"It's a happier Christmas because it is the first peacetime Christmas since 1940, the war is over," announced New York City mayor Fiorello LaGuardia over the radio from City Hall in 1945. "But we must continue to pray for peace because a wicked world has not yet fully learned the lessons taught by Him nearly 2,000 years ago."
Christmas in New York City held a special significance in 1945 as World War 2 had just concluded, the global conflagration was over and American troops were being rushed home as quickly as possible. The tree at Rockefeller Center was lit, and the city residents were ready for the peace and calm that came with the holiday.
On Christmas day there were docked at the harbor in New York four battleships, six carriers, seven cruisers, and twenty four destroyers, their crews put on shore leave for the holiday.
Meanwhile, the Navy hosted parties on their ships for less fortunate children, including nearly 1,000 orphans. The Navy even made sure to have the children's measurements so that pea coats and caps could be given as gifts, ensuring that they would fit.
The kids even got to see Santa arrive in New York City by helicopter. A Coast Guard helicopter landed on the foredeck of the U.S.S. New York and Santa, played by Chief Boatswain's Mate Andrew Clark, hopped out. More than twenty five trees had been decorated on the ship, with the sailors competing and trying to outdo one another.
New York Daily News reporter Gladys Bevans wrote about Christmas in 1945 in a manner that may resonate with readers in 2020 in a article titled, "Christmas one changeless thing in a disturbed world."
"One of the things I like best about Christmas is its eternal unchangeableness. Christmas doesn't know that this is a postwar era and that strife and chaos still go on. It isn't affected by the 'rapidly changing world,' a world of flux and uncertainty and insecurity," he wrote.