By Emma Weidmann | Arts and Life Editor
With all its holiday happiness and festive fun, Christmas on Fifth is a beloved tradition for Baylor students. However, the annual celebration is only 22 years old, and the tree lighting by Kappa Omega Tau only began in 1967.
Dr. Elizabeth Rivera, associate librarian and university archivist, said Christmas on Fifth has become very near and dear to Baylor students’ hearts, despite being fairly new.
“It’s something that the students want to celebrate, and they recognize that they can bring alumni, administration, faculty and staff and students together,” Rivera said. “And any time you can do that within the university setting, you’re creating what a university is supposed to be — and that’s unity, and that’s camaraderie and that’s culture. And so Christmas on Fifth has become a culture icon for the holidays.”
Before the camels and the sweatshirts and the light shows, what was Christmas like at Baylor for its first 120 years?
In 1945, The Baylor Lariat reported that students were doing their best to embrace the holiday spirit following the end of World War II. While they only got 12 days for Christmas break, they made the most of the season during the semester.
In Memorial, Alexander and Burleson Halls — back when Burleson was a women’s residence hall and not an academic building — students decorated trees in the common spaces. According to the article, a large tree was accompanied by a miniature one in Alexander, and “Christmas bells tied with red ribbon are found in the dormitory windows.”
Fast forward two decades, and Dr. Alton Hassell, a retired professor of chemistry, was a junior at Baylor when KOT lit its tree in the middle of campus for the first time. Last year, he told the Lariat the tree lighting filled an empty role at the university.
“Back in the fall of 1967, going toward the Christmas season, there was no Christmas decoration on campus at all,” Hassell said.
Rivera said during the 1960s, Christmas gave people something to look forward to and tied them together in the midst of the Vietnam War. She said the decade was a time in which youth pushed back against societal norms, which made it hard for some to relate to others — and that’s where Christmas comes in.
“A lot of times when conflict exists, it makes it very difficult for people to recognize the need for camaraderie and coming together,” Rivera said. “That’s what Christmas is all about — to celebrate the one who made it all and who gives it all. He gives life, and Christmas on Fifth is to bring those people together, and that’s what Christ does really well.”
The 1990s brought a more turbulent time for the Christmas tree lighting. In 1995, the Lariat reported that the tree had several new lights, as the fir from the year before “was torched by vandals.”
Through wars and decades of campus life, Christmas traditions have brought the Baylor community together. After the very first Christmas on Fifth celebration in 2001, class of 2000 alumnus Matt Bonow wrote a letter to the Lariat expressing his joy.
“Fifth Street at night is beautiful, and the joyful atmosphere on Baylor’s campus is hard to ignore,” Bonow said. “If you were present for Christmas on Fifth Street and witnessed our cooperative and diverse community come together for one purpose, may you be reminded of why our extraordinary university is so unique and exceptional. … Continue the Baylor tradition.”
