Ghosts of Christmas past

A 14-foot wreath adornes the front of the Edmiston Clothing store in this picture taken during the Christmas season, some time in the late 1950s. --submitted photo

*Square's holiday grandeur is more muted than it was 50 years ago.*

The Nevada Square is still the center of Nevada's Christmas celebration. Businesses still decorate their stores for the holidays; but these days the decorations are a bit more restrained.

A photo from the late 1950s shows a large wreath, 14 feet in diameter, that used to be an annual feature on the front of Edmiston's store on West Cherry. It took more than 400 feet of real balsam fir garlands from Minnesota to wrap the wreath frame, store owner Jack Edmiston said.

"It took 10 men three and a half hours to put the wreath up every year. For more than a decade the wreath was made and put up Thanksgiving morning, and it always attracted spectators -- and advisors. It used to cost $300, and that was expensive back then. We had to stop doing it -- the cost of the greenery became cost prohibitive. I still have the bow and candle in storage," he said.

In addition to the large wreath, Edmiston's, like all the buildings around the Square, had colored lights that outlined the whole front of the building, not just the roof line.

"Each front was paid for by the occupant or owner and the installation was done by the four local electrical contractors. Back then, there was a night watchman who was hired by the merchant's association," Edmiston said. "Each front had a switch and it was turned on and off by the watchman."

Edmiston related a story of how Christmas decorations almost destroyed the building now occupied by Ring TV.

"Back in the early '50s, they tried hanging lights from the Courthouse to the corner buildings, but it almost pulled out the upper wall of the Ring TV building. You could see the wall moving back and forth under the strain," Edmiston said.

The tradition of decorating the Square goes back even further in time, according to Edmiston.

"Decorating the Square was always a tradition. In the late '30s the lamp posts were wrapped with real evergreens and lights and garland were hung between all the posts," Edmiston said. "Things change. It's just not the same any more."