Holidays

In December of 1986, parents were rushing to the stores to snatch a Cabbage Patch Kid, G.I. Joe or Teddy Ruxpin off the shelf before they were all gone. That same month, the generosity of a local benefactor was a touching reminder of what the holiday season is really about. On Dec. 21, 1986, Robert Alfandre welcomed 30 people infected with AIDS into his home in northwest Washington for a Christmas party.

In the 1850s, Georgetown’s Fourth of July celebration was a neighborhood pageant of marching Sunday schools, bands, banners, barrels of lemonade, and speeches at Parrott’s Woods, now the site of Oak Hill Cemetery.