G - The Magazine of Greenville

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An old-fashioned string quartet performs Abbeville’s historic downtown square.

Colonial Carolina

Living history on display at the annual Olde Abbeville Christmas and Ninety Six Backcountry celebration

For those seeking the charm and history of Colonial Williamsburg without the eight-hour drive, add a trip to nearby Abbeville to your holiday calendar.
Just forty miles south of Greenville off U.S. Highway 25, Abbeville was incorporated in 1832 as a thriving center of commerce, culture, and farming. Today, on the first weekend of each December, the town takes a step back into its Colonial past with an Olde Abbeville Christmas, filling the downtown square with Marsh-Tacky horses, Revolutionary War re-enactors, antique weaponry displays, and period crafters.

While you’re in town, take time to learn about its history as the “birthplace and deathbed of the Confederacy.” In 1860, one of the state’s first mass meetings to support seceding from the Union took place there; five years later, Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his war cabinet met at Abbeville’s Burt-Stark Mansion to dissolve the Confederacy.

Stop by the fully restored Abbeville Opera House, which celebrates its one-hundredth anniversary this year with the family-friendly comedic play Dear Santa. Or if you can’t make it to Abbeville the first weekend in December, the Saturday prior nearby Ninety Six celebrates in similar fashion with its Backcountry Christmas at the Ninety Six National Historic Site.

So this holiday season, get your fill of history and southern heritage close to home.

—Heidi Coryell Williams

Want to Go?
Date: December 5-6
Location: Downtown Abbeville
For more info: For a full listing of times and programs go to www.visitabbevillesc.com

or call (864) 366-4600

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O’ Brothers

Crossover artists find themselves in a different musical dimension

As good as the Avett Brothers’ brand of genre-leaping American roots music is, it almost pales compared to some of the eyebrow-raising attempts to describe its sound.

“Post-Civil War modern rock,” gushed one historically challenged music critic. “Grungegrass,” proclaimed another. Web sites are no more accurate, with Amazon.com calling the North Carolina group “a decidedly non-bluegrass trio,” while USA Today called it “wild-eyed post bluegrass.”
Rustic roots fused with punk attitude and rock ’n’ roll fire has earned a constantly growing cult of fans. Their concerts are marked by a raucous spirit and an uproarious, seat-of-the-pants stage show—think “Hee Haw” on speed.

—Jack Bacot

Want to go?
The Peace Center Concert Hall,
300 S. Main St.
8 p.m., Saturday,
Nov. 1, $35-$20.
(800) 888-7768
www.peacecenter.org

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Sweet Charity

GoodShop.com promotes great gift ideas

and local philanthropy

“What we have worn out our iron-soled shoes searching for in vain may come to us without the slightest effort.” No words capture the essence of holiday shopping better than this Chinese proverb. If you don’t believe it, then check out GoodSearch.com and GoodShop.com. This innovative collaborative effort between Yahoo, GoodSearch, GoodShop, and more than seven hundred online retailers links you to shopping with national merchants such as Toys R Us, Target, and Amazon. The convenient catch? Every web search and online purchase raises funds for one of more than 64,000 registered organizations.

Nearly one hundred Greenville nonprofits are registered with GoodSearch. Representing a variety of social concerns—animal rights, victim services, children, the arts, education, and more—you’re guaranteed to find an organization providing a service close to your heart: the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts, Greenville Humane Society, Carolina Ballet Theatre, Greenville Rape Crisis and Child Abuse Center, and Centre Stage, to name a few.

“GoodSearch donates 50 percent of the revenue generated by online ads,” says J.J. Ramberg of GoodSearch, “which works out to be about a penny per search.” The pennies add up quickly: “Just five hundred people searching four times a day will raise about $7,300 for a cause in a year.”
Donating through GoodShop is even easier. The prices are the same as buying direct, but with one notable exception—up to 37 percent of your purchase is donated to charity. Just log on, buy, and wait for your packages to arrive. Your favorite nonprofit will thank you!

