A good Christmas story can linger long in our hearts

One of the most popular Christmas stories written for the “Billie the Brownie” radio program produced by WTMJ in Milwaukee, Wis., during the early 1940s was: “Why the Christmas Tree Is Always Green.” 

Here’s an abridged version of the tale:

It happened hundreds of years ago when Christmas trees were very young. The first Christmas tree was very unhappy. 

It wasn’t fond of its sharp green needles, saying: “I hate my needles. Oh, how I wish I had beautiful leaves of gold.”

Suddenly, the Wood Fairy appeared and said, “You shall have your wish.”

So, in the morning, there was the little Christmas tree covered with leaves of pure gold. The tree was very happy. It said to itself: “I’ll pick these leaves and sell them, and I’ll be rich.”

Soon, the little tree was bare and very ugly and cold and started to cry. The Wood Fairy appeared again, and the Christmas tree said: “Please give me leaves of glass so I can glisten and sparkle in the sunshine.”

In the morning, the tree’s glass leaves glistened beautifully in the sunlight, and the birds and animals came from miles around to see the wonderful sight…and the Christmas tree was very happy.

Then came a strong wind, and the glass leaves were blown off and broken into bits. The Christmas tree was naked and ugly. It cried and cried and soon the Wood Fairy appeared and said, “Well, little tree, what now?”

The Christmas tree answered: “I was foolish and wrong, please give me another chance. I would love pretty green leaves like those on the olive tree.”

In the morning, the Christmas tree was covered in pretty green leaves, but along came a billy goat looking for breakfast. He saw the little tree and he ate, and ate, and ate…until the tree was bare and ugly.

The Wood Fairy observed from afar but chose not to intervene…waiting for the little Christmas tree to initiate the conversation.

Finally, the Christmas tree said: “Woody Fairy, I have learned my lesson. I want my beautiful green needles back.”

“Would you love them and keep them?” the Wood Fairy asked.

“Please, I’d love them so much I won’t even let them go when winter comes,” the Christmas tree replied. “I shall keep them all year long.”

 

The Wood Fairy decided, “Yes, little tree, you’ve learned your lesson. Needles are best for little Christmas trees.”

In the morning, the Christmas tree was full of lovely green needles, and the birds and animals came to see the tree and tell it how beautiful it was. To them, the green needles felt soft and not sharp.

 

And one old saucy robin remarked: “‘bout time that Christmas tree got some sense.”

So, when you look at your Christmas tree, think of this story.

 

Sari Goodman Ross was the voice actor who played the role of Billie the Brownie on the radio from 1943-45, when WTMJ personality Larry Teich (Captain Larry) first read the “Why the Christmas Tree Is Always Green” story to WTMJ listeners.

 

Ross said her stint as WTMJ is what led her to become a professional storyteller. One of her favorite yarns to share with young audiences the world over was “Why the Christmas Tree Is Always Green.” Ross died in 2015 at age 86.

Special thanks to author Doris Alaimo-Melillo, for sharing the “Why the Christmas Tree Is Always Green” transcript.

 

Doris remembers hearing the story over the radio as a young girl growing up in Milwaukee, which is one of the reasons why she wrote the book, “Dori Mae and Her Friend Billie.”

‘Billie the Brownie’ was featured in 2006 PBS documentary

Sari Goodman Ross was a high school student in Milwaukee, Wis., when she auditioned in 1943 at WTMJ radio, reading lines for the part of the “Billie the Brownie,” a beloved Christmas character who had been created by the art department of the Shuster’s Department Store chain in Milwaukee.

Sari had gained experience performing as a child actor in community theater, so she was hired on the spot by WTMJ’s Larry Teich. He instructed her to use her “high-pitched little boy voice” to portray the elf-like Billie.”

During the Christmas holiday shopping season, the 15-minute radio show was broadcast Monday-Friday at 5 p.m. and on Sunday morning. 

Children faithfully tuned in to listen, hopeful that their letters to Santa would be selected to be read on air…seemingly increasing the likelihood that their special gift requests would be honored by Santa on Christmas Eve.

Sari held the role as Billie for three years. She reminisced about that experience with television host Jim Peck of PBS Milwaukee in 2006 for a documentary observing the 75-year anniversary of Billie’s radio show, which debuted on Nov. 8, 1931.

 

Also appearing on the studio set with Peck was Doris Alaimo-Melillo, author of the 2006 children’s book, “Dori Mae and Her Friend Billie,” which masterfully tells the Billie the Brownie story from a young radio listener’s perspective.

 

Peck and his guests laughed about some of the rituals associated with the Billie the Brownie program. 

For example, Doris said: “Children were urged to be obedient and kind to their parents, not bicker with their siblings, eat their vegetables, brush their teeth, make their bed, hang up their clothes and do their household chores. We knew the invisible ‘Peeping Brownies’ were out and about checking up on us”…and filing their reports directly with Santa at the North Pole.

