So I had rashly thought that I would do a single blog post on the fabulous Christmas festival of lights of Madrid, New Mexico during the 1920s to the early 40s. Every year this small mining town with a population of barely 2,000 citizens pulled together and created one of the most spectacular Christmas displays imaginable -- all for free to a public who trooped out to the tiny city (sometimes as many 15,000 day) to enjoy the sight. Every house was decorated, every building in the town had its displays and its lights. On the hillside above, enormous dioramas were constructed of Jerusalem, Bethlehem, the pyramids, the Sphinx, and episodes from Christ's life...all of it lit up with over 41,000 colored lights.
So here's my problem as I quickly discovered. I have about 400 photographs of the event-- including photographs of my grandfather Pierre Menager painting and putting on the finishing touches to dioramas intended for the children's Toyland. And since there are so many photographs, I have decided to feature a handful every day over the next week or so and will add them continuously to a Madrid Christmas photo album in the right hand column. A year ago I put out a wish that anyone who might have photos of the events might be willing to share them. Pinky Werner, the granddaughter of Oscar Huber (owner and superintendent of the Madrid coal mine) sent me a disk of almost 700 photographs covering daily life in Madrid and especially photos of the Christmas Light Festival. To her -- and to many of the younger generation of former Madrid citizens who have written to me about the photos -- this has been a great gift. Once again, I must give thanks to her for her generosity in making these photos from her family albums available to the public.
