TEXAS (KAMR/KCIT) – From colorful trees to cozy sleigh rides, many ubiquitous holiday symbols and traditions weren’t common in Texas until the 20th century, despite being the site of the country’s first Christmas. Instead, Christmas in the Lone Star State has historically been distinct from the rest of the United States.
From the time of Spanish conquistadors to the reign of the cowboys, Texas for most of its history has been comprised of vast stretches of unincorporated wilderness. Even after the population boom of the 1880s-1890s, most of the communities around the state were rural with lower-density populations, and in decades previous many did not have access to railroads or other convenient trading routes and supplies.
Because of this, festive occasions throughout Texas history have depended on the supplies that its people had on hand at the time; meaning Christmas in Texas has far less often featured roasting chestnuts on an open fire than a community rodeo.
Christmas caroling and cacophony
Due to being cheap and easily produced, fireworks and celebratory explosions in Texas have been a long-standing holiday tradition, along with general noisemaking as a chaotic Christmastime favorite. Not only have fireworks and other explosions been easier to accomplish in Texas history due to supplies, but most of Texas outside of the Panhandle has historically experienced warm winters, meaning its people have been able to avoid huddling indoors in favor of putting on open-air celebrations for the holidays.
Fireworks are so popular during the holidays in Texas, even before traditional welcome celebrations for New Year’s Eve, that the latter half of December stands as one of the “seasons” for legal fireworks sales in Texas.
However, Christmas carols and hymns have also been a longstanding part of Texas tradition. As noted by historians like David Carson, the first recorded Christmas observed in the present-day United States was celebrated on the coast of Texas in 1528 by Spanish explorer Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca and his men. Due to Catholic tradition, including the start of Christmas hymns and nativity plays with St. Francis of Assisi, Cabeza de Vaca’s observation of Christmas likely also included the first instance of carols in Texas.
Holiday decorations in Texas
Before there were Christmas trees in Texas, there were poinsettias.
As noted by historian Phillip V. Snyder, Christmas trees began as a holiday tradition of German families in the 16th century and remained largely a German custom until being popularized in England by Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg. While the first Christmas trees in the United States were set up by German immigrants in the 1820s, they weren’t broadly seen in the country until the 1910s (though, according to the “Austin Statesman” in 1882, they were popularized in Texas a bit earlier than the rest of the US).
Native to Central America and cultivated by the Aztecs of Mexico long before the introduction of Christianity to the Western Hemisphere, the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension notes that poinsettias were first introduced to Christmas celebrations in the 17th century by Franciscan priests. In 1825, the iconic flowers were introduced to the US by Ambassador Joel Robert Poinsett and became a staple of Texas floricultural production and festive decorations.
Alongside poinsettias, Texas also benefitted from the import of Mexican holiday decorations, such as piñatas and luminarias. Texas trees, shrubs, vines, and branches joined together with multicultural traditions and local resources to make for unique, and uniquely festive, holiday decor.
Christmas food and festivities
According to archived newspapers and historic accounts, as well as poems like Larry Chittenden’s “The Cowboys’ Christmas Ball,” everything has always been bigger in Texas – including bombastic holiday celebrations.
Christmas celebrations in historic Texas most often included festive music and dancing, if not fireworks, as spread-out populations gathered on larger ranches and in community centers and hotels to mark the season. As previously reported on MyHighPlains.com, communities and social occasions also present ripe opportunities for competition, leading cowboys gathered for the festivities to add rodeo-like contests to the occasions. Texans such as Florence Fenley of Uvalde also held carolfests and literary and poetry gatherings in the 1880s, and others participated in greased-up livestock chases.
For much of Texas history, food items like sugar or fresh eggs and milk weren’t easy options for communities looking for a holiday feast. Because of that, many Texas families and communities heavily featured game in their holiday meals or had rarer treats like certain fruits and nuts for the occasion.
One Christmas dinner in 1872 described by Jack Elgin, who was traveling with surveyors in West Texas at the time, exemplified the focus on meat and game: “We had buffalo, antelope, deer, bear, rabbit, prairie-dog, possum, and possibly other animals that I do not recall; turkey, goose, brant, ducks, prairie-chicken, curlew, quail, and other birds.”
Texans also historically made eggnog, though warm weather and supplies had many of its makers leaning heavily into the addition of whiskey to the drink, or simply choosing whiskey as a standalone alternative. As recorded by H. H. McConnell in the 1860s, on duty at Fort Belknap and Fort Richardson, soldiers especially leaned into alcohol during the holidays and had a “thousand and one ways and means that a soldier will indulge in to get whiskey.”
Once again supplied by Mexican cooking and holiday traditions, Texas also saw the addition of tamales and buñuelos to Christmas cooking.
However, altogether, no matter what activities are available, what food fills the table, or how the halls are decked, the Texas love for holiday festivities has remained the same.
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