So, when the children were instructed by Billie to face the radio and assert loudly “I’ve been good,” it was a morality check, Sari interjected. “If too many kids were fibbing, Santa’s magic storybook would not open that evening,” she said.

 

As a young girl, Doris was called Dori Mae, and she was a loyal Billie fan. “Oh dear, was it me?” she asked herself. “Did I do something wrong? Did I forget to brush my teeth or hang up my clothes?”

Doris’ fond childhood memories of growing up in Milwaukee provided the inspiration to write the 32-page book to commemorate Billie’s 75-year anniversary in 2006 and “preserve an important part of Milwaukee’s heritage.”

Peck told his audience that he totally “loves the Dori Mae book; it’s a terrific story…and is beautifully illustrated” by artist Christiane Cassan Wiese.

Local Milwaukee historian Paul H. Geenen reflected on the “timing” of Billie’s premiere on WTMJ in 1931: “The Great Depression was a worrisome time of penny-pinching and determination.”

 

“Families made do with essentials, with little left over for holiday excess. This was the time of radio’s debut in America, the internet of its day, a perfect home for Billie.”

By the mid-1930s, this mass medium had found its way into 60-70% of American homes. People could turn the dial and find immediate local and national connection. For the first time, Milwaukeeans needed distractions, reasons to forget their troubles; and the marvel of a squeaky-voiced, invisible brownie named Billie came into their homes through WTMJ radio.”

“When the Great Depression gave way to World War II, the show brought cheer to the next batch of children,” Geenen wrote. “But gradually, television sets with jaunty antennae replaced the stately radio in American living rooms. Billie did not make the transition.”

 Yet, as Doris attests: “Billie remains a magical being at Christmastime.”

‘Billie the Brownie’ is back for the 2026 Christmas holidays

It’s never too early to get in the Christmas spirit. Here goes:

A Wagnabbit post from December 2025 traveled all the way to Oxnard, Calif.

I was delighted to hear from a reader living there who said she enjoyed a Christmas season column about “Billie the Brownie.” 

Her name was Doris, and she graciously provided a treasure chest of additional information about the fictional character…who was created about 100 years ago.

We’ll get there…but first, here is a modified version of the original column that ran on Dec. 20, 2025…to reset the stage.

 

Folks need to know this story, because Billie the Brownie is already memorialized in the “National Bobblehead Hall of Fame,” located in Milwaukee, Wis., alongside iconic holiday season figures like The Grinch, Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Ebenezer Scrooge.

 

Billie the Brownie was created as a holiday season mascot to help sell toys at Schuster’s Department Store in Milwaukee in the early 1920s. He was “inspired” by the literary characters from the stories of Canadian author and poet Palmer Cox.

 

Cox’s “brownies” were wee creatures who originated during the Victorian era within the British Isles. Cox’s grandmother told him Scottish folk tales about the “mischievous but invisible little people” with special talents. Cox wrote his first brownie story – “The Brownies’ Ride” – in 1883 for St. Nicholas Magazine, a monthly children’s publication.

 

Ed Schuster, a German immigrant, also arrived in Milwaukee in 1883 and began to build the Schuster’s chain of department stores.

Schuster’s advertising/marketing department created Billie the Brownie to build even more awareness for the Schuster’s brand. The character evolved from a sprite to a pixie to an elf-like being. 

By 1927, Billie the Brownie was featured in Schuster’s annual Christmas Parade in downtown Milwaukee.

Beginning in 1931, Billie joined Santa on a 15-minute radio program that aired weekdays on WTMJ at 5 p.m. and on Sunday mornings. 

This print ad contains a typo. The Sunday show came on at 10:30 a.m.

They talked about the upcoming holiday, told Christmas tales, discussed yuletide traditions and read letters from children to Santa.

Dave Begel, a former newspaper reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, remembered growing up in the 1950s. He said: “There was no Christmas tradition that could match Billie the Brownie.”

 

Begel said that Billie and Santa always chatted a bit about whether the boys and girls listening had been good. Santa would comment about how work was progressing inside the toy workshop at the North Pole.

“Then came the biggest thing,” Begel said, “Billie reading letters to Santa sent by children from all over the area.” There were thousands and thousands of letters to pick from.

Begel and his younger brother Danny sat on the floor in front of the radio, listening carefully, while their grandmother watched over them.

“The first time I actually sent a letter, I asked for my own record player. That year the magic took on a new dimension,” Begel wrote. 

One day, Billie said, “Our first letter is from little David Begel in Whitefish Bay. David says he’s been a good boy and would like a record player.”

“It was like a bomb going off in our house,” Begel said. “On my feet, I was hollering at the top of my lungs. I couldn’t wait for my mom and dad to get home so I could tell them.”

