| Every year from 1946 to 1966, Sam and Myra Centanni's home became a favorite place for New Orleanians to spend an evening during the holiday season. Thousands of people flocked to their house on Canal Street - to a display that was a 'must-see' in New Orleans. If you hadn't visited Mr. Bingle, the Holmes and Maison Blanche store windows on Canal Street and the Centanni house, your Christmas season was not complete! Miss Myra was the force behind the magic, a true labor of love for her. Each year, she showcased a different theme and filled the yard with lights, music and animated figures. The mechanized holiday creations that we take for granted now were rarely seen at that time, especially in private homes. Children and adults alike were mesmerized by the magic of Miss Myra's Christmas displays. (One year, she chose a circus theme and visitors were delighted to find a real live elephant in the middle of the Centanni yard!) Miss Myra died on New Year's eve in 1966 and a grieving Mr. Sam turned off the lights and never turned them on again. Years later, he allowed many of the display items to be shown in City Park's Celebration in the Oaks. They remain on display there during the holiday season - a reminder of the joy Mr. Sam and Miss Myra brought to the people of New Orleans. It was visits to the Centanni home that inspired a young boy to dream of one day having his own light display. The boy was Al Copeland, founder of Popeye's Chicken, and eventually he was able to make that dream come true. For years, he decked out his home in suburban New Orleans with huge holiday displays and crowds of people visited to 'ooh and 'aah' over the magic, just as they'd done in the Centanni's time. After his death, Mr. Copeland's family donated his Christmas display collection to Lafrieniere Park in Jefferson Parish, for their annual Christmas Lights Display. When Mr. Centanni died in 1995, one of his sons tells the story of a Christmas wreath - complete with working lights - arriving among the flowers at the funeral home. They went to look at the card and it read: "To Mr. Sam, the King of Christmas...from Al Copeland." -- Nancy |
| Christmas at the Centanni's |
| The pictures below were taken at a time when the Centanni house was on the market a few years ago. The home itself holds a lot of history. Designed by H. Jordan MacKenzie and constructed in 1917, it's a Craftsman style with Prairie Style and Art Noveau influences. The house has been lovingly restored and still has many of its original, very unique features: lots of mahogany, stained glass windows and hand carved built-ins. I can imagine Miss Myra sitting at the dining room table, making plans for her extraordinary Christmas displays. |
| Mr. Sam Centanni and his father, Antonio, founded the Gold Seal Creamery in 1920. In 1954, they expanded the business and moved into a new facility on S. Alexander Street, shown above. Gold Seal was a successful creamery, supplying dairy products to the ships that came into port, to local groceries and throughout the city, using milk trucks. They were especially known for their ice cream and for their Creole cream cheese. Creole cream cheese is said to have originated in the 1800's among people of French ancestry. Once a well-loved Louisiana tradition, its popularity declined during the second half of the 20th century. Gold Seal's Creole cream cheese recipe was considered the definitive one and the company was the last family-owned supplier of Creole cream cheese in New Orleans when it closed in 1986. Recently, however, Creole cream cheese has made a bit of a comeback. The Encyclopedia of Cajun and Creole Cuisine includes instructions on making it at home. The once popular Creole cream cheese ice cream is now being offered by the New Orleans Ice Cream Company . The old Gold Seal factory has been renovated and converted into loft apartments. |
| Creole Cream Cheese Cheesecake Recipe Photo Credit: Zillow.com If you'd like to share this page, please just send the link. Posting portions of the page to social media separates it from its source. The link to this page is: http://www.thepastwhispers.com/NO_Christmas_Centanni.html Back to Christmas in Old New Orleans Nancy's Holiday Pages Old New Orleans - Home Whispers - Home |