—Lisa Finley

Choose your cause - Enter your charity in the field provided at www.goodshop.com.

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Volunteers and students work side-by-side in a West Greenville art gallery to create eclectic works of art.

Stroke of Genius

YouthBASE after-school program connects West Greenville artists with neighborhood children

On Wednesday nights, a school bus pulls in front of West Greenville’s Village Studios and Gallery on Pendleton Street. Out jump fifteen schoolchildren, running up the sidewalk and filing into the handsome, urban art space under the watchful eye of YouthBASE executive director Bobby Caples.

A nationally certified school psychologist working on his PhD, Caples explains the evening activities. Tonight, at three work stations set up by artist Kyle Buttram and other volunteers, the kids will receive a hot meal and take turns making greeting cards, learning to mix colors and paint a picture, and making “self-portraits” from tissue paper and plastic bottles. Perhaps an unusual venue for an after-school program, the gallery is actually the perfect place to integrate learning and art. It’s also one of the ways that the new West Greenville arts district—located in the former Brandon Mill community—is gradually connecting with the surrounding, struggling neighborhood.

“The ability to see that right here in their own neighborhood there are different lives you can be part of is very important to the kids,” says Caples.

Caples works with the children four days a week after school, but Wednesdays in the gallery hold special meaning. “It inspires kids more because there’s real art here,” he says. “They get a sense that it’s real, not just something in books.”

At the gallery, there are also plenty of supplies and willing volunteers who dish out hugs along with supervision and guidance from the “eclectic, funky vibe” of this up-and-coming arts district. Nine-year-old Damone Arnold simply proclaims matter-of-factly: “I like coming here to do art.” —Constance E. Richards

Want to help? To volunteer or sponsor a dinner for the participants of YouthBASE, contact the organization at (864) 354-5532 or e-mail bcaples@youth-base.org. For more information, visit www.youth-base.org.

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Take Stock

Forgo the fruitcake and invest in shares of
Community Supported Agriculture instead

This year, instead of tube socks or the 2006 Guinness Book of World Records (i.e., gifts that get tossed in the trash), give your friends and relatives a year’s worth of locally grown organic food.
A share from a local farm entitles the recipient to a monthly dividend of fresh produce and meat. Called community supported agriculture (CSA), this way of purchasing fresh food is a growing nationwide movement. Welch and Son Farm in Honea Path is just one (and the most local) of eight farms in the state offering shares—and this season, their boxes are brimming with sweet potatoes, apples, pork, honey, kale, and squash.

Farm owner and operator Bill Welch, a California transplant, says the cost (a monthly fee with a one-time payment for seed money) is less than the grocery store tab, and fresher by about 1,500 miles—the average distance produce travels to U.S. stores. So this year, send loved ones bushels of fresh produce, and do your part to support local, family farmers.

—April A. Morris

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Stage Presence

Master of modern dance Alonzo King visits Greenville

In the world of dance, few names are more recognized than choreographer Alonzo King, and December 8-10, this pioneer of pas de deux will share his talents with the Carolina Ballet Theatre. King is the founder and artistic director of LINES Ballet, and his credits span working with prima ballerinas, the world’s top dance troupes, and movie stars. Greenville will have the opportunity to see Alonzo’s influence when CBT’s professional dancers, newly schooled by King himself, perform at The Peace Center. No ordinary ballet, indeed.

—Nichole Livengood

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Folk Dance Revolution

Contra dancing sees a groundswell of support from Upstate line dancing enthusiasts

Think of it as the original line dance (but without the annoying “Electric Slide” accompaniment). Contra dancing has grown from near obscurity to an underground phenomenon in the past twenty years, enticing everyone from seniors to teenagers to halls throughout the region for an evening of fancy footwork and festive entertainment.