As it turned out, Dave Begel was tagged as “the luckiest kid in the Milwaukee area at Christmastime. 

For some reason, each and every year, his letter to Santa Claus was the first one selected to be read on the radio by Billie the Brownie, and brother Danny’s was always second.

That’s the way it went for about seven years. “My friends were very jealous,” Begel said.

“When I was 10 or 11, my mom told us one night that she wanted to talk to me and my brother. I remember this so vividly, it’s like it happened yesterday. ‘Boys,’ she said, ‘I have something to tell you.’”

“She closed her eyes for a second, and I could see her swallow. She opened her eyes and looked at the two of us,” and said: ‘I am Billie the Brownie.’”

“It explained how my letter got read first every year,” Begel said. “It explained why my mom disappeared every afternoon and left us in the custody of our grandmother. It explained why mom and dad helped us write our letters to Santa well before Christmas.”

“And I remember being amazed at my mother, whose name was Carol Cotter,” Begel wrote. “I’m sure lots of little boys are amazed by their mothers. But Danny and I are the only ones who had Billie the Brownie for a mother.”

It’s true, Carol Cotter worked in radio. She was performing as “a magician’s assistant” in Chicago when she was “discovered.” 

She had an uncanny ability to mimic a child’s high-pitched voice, and this is what enabled her to break into broadcasting, voicing children’s parts on radio soap operas.

After Cotter moved to Milwaukee, her skill landed her a job that attracted thousands of fans – including her own children – who never knew her name. Cotter was the voice of Billie the Brownie for seven years.

She was there for the final show, on Christmas Eve in 1955.

There were other Billie “voice actors” who preceded Cotter, but she had the longest tenure.

 

Her “next career” was as a television producer who specialized in documentaries. 

She died on Nov. 8, 2011, the 80-year anniversary of very first Billie the Brownie radio show. Cotter was 92.

Her elder son Dave Begel died earlier this year at age 82.

 

Dave Begel's high school senior photo.

We don’t know for sure if Santa brought that record player to young Dave all those many years ago, but Dave did love music and had a great memory for song lyrics. 

Begel was part of a local rock’n’roll band, Granite, playing his a guitar and serving as lead vocalist.

 

“He liked to entertain, he liked to inform,” said brother Dan Begel. “He liked to plumb the world for information.”

As for Billie the Brownie, the rights to the character were acquired by Gimbels department store when it merged with Schuster’s in 1962. Several attempts to revive the character failed to gain traction in the 1960s and ‘70s.

In 1984, Gimbels donated its Billie the Brownie collection to the Milwaukee County Historical Society.

“Every year, people called or visited to ask about Billie the Brownie,” said Mame McCully, who formerly served as the historical society’s executive director. “He was and always will be a part of the magic of Christmas in Milwaukee. He was in the hearts of so many children, and they have passed on those stories from generation to generation.”

 

Indeed they have. In 2006, Jim Peck, a veteran Milwaukee broadcast journalist, hosted a special “I Remember” documentary for PBS on the 75th anniversary of Billie’s first radio broadcast. It’s a treat and available on PBS YouTube.

Finally, the World Series ‘plays ball’

Who are you picking in baseball’s World Series – the Milwaukee Brewers or the Tampa Bay Rays?

 

It should be a barnburner, as Major League Baseball’s two best teams this year have survived the early playoff rounds.

The best-of-seven championship round started Oct. 23. If the series goes the distance, Game 7 is slated for Saturday, Oct. 31 – Halloween. 

(FYI: The latest date that any World Series has ended was Nov. 5, 2022, when the Houston Astros topped the Philadelphia Phillies in six games.)

This a crazy time of year, with the end of Daylight Saving Time looming on Sunday, Nov. 1. All at the same time, we have professional sports going on in all four major sports – baseball, football, hockey and basketball.

Here’s what you need to know about the World Series.

 

In 2026, the Brewers, as National League champions, get the home field advantage to potentially host four games, because Milwaukee had the better record, 103-59, compared the 98-64 record posted by Tampa Bay in the American League.

 

The home park of the Milwaukee Brewers is American Family Field (formerly known as Miller Park) in Milwaukee. It has a seating capacity of 41,900.

Tampa Bay’s home park is Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, which can accommodate 31,042 spectators.

What makes this year’s World Series extra special is that neither the Brewers nor the Rays has ever won the World Series.

Founded in 1970, the Brewers have appeared in the World Series just once. 

In 1982, Milwaukee lost to the St. Louis Cardinals, 4 games to 3.

In the beginning, the Milwaukee Brewers (formerly the Seattle Pilots) were placed in the American League. 

The team was switched to the National League, however, in 1998 to balance out the composition of the two leagues.

The move was prompted, in part, due to the expansion of Major League Baseball…and the decision to award a new franchise to Tampa Bay, also in 1998.

