Welcome back to OnThePoint, I’m Greg C. Truax.
Long before carols filled shopping malls and snowmen showed up on beach towels, Christmas arrived on this continent under very different circumstances.
Picture North Florida in the winter of 1539: an expedition led by Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto camped at the Apalachee town of Anhaica—where Tallahassee stands today.
The Florida Memory Project reports that Archaeologists later found the fingerprints: Spanish coins, olive-jar fragments, nails — even a pig jawbone, a telltale clue because de Soto brought pigs to North America. With a dozen Catholic priests in the expedition of 600, a Christmas Mass was likely held.
And that’s why some historians believe Florida may have hosted America’s first Christmas.
From the NewsTalk 1040 studios, I’m Greg C. Truax.
Greg C. Truax is president of GCTMediaGroup, a film production studio, online magazine publisher, radio commentator, and creator of written and broadcast opinion commentary.