For those two decades, the Harvest Moon Folk Society, based right here in the Upstate, has been providing contra dance instruction and socials. “You get in lines,” explains David White, an instructor with the group, “but this is not line dancing. This is about live music, socializing, and learning something you never thought you would do.”

Contra dancing, which brings hundreds of participants together in a twirling, spinning, toe-tapping routine to the tune of traditional string music, has roots that extend to New England and Europe before that. While the band plays, the caller coordinates these dance movements into a mishmash of arm-grasping and hip-holding.

The social nature of contra dancing is what keeps people coming back, but the music, with its inflections of bluegrass, is becoming a draw, as well: bands play traditional string sets, but rather than the stoic, square-dance style many expect; there is a rock/indie twinge to things. Plus, dress is casual, and some—men and women—are prone to wearing kilts or skirts.

“It’s all about expressing yourself,” White offers. “Whatever makes you comfortable is what you should wear and do. It’s pretty much a celebration of whatever you want to celebrate.”

— Benjamin Maxwell

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Dining In

A growing local charity helps women suffering from poverty—one potluck dinner at a time

Imagine taking the money that you would spend for an evening out with friends and handing it directly to a Rwandan woman who is learning to weave fabric so she can support her hungry family; or imagine using the money you usually dole out at your favorite restaurant to fund a clinic in Mali that provides obstetric care to women who have a one-in-twelve chance of dying in childbirth.

President and founder of Dining for Women, Marsha Wallace, a Greenville native, had much the same vision while meditating one day in 2003. “I was really searching for my passion, for what would bring meaning to my life,” she says. She would get a group of friends together for a potluck dinner and use the money that would otherwise be spent on the meal to help women living in poverty.

At her first potluck in celebration of her forty-second birthday, Marsha and nineteen other women raised $700 for Women for Women International, a charity that provides support for women affected by war. Soon, Marsha had neighbor Barb Collins volunteering to research charities, nonprofit status, and a regular attendance of twenty women. In only five years, Dining for Women has grown to more than 120 chapters nationwide and raises an average of fifteen thousand dollars each month. The group also receives five new chapter applications every month.

From supporting programs that foster self-sufficiency to those that promote good health and education, Dining for Women has taken a simple concept and turned it into a national phenomenon, pooling all chapter donations to create a greater impact for women in the developing world.

The parent organization provides chapters with educational materials about their chosen monthly charity, and the local organizer simply gathers friends for a meal and a presentation. Marsha credits the success of the organization to the fact that women love to get together and share a meal—knowing they are making a difference at the same time. “It’s fun and you can feel good about it,” she says.

Keeping up with Dining for Women’s incredible growth and momentum is important to Marsha, and the next step is establishing an official office with paid staff. “This was an organic process that has turned into a full-time job for two people,” she says. Her long-range vision? “I would like to have thousands of chapters,” she offers enthusiastically, “and be raising millions of dollars.”

—A.A.M.

Want to go?
December’s dinner benefits Rwanda Knits, which creates knitting cooperatives.
To support the cause or attend a dinner, call (864) 284-6577 or visit their website at
www.diningforwomen.org

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Ooh La La!

The Upstate Film Society brings its annual French Film Festival to town

From experimental auteurs to cinéma vérité, French cinema is recognized worldwide as a distinctive art form. On December 26 and 27, a variety of France’s screen gems are coming to The Peace Center. The film festival showcases several short films—comedy, drama, documentary, and animation—in multiple two-hour showings. Greenville’s connection to France through Michelin and the French embassy make the festival a perfect fit for local movie lovers.

—A.A.M.

For showing information at the French Film Festival, log on to upstatefilms.wordpress.com or email upstatefilm@gmail.com.

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Datebook

G-The Magazine of Greenville will be sponsoring the
following events. Plan ahead to join us!

