Country Christmas Founder Recalls Early Days
By Ruth Lepper

Geoff Cahoon at this year's tree lighting. Michael Hart shown at left. Photos by Jamey Ritter

Geoff Cahoon has fond childhood memories of Christmas in New England. When he moved to Julian, about 15 years ago, he brought those memories with him.

"I was brought up on Cape Cod," he said. "When I got into town, after seeing my first Christmas here, I asked people how come everybody's not doing something?"

He already had ideas for what he would like to see happen in Julian.

"I just thought, Currier & Ives style," he said "Simple garland, red ribbons and white lights... That was my dream, to make a Currier & Ives picture."

Cahoon was joined by Wayne Moretti in making plans for the following holiday season. They contacted a professional decorator who had worked with such noted places as Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm.

"He went over the entire town with us and told us what we needed to do," Cahoon said.

Dances and auctions took place to help raise money for the decorations. Monthly meetings were held to start organizing the decorating efforts.

Christmas tree lighting 2006.

"We raised enough money to get all those wreaths and all that garland," he said. "We had over a mile and a half of garland."

Metallic fabric that was red on one side and silver on the other was used for making the large bows. They were handmade by several women in town, Cahoon recalled.

The official town Christmas tree was brought down from Volcan Mountain and placed in front of Julian Cider Mill at the corner of Main and B streets. The 25-foot tree was decked out with 10,000 white lights.

"Snowflakes" were used as ornaments, made from the plastic holders that originally held six cans of soda together.

"It would take 13 of those (plastic holders) to make one snowflake," Cahoon said. "They would staple them together, then spray paint them. They'd make 100 snowflakes every year. They worked on them for months."

Julian streets are lined with lights and decorations.

It often would take up to 18 hours just to decorate the tree, he said, but it took months to decorate the town. Cahoon and Moretti, along with a few helpers, would start putting up the decorations in August.