Hawaii's First Christmas

Hawaii’s First Christmas: A Short Story

By Joy Ogawa

Christmas Eve 1858, the influential widow, Mary Dominis, opened her Honolulu mansion to lucky local children, child princesses, and Santa Claus for the island’s first modern holiday celebration. A large Christmas tree with European ornaments, presents, lit candles, carols, a grand luau of Hawaiian delicacies, and treats common in Europe were highlights of the party. 

Imagine horse-drawn carriages pulling up to a Grecian style mansion with garlands of sparkle and firs lining the columns. The king’s band played carols. This Christmas Eve is the first time Hawaii’s children would meet Father Christmas. Local deer and mules are commandeered to pull Santa’s wooden canoe into Mrs. Dominis’ backyard to surprise the children. 

“Ho, ho, ho! It sure is hot here,” is the first the children hear of their special visitor.

“Santa Claus! Mahalo for coming,” Mrs. Dominis greets jolly old Saint Nick. “I’m glad you found my home.”

Santa climbs out of his canoe, throws his bag over his shoulder, pets the deer, and greets the children. “Ho, ho, ho, Mele Kalikimaka, keiki! Who’s been good girls and boys? Come, come, gather around, tell Santa your Christmas wish. I’m sure I have it in my bag.”

It was the hottest ticket in town. Mrs. Dominis chose to focus the festivities on the commoner’s keiki, or children. She believed the birth of Jesus was something worth celebrating and the islands’ children deserved some merriment and fun. Newspaper men vied for an invitation to set up their daguerreotype camera to capture the event. The islands had never seen anything of the type before, nonetheless something so lavish. The American Missionaries frowned upon it. To them, Christmas was a pagan festival; no excuse for a celebration. But, Mrs. Dominis was emboldened to showcase her faith because she had a pro-Christmas Anglican monarch on the throne. King Kamehameha IV and his Queen, High Chiefess Emma, had declared December twenty-fifth as the Hawaiian Kingdom’s day of Thanksgiving just a couple years before. 

Most of Hawaii’s royalty, alii, and their aristocratic relatives had chosen to be baptized into the Anglican denomination, despite the Missionaries’ constant presence and influence in the islands since 1820. Kawaiahao Church, still in operation, was established as the church of the alii. Church schools provided for the education of the alii exclusively, initially, before opening to all of Hawaii’s children. The Hawaiian Islands had embraced several Christian denominations. 

In their early twenties and newly weds, the monarchs were much too young to make such a political move, naysayers scoffed. This Christmas thing will not last in the Hawaiian Islands.  Little did the Missionaries realize the impact the English culture had on the king as a teenager. Before he took the title of Kamehameha IV, he was known as Alexander Liholiho, and he was selected as the first alii to embark on a European ambassadorship tour. 

At age 15, he was treated to all the glamour, tradition, and celebrations the British Isles had to offer. He was feted and honored as the royalty he was in every country he visited. Most impactful to the young man was the grandeur, opalescence, and ceremony of the Church of England. Those good memories would impact everything from his choice of Christian church to his political allegiances once king, for he had experienced racism and bigotry in America on his way to England.

       The history of Christmas in the Hawaiian Islands is made more interesting by the fact that it had its fists and stops. The very first Christmas celebration was really just an elaborate feast on a Kauai beach on Christmas Day 1786 between British sailors and some friendly Native Hawaiians. Though Hawaiians had contact with Caucasians with whaling and through the trading routes, their intentions were not primarily about saving the so-called savages of the Sandwich Islands nor had there been the coincidence of December twenty-fifth until now. The British Captain recorded in his journal that the menu included whole roasted hog and a coconut rum punch. 

Prior to Mrs. Dominis’s Christmas party, Hawaii had its ancient Makahiki season, a four-month time of peace and goodwill when weather made warfare difficult. War games were played, canoes were repaired as well as village relationships with bountiful harvest feasts. By the time the Missionaries arrived in 1820, the islands had been unified and continued in their ancient ancestor worship, somewhat akin to Buddhism.

By 1862, Kamehameha IV had experienced a literal moving of heaven and earth in his faith to declare December 25th as the kingdom’s official national religious holiday of Christmas. 

The English traditions of celebrating Christmas continued with Hawaii’s last princess, Kaiulani. She sailed for England in 1888 at the tender age of thirteen to begin her finishing education as training to be Queen of the Hawaiian Kingdom. She experienced a British Christmas with snow and merriment styled after the popular Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol. Her cousins, Prince David Koa and Prince Jonah Kuhio surprised her and her half-sister for their first Christmas season of celebration in the British Isles. Global events would have the princess in exile in Europe until Hawaii’s annexation to America nine years later. 

The Missionaries had been particularly critical of Kaiulani with her surfing, a sport of the female alii who could tame the waves for a nice ride. By the time Princess Kaiulani was born, she was the highest-born alii of her time. The Kingdom had held its collective breath for a viable heir since the unexpected death of the three-year-old Crown Prince Albert Kamehameha a generation ago. Her baptism couldn’t wait; it was held on Christmas Eve 1875 with the church bells ringing out the good news all across the land.

Despite the fall of the Hawaiian Kingdom, Mrs. Dominis’s mansion continued to stand. Princess Kaiulani would protest annexation right in the very house and bring in her good memories of English Christmases of the past. Mrs. Dominis’s house would become the Governor’s Mansion, continuing the holiday season tradition she started. To this day, all of Hawaii’s governors and first families host a Christmas open house party for Hawaii’s people.