Paws for a Cause
Strap a collar and a short leash on your favorite canine, and join us downtown for the first annual Paws for a Cause dog walk to benefit the American Cancer Society. Led by Upstate Veterinary Specialists (equipped to perform everything from a CAT scan to chemotherapy on our four-legged friends), this one-mile walk supports programs for people, including patient services and research in the ongoing fight against cancer. Cleveland Park Dog Park, downtown Greenville. Saturday, November 1, 8:30 a.m. registration, 9:30 a.m. walk; $25

Signature Chefs Auction

Greenville’s chapter of the March of Dimes is one of more than two hundred across the country that participates in the notable nonprofit’s annual Signature Chefs Auction, helping to raise more than $15 million toward improving the health of babies. Top chefs from eleven local restaurants present tasting platters of their signature dishes, and attendees can partake in a wine tasting as well as silent and live auctions. Embassy Suites Golf Resort and Conference Center, Verdae Boulevard. Sunday, November 9, 5:30-9 p.m.; $2,000 table, $100 person.

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Restaurants Rising

Greenville Technical College’s Culinary Institute of the Carolinas opens the door for an Upstate dining boom

Could Greenville’s dining scene one day rival the quality and quantity of restaurants in Charlotte, Atlanta, or Charleston? A new culinary institute that opened its doors this summer at Greenville Technical College certainly brings us one banquette table closer.

Consider that Johnson and Wales’ move to Charleston in 1984 catapulted its cuisine into the twenty-first century; Atlanta has no fewer than three culinary arts programs and consistently ranks as one of America’s best restaurant cities. And about six years ago, Charlotte swiped Johnson and Wales from the Lowcountry. Ever since, our urban center to the north has continued to emerge as an up-and-coming place for gastronomes and great restaurateurs.

Greenville Tech Culinary Institute department head Alan Scheidhauer says plans are to offer local students “the same caliber of culinary education they once might have traveled to Charlotte, or even New York, to receive.” The result? The restaurant industry is expected to grow by more than 26,000 jobs in the next ten years, which has future chefs celebrating and the rest of Greenville salivating.

Order up!

—H.C.W.

Check it out!
Learn more about the Culinary Institute of the Carolinas at Greenville Technical College by
visiting the program’s website at www.gvltec.edu/academics/academic_depts/culinary_arts

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Lights, camera, action!

Close but Closer short film features local actors, writers, and cinematographers

George Clooney and Cuba Gooding Jr. caused quite the stir when they brought a taste of Tinseltown to Greenville with their box office movie hits Leatherheads and Radio, filmed right here in the Upstate.

But watch out Hollywood! Greenville is coming to you, thanks to a band of Upstate actors and cinematographers who recently wrapped filming on a short, action thriller—Close but Closer, written and directed by a Riverside High graduate, shot on the streets Greenville, and staffed by a cast and crew of South Carolinians.

Since shooting finished late this summer, actor, director, and writer Lem Collins of the SC Film Group, along with co-director DeMar Richardson, have submitted the movie to several national film festivals, including Sundance and the L.A. Film Festival, as well as BET-J’s short movie showcase. Hopes are that the forty-six-minute short will be picked up by a national entertainment company and re-shot for national distribution, says Collins. Their No. 1 priority, however, is to drum up excitement with area audiences. Says Collins: “We’re trying to encourage people to come see local filmmakers doing their thing, locally.”

Close but Closer follows the malicious attack of Club 864 bartender turned bar owner James Davis, who has been beaten and left for dead in a downtown alley. After he awakens from near death, he works to piece together clues leading to his possible assailants.

Who are his true friends? Who are his worst enemies? And how can he tell the difference between them? Audiences can find out at a November 1 movie screening to be held at Greenville Technical College’s on-campus theater—and if Hollywood answers their call, maybe, one day, at a multiplex

near you!

—H.C.W.

For More Info:
Additional screening times and locations are available at the SC Film Group’s website, www.myspace.com/scfilmgroup.

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The Merry Christmas Tree Farm in Central offers free hot chocolate and "Charlie Brown" Christmas trees for kids.

