the East Baton Rouge Parish Metro Council.
Smokie Bourgeois shows off his famous George’s burger.
