Noel, MO

Noel, Mo., (pop. 1,480) never takes down its Christmas decorations. The red and green garland adorning the town’s entrance year-round is proof that Noel and Christmas go together like stripes on a candy cane.

When the holiday rolls around, townspeople celebrate the season by postmarking 60,000 greeting cards, lighting 7,000 luminaries, or attending Christmas services at St. Nicholas Episcopal Church or the Nativity of Our Lord Catholic Church.

Noel’s stamp-size post office is home to a yuletide tradition that spreads across 50 states and eight foreign countries. Beginning Nov. 24, up to 60 volunteers spend 500 hours hand-stamping cards and letters from around the world with the town’s trademark postmarks, featuring either a ribboned red wreath or a traditional green pine topped with a star.

“It’s the volunteers who have continued this tradition,” says Postmaster Robert Brumback. “That’s part of its uniqueness.”

Most of the cards and letters arrive yarn-tied or rubber banded in pillowcases, paper sacks, and plastic bags, hand carried by people who drive from Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma, and northern Missouri to have their mail stamped with “The Christmas City” postmark. Others farther away mail their packages to Noel for the same season’s greeting.

“Stamp collectors write from France, England, Germany, Sweden, and Italy—adding to their collection,” Brumback says. “But the most unusual request was the Japanese businessman who paid $150 to Fed-Ex his cards so we could stamp and mail them.”

Named in 1887 for Bridges Noel, a French settler, Noel is the only town in the nation with its name derived from the Latin word for birth.

In 1932, Postmaster Ed Rousselot suggested the town adopt a special postmark for the holidays. The idea stuck after soldiers from nearby Camp Crowder sent home letters bearing Noel’s decorative mark, and Kate Smith told the nation about the town’s unique postmark on her popular CBS radio show during the 1940s and ’50s. Since then, newspaper and television coverage and the Internet have spread the word.

Barbara Fine, who coordinates Noel’s postmarking project, has stamped for 10 years. “It’s a lot of fun,” she says. “I take cookies and candy for the kids and stamp their hands. Sometimes, I let people stamp their own cards. They get a kick out of that.”

During the holidays, townspeople also dedicate 500 hours to continue another holiday tradition. Up to 50 volunteers spend a day measuring sand into white paper sacks and placing votive candles inside. Then, on the first Monday in December, volunteers scurry to position the luminaries around town before dusk.

“It’s an effort that brings the community together,” says Jeff Scott, longtime luminary volunteer. “We do it for the Christmas spirit.”

On The Night of the Luminaries, most traffic follows the paths of light to Noel Elementary School where up to 800 people fill the gymnasium to watch students from each grade, kindergarten through eighth, perform Christmas skits, sing and dance, and end the evening with an all-school grand finale.

“With 524 students, the Christmas program is a big event in our community,” Principal Dick Davis says. “We sing Silent Night and Away in a Manager. That sets the tone for the evening.”

Davis, who himself carried the frankincense when he performed in the school’s Christmas program 35 years ago, is the grandson of the creator of Noel’s stamping tradition.

“What happens in Noel is proof that Christmas is real,” Brumback says. “Volunteers give their time, their most precious possession. That is the essence of Christmas. It still exists here.”

Vicki Cox is a freelance writer in Lebanon, Mo.

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