O’ Tannenbaum

From cypress to cedar, these Upstate Christmas trees are farm fresh

Hilltop Christmas Trees
Whether you cut your own or buy one pre-chopped, at Hilltop the family can also enjoy a blazing fire and sip hot chocolate or coffee at George and Marsha Kessler’s farm—in business since 1972. Kessler is a forester by trade, and his farm also offers handmade wreaths and garlands, a fenced playground, a candy cane tree, and popular handmade decorations—miniature trees carved from weathered fence posts. 4008 Six Mile Highway, Central. Open November 27-December 23; Monday-Saturday, 9 a.m.-6 p.m.; Sunday, 1-6pm.

(864) 868-9487

May-Lan Tree Plantation
This tree farm offers a marshmallow roast and hayride in addition to a visit to see the “Barnyard Buddies,” goats, chickens, ducks, and hogs. May-Lan also features a general store selling jellies, honey, preserves, cheese, and the Almost Famous Caramel Apple in a Bowl. This year, Santa Claus will be taking requests from good boys and girls on Saturday, December 6. 156 Cooley Bridge Rd., Pelzer. Open November 27-December 17; Monday-Thursday, 1-5:15 p.m.; Friday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-5:15 p.m.; Sunday, noon-5:15 p.m. (864) 243-3092, www.maylanfarms.com

Merry Christmas Tree Farm
In addition to the opportunity to tramp through its expansive fields, this farm also offers complimentary hot chocolate and coffee along with free “Charlie Brown” trees—one- or two-foot newly planted trees that kids can cut and take home. 244 Lay Bridge Rd., Central. Open November 27-December 23; daily,
9 a.m.-5:45 p.m. (864) 639-6492, www.merrychristmastree.com

Mystic Farm
Chip and Susan Fink have been raising Christmas trees for more than twenty-six years and have a wide selection of pines, cedars, and firs. Mystic Farm also offers a flame retardant treatment and artificial snow flocking for your fragrant arbor. 9029 Old White Horse Rd., Greenville. November 22–December 20; Monday–Saturday, 10 a.m.-7 p.m.; Sunday, noon-6 p.m. (864) 294-0409

Star Crest Christmas Tree Farm
Take a short drive to William and Carolyn Looper’s farm in Easley to pick up a ‘Carolina Sapphire’ tree and handmade Fraser fir wreath to complete your holiday decorating. 1785 Farrs Bridge Rd., Easley. Open November 27-December 23; daily 9 a.m.-6 p.m. (864) 419-2964

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{ Top Shelf }

Merry Reads

Give the gift that always fits

The Man Who Invented Christmas
by Les Standiford, New York: Crown, 2008
Imagine Christmas as a minor holiday shorn of many of its festivities: no fireplaces bedecked with holly, no mistletoe, no carol-singing, no Christmas trees or Christmas cards. Such was the case in early-nineteenth-century English society. With equal parts biography and cultural history, Les Standiford chronicles the dramatic story of how the quintessentially Victorian novelist Charles Dickens almost single-handedly revived the holiday. Under tremendous pressure from mounting debt, he wrote "A Christmas Carol" in a mere six weeks in late 1843. Because of its indelible mix of charm and parable, Dickens's story has become a stalwart holiday tradition in its own right.

—Lee Ehlers

Click, What Millions of People Are Doing Online and Why It Matters
by Bill Tancer, Hyperion, 2008

Tancer takes us behind the scenes into the massive database of online intelligence to reveal the naked truth about how we use the Web and search for information—and what all of that says about who we are. How does the quick adoption of technology affect business success (and how is that related to corn farmers in Iowa)? How is the Internet affecting the way we experience the world? We are in an age in which we’ve come to rely tremendously on the Internet—leaving behind a trail of information about ourselves as a culture. With surprising and practical insight, Tancer demonstrates how the Internet is changing the way we absorb information and how that change can be used to our advantage in business and in life. After all, we are what we click.

