- [Announcer] Is part of WQQED's Pittsburgh History Series.

- This is program number six, who knows if there's light at the end of the Liberty Tubes?

It's been cold, darkness fall fast these days.

It's the end of the year.

If you're watching this program at its freshest on Wednesday, December 22nd, 2010, then you know we've just turned the corner.

Last night was our longest night, now the days will start getting longer.

We're gonna repeat this on December 29th too.

It's our attempt at a holiday show.

We're gonna share a little piece of our 2001 program called "Happy Holidays Pittsburgh".

We're gonna pick a visit to a special downtown collection of photographs of Pittsburgh in winter.

We're gonna have some fun with houses and decorations.

This is Glenburn Drive in Pleasant Hills.

And then we're gonna go to the Strip District to get some provisions on the busiest Saturday of the year.

I'm Rick Sebak, your host and short hit Santa and as usual we're celebrating the fact that "It's Pittsburgh & A Lot of Other Stuff" and we're thanking everyone who takes the time to share some light at this time of year, lots of eggnog would be nice too.

- [Announcer] "It's Pittsburgh & Aa Lot of Other Stuff" is made possible by the Buhl Foundation, serving Southwestern Pennsylvania since 1927.

And by Huntington Bank, helping people in businesses with their money since 1866, welcome.

- You know, back in 2001, we spent most of the holiday season gathering material for our program called "Happy Holidays in Pittsburgh".

It turned out to be 90 minutes of stuff about great traditions around here.

And it started like this.

Really the thing that officially kicks off the city's holiday season is Light Up Night.

Always a Friday evening in November, before Thanksgiving organized by the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership.

Tens of thousands of people come to the downtown area to see all the