(This realignment is rare. In the modern era of MLB, only two franchises have switched leagues. The other team to do it was the Houston Astros, moving from the National League to the American League in 2013.)

For the first 10 seasons, Tampa Bay’s nickname was the Devil Rays. New ownership in 2008 brought a rebranding to just call ‘em the Rays, with the focus shifting to rays of sunshine (in the “Sunshine State”), while still keeping a small stingray image to honor the team’s history.

The Rays have played twice in the World Series, losing both times – in 2008 to the Philadelphia Phillies (4 games to 1) and in 2020 to the Los Angeles Dodgers (4 games to 2).

The only holdover from that 2020 Rays squad still on the team roster is Yandy Díaz; he is listed primarily as the designated hitter. 

Díaz is one of the team’s offensive leaders, along with Junior Caminero, the regular third baseman. 

On the mound, Drew Rasmussen is the ace of the Rays’ pitching corps.

The premier hitters on the 2026 Brewers’ team are Andrew Vaughn (shown above), the first baseman, and Jackson Chourio (shown below), who usually plays leftfield, but the team has a lot of firepower through the entire lineup. 

Milwaukee’s pitching rotation is anchored by Jacob Misiorowski.

 

Two players in the MLB Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., spent a portion of their careers in Tampa Bay. They are Wade Boggs and Fred McGriff.

Milwaukee’s long history as a “great baseball town” was rewarded in 1953, when the Boston Braves became the Milwaukee Braves.

Playing in the National League, the Milwaukee club won the World Series in 1957, defeating the New York Yankees (4 games to 3). 

The two squads faced off again in the 1958 World Series, but the Yankees prevailed that year (4 games to 3).

Management accepted lucrative incentives to move the Braves franchise from Milwaukee to Atlanta in 1966.

Five MLB Hall of Famers spent time with the Milwaukee Braves: They are Hank Aaron, Eddie Mathews, Warren Spahn, Red Schoendienst and Enos Slaughter.

 

Warren Spahn

Since professional baseball returned to Milwaukee, when the Brewers were established in 1970, nine players have been inducted into the MLB Hall of Fame. They are: Hank Aaron (again), Rollie Fingers, Trevor Hoffman, Paul Molitor, Dave Parker, CC Sabathia, Ted Simmons, Don Sutton and Robin Yount (shown below).

 

So, the difference-maker in this year’s World Series, in my humble opinion, is going to be “the spirit of late and great Bob Uecker.” He was regarded by many as “Mr. Milwaukee.”

Uecker died in 2025 at age 90, after a “baseball career” that spanned more than seven decades, first as a professional player and then as a broadcaster.

 

Bob Uecker came up as a catcher, managing to land a contract with his hometown team, the Milwaukee Braves. He was called up from the minor leagues by the Braves in 1962 as the third-string catcher behind Joe Torre and Del Crandell.

 

In all, Uecker spent six years in the majors (from 1962-67), but it was his charisma, sense of humor and wit that led him into the radio broadcasting booth in 1971. He quickly became a beloved announcer for the Milwaukee Brewers. 

His career behind the microphone spanned 54 seasons, next to the longest all time (after Denny Matthews, broadcaster with the Kansas City Royals, who started in 1969 and is still active).

Uecker boasted about his .200 career batting average, putting him on par with the legendary Don Carter, who averaged 200 over a 10-year period. Carter was a bowler.

With the Atlanta Braves in 1967, Uecker was the personal catcher for knuckleball pitcher Phil Niekro. “I was more like the personal chaser,” Uecker said. “I set a major league record for 27 passed balls in 1967.” (Niekro was responsible for 25 of them.)

Uecker joked that the only sure way to “catch” a Niekro knuckleball was “to just wait until it stopped rolling and pick it up.”

As a spokesperson for Milwaukee’s own Miller Lite beer. he was featured in tons of commercials in the 1970s and ’80s. In one commercial, Uecker was seen preparing to watch a baseball game when an usher informs him that he is in the wrong seat. Uecker pompously remarks, “I must be in the front row.”

Uecker’s seat was actually in the nosebleed section. Today, there is a section of $1 seating called the “Uecker seats” in Milwaukee’s ballpark, referencing where Uecker sat in the Miller Lite commercials. 

These seats in Section 422 have an “obstructed view” (in the upper grandstand above home plate). 

It is here where the Brewers decided in 2014 to put a statue of Uecker in the very last row.

 

Statue designer Brian Maughan…included an extra seat next to the seated Uecker. The idea was that fans who made a donation to the Brewers Community Foundation or the Make A Wish Foundation would get to take their picture made alongside the likeness of Uecker.”

 If you listen real closely, you can hear Uecker’s voice raining down on the home plate umpire: “He missed the tag! He missed the tag!”