Renewing America's Food Traditions, Saving and Savoring the Continent's

Most Endangered Foods
edited by Gary Nabhan, Chelsea Green Publishing, 2008

This book offers the first-ever list of foods at risk in America (more than a thousand), shows how all of us can personally support and participate in such recoveries, and provides a list of food festivals held across the continent to honor and enjoy some of the country’s most iconic foods, from crab cakes to maple syrup and filé gumbo. Organized by “food nations” named for the ecological and cultural keystone foods of each region—Salmon Nation, Bison Nation, Chile Pepper Nation, among others—this book offers an altogether fresh perspective on the culinary traditions of North America. Natural and cultural histories are also included, as well as recipes and folk traditions associated with the rarest food, plants, and animals in North America. The final verdict? What we choose to eat can either conserve or deplete the cornucopia of our continent.

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{ History }

Having a Ball

Tradition lives on at the Cotillion Club’s annual Christmas gala

Imagine for a moment being thrust back in time to the post-holiday season of 1895. As a member of Greenville’s high society, you are preparing to attend a ball hosted by the Cotillion Club. The weather, as reported by the Greenville Mountaineer, is “most unfavorable,” and a look out of the window can tell you “the red muddy water of the Reedy is in full possession of two-thirds of the little road in the meadows.” Despite the wet, Greenville society carries on. The Cotillion Club’s second of three gatherings of the season has been planned for Thursday, January 10, 1895.The Cotillion Club, a social organization begun in the 1840s, was established in Greenville to sponsor formal evening balls in the tradition of the Saint Cecilia Society of Charleston. The purpose of the club was to hold “Social Dancing Soirees for dancing and gracious fellowship.” In other words, a place for gentlemen and ladies to enjoy fine society and one in which young women could be introduced formally as they were recognized as adults.

At the start of the social season, engraved invitations were sent to club members, notable Greenvillians among them. Young ladies represented Greenville, as well as adjacent sister cities Spartanburg, Anderson, Augusta, Newry, and Charleston.

When the night of the ball finally arrived, buggies and coaches driven by teams of steaming wet horses swept up to the entrance of Ferguson and Miller’s Hall at Main and Washington streets to deposit elegantly dressed passengers. The room was filled with young ladies in white gowns with blue, pink, or yellow sashes. Dance cards were presented as each guest entered, with twelve dances and the prescribed step for each set. Three types of dances were acceptable: the waltz, the two-step, and occasionally the lancers, a complicated dance that had to be practiced in dancing school.

The evening began with a grand march, or polonaise—a solemn processional in three-fourths time.

H. Meyen, in the Ball Room Guide of 1852, noted that “every well-arranged ball should commence with this graceful dance in a conversational character.”

Since then, in its more than one-hundred-year history, the Cotillion Club’s balls have continued almost without interruption in this same tradition. Change has come, but almost imperceptibly: The venue has moved from Williams Hall to Cleveland Hall to the Poinsett Hotel, now taking residence at the Poinsett Club. The night of the ball was moved from Thursday to Friday in 1930, a practical change as the rise of the middle class and the division of the work week became more important.

Debutantes still wear white, and gentlemen are required to wear a white tie and tails. They still dance to music provided by a live orchestra that plays traditional selections mixed with contemporary arrangements. And despite its modern touches, the balls are still elegant, formal affairs—as Alberry Charles Cannon Jr. offered in his compilation of the Cotillion Club’s history, “Trustees of this great legacy are bound in honor to pass it on, intact, to those who will benefit from it in the second hundred years.”

—Lydia Dishman

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Case in Poinsettia

Holiday plant came to the states nearly two centuries ago thanks to namesake and Greenville resident Joel R. Poinsett

Hallmark may not have a card for this holiday, but you may just want to go out and purchase one of these botanical harbingers of the season on December 12. That’s right. The poinsettia has its very own day, which also commemorates the passing of the Greenville man credited for introducing it to the States.

