‘Christmas in July’ originated at N.C. summer camp

Fannie Webb Holt popularized the phrase “Christmas in July” in 1933 when she was the director of Keystone Camp, a summer camp for girls in the western North Carolina community of Brevard in Transylvania County.

 

Holt dreamed up “Christmas in July” as a whimsical and festive activity for her campers, according to Heidi Coryell Williams (shown below), a contributor to Our State magazine.

 

Holt saw “Christmas in July” as an opportunity to inspire the girls during crafting sessions, encouraging them to make items for a “Secret Santa” gift exchange among the campers on July 25.

 

Williams said that The Washington Post covered the inaugural 1933 “Christmas in July” celebration at Keystone Camp, “making it the first recorded event of its kind,” complete with caroling, tree trimming and “cotton snowball” fights.

Instead of hanging stockings, the campers used their laundry bags, and Santa Claus mysteriously appeared to load them up with candy, Williams wrote.

 

Today, the “Christmas in July” tradition continues “to spread joyful cheer” at Keystone Camp, and the staff has also incorporated aspects of Hanukkah and Kwanzaa into the celebration.

Keystone Camp was first organized in 1916 by Fannie Holt (left) and Florence Ellis. They were coordinators for a day camp for girls that was operated by St. John’s Episcopal Cathedral in Jacksonville, Fla.  

 

Williams reported that “Holt and Ellis spent their time swimming, picnicking and playing lawn games with young ladies of the parish. What if, they wondered, such an opportunity could be afforded to many girls over many summers?”

With the goal of building “a bridge between childhood and adulthood,” Holt and Ellis found a permanent home for their camp in 1919, when they purchased a 40-acre site in Brevard with a stream and a small swimming lake.

During those early years, there were no cabins. Instead, the girls, ranging in age from 7 to 14, slept in 18 tents placed strategically around the central camp.

Williams said: “Holt and Ellis believed in the power of rigorous outdoor activity to help each camper reach her fullest potential.”

 

“Bonding with horses was part of the equestrian program. Horseback riding was a required activity at Keystone, in part because it taught campers an important life lesson: Always get back on the horse. The ‘Bit-the-Dust Club’ made falling off the horse – and getting back in the saddle – a point of pride.”

 

The camp’s 1920 marketing brochure emphasized: “Regular hours for retiring, rising, care of quarters, recreation, exercise, meals and rest stimulate punctuality. Rigid inspection of the tents makes neatness and orderliness habitual. It is among these surrounding influences in this happy and healthful out-of-doors life that real Camp Spirit abounds.”

Today’s Keystone Camp is recognized as the oldest continuously running private girls camp in the Southeast. Summer camp enrollment is limited to 140 girls per session, because that is the capacity in the dining hall and the 16 sleeping cabins.

Williams offered a bit of insight when she wrote: “Summer after summer, the rising bell at Keystone Camp has rung at 7:30 a.m., and campers have filed down the hill and gathered ’round the flagpole for the ceremony that starts the day.”

This ritual is as revered today as it was 110 years ago in 1916, when Holt and Ellis promised their girls that they would have “a good time, the freedom to explore, a chance to learn new things and make new friends.”

That almost sounds like an invitation to experience “Christmas in July.”

 

The phrase also has connections to the entertainment industry. 

Next time, let’s review the 1940 comedy film “Christmas in July,” starring Dick Powell and Ellen Drew.