City seeks 'Vintage Christmas' with new downtown lights

Don’t know just how old this memory is, but it’s still vivid.

On a December night some 60 years ago, my parents loaded my brothers and me into the family Chevrolet and we headed down from the foothills to the shining city of Gastonia.

Our purpose? To see the Christmas lights.

Can’t remember if we did any shopping. Can’t remember if we had supper somewhere. But what I do remember is the lights. The lights that transformed downtown Gastonia into a place of wonder and magic for a little boy from an even littler town.

Recapturing a bit of that past magic, in a year when COVID-19 has turned the world upside down and when no Christmas parade could be held, is the purpose behind Gastonia’s Downtown Vintage Christmas.

“This project evolved out of the idea that this has been such a difficult year for everyone,” said Economic Development Director Kirsty Crisp. “We knew there would be no Christmas parade, so we wanted to add a little Christmas cheer.”

Crisp and other city staff researched old photos of downtown at Christmas from decades past. What jumped out at them, she said, were the lights and decorations stretched across the streets, not just on poles and lampposts on either side.

“That used to be the tradition,” she said, “but we had gotten completely away from it in recent decades.”

With the idea of constructing a “vintage” Christmas for downtown, the city reached out to other municipalities around the state, asking if they had any “retro” decorations they weren’t using.”

“We received more than 90 wreaths and bows from New Bern,” Crisp reported. “Closer to home, we received 45 wreaths from Cramerton and decorative balls from Mount Holly.”

The building-to-building, across-the-street approach incorporated on Main Avenue and South Street required the cooperation of downtown business owners, Crisp said, which was given enthusiastically.

The city also set up a box at City Hall where children can deposit letters to Santa and sponsored a Christmas decorating contest for downtown businesses with voting on the city’s Facebook page.

“We think we have an area where people can drive through at night and enjoy the lights, just as they did years ago,” Crisp said.

Told of my own remembrance of coming to Gastonia sometime around 1960, Crisp said, “We were a bit surprised by how excited people are about this. Many of them are remembering the lights from their youth.”

While noting the area with across-the-street lights is relatively small, Crisp said she is hopeful it will be expanded in future years.

“This is our first year,” she said. “We have started this process, and we look forward to growing it in holiday seasons ahead.”

Bill Poteat, who enjoys nothing more than admiring Christmas light displays, the more garish the better, may be reached at 704-869-1855.