Joel Roberts Poinsett, American statesman, Greenville resident, and first ambassador to Mexico in the 1820s, was also an avid amateur botanist. During his years spreading diplomacy to our neighbor south of the border, he was also busy collecting plant specimens to send back for cultivation in his Greenville hothouses. One that was of particular interest to Poinsett grew profusely on the roadsides, its eye-catching foliage ablaze in red and green. The bracts (they are not actually flowers) were used by the Aztecs, who dubbed the plant cuetlaxochitl and used it for dyeing fabrics.

Poinsett shared the plant with the famed naturalist John Bartram, who in turn gave it to Robert Buist. It is believed that Buist sold the plant under the botanical name Euphorbia pulcherrima, but just when the name poinsettia took hold remains shrouded in history.

Contrary to popular belief, poinsettias are not poisonous, but eating them could definitely give you a stomachache. Their milky white sap is used to make latex, but even those allergic to that substance need not fear, as it would take a lot of it to cause a reaction. Today, poinsettias are grown in all fifty states with $220 million worth sold during the holidays. Buyers overwhelmingly choose the traditional crimson even though there are more than one hundred varieties available.

If you are the lucky recipient of such a display of holiday cheer, there is no need to toss it after the New Year. Just keep watering it as the dirt dries out and put it outdoors when the nighttime temperature is above fifty degrees. Though you may not get the full color show again, your plant will be attractive for years to come.

—Lydia Dishman

Holiday Harbingers

A few tips on caring for your Christmas poinsettia:

- Before transporting, make sure the plant is wrapped up, because exposure to low temperatures (even for a few minutes) can damage the bracts.

- Carefully unwrap and place in indirect light.

- Six hours of light daily is ideal.

- Keep your plant from touching cold windows.

- Water when soil is dry.

- If you keep your plant past the holiday season, fertilize when it is NOT in bloom.

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{ Flashback }

We Love a Parade

One of downtown’s longest-enduring events kicks off the holiday season with a procession of peace on earth, goodwill to men

For more than eighty years, Greenville residents have lined Main Street for a day in December to watch the passing of marching bands, beauty queens, floats, and—yes, Virginia—Santa Claus, during the annual Christmas parade. The first one, sponsored by the Retail Merchants Bureau of the Chamber of Commerce, was held on the evening of December 6, 1926, a time when the city’s downtown economy was blossoming and newly built high-rises graced the skyline.

The parade’s route stretched from the Poinsett Hotel to the Ottaray Hotel (located at what is now North Main and Beattie streets). That year, thirty-four trees lined the street, and red and green lights hung from the streetlamps. After arriving on a special train at the Piedmont and Northern depot, Santa Claus disembarked to lead a string of local officials, as well as the Furman University and 327th Infantry bands and children of all ages, down Main Street. After the parade, Kris Kringle greeted parade-goers from an Ottaray Hotel balcony.

The parade’s popularity grew over the years, and by the late 1930s the annual procession attracted more than 25,000. That popularity continued unabated until 1942, when World War II dimmed most celebratory events and canceled the event for two years. By 1947, however, the parade had resumed its regalia and regained its audience—drawing crowds in excess of 150,000.

The annual event again fell on hard times in the 1960s, shortly after four department stores left downtown for anchor spots at suburban shopping malls and two downtown movie theaters closed. The parade marched on, albeit in front of much smaller audiences—that is, until downtown revitalization began in the early 1980s. As city storefronts filled, so did the sidewalks for the annual parade.
In 1982, Father Christmas himself stirred up some public controversy that drew national media attention when his float—sponsored by the restaurant chain Red Lobster—was pulled by eight tiny lobsters.

Today, the event (now named in honor of Greenvillian Joel Poinsett) draws nearly 40,000. And despite having to weather waning attendance and the occasional controversy, the annual Christmas parade with its busy city-sidewalks, is truly nostalgia personified, enduring as the quintessential commencement to the holiday season.

—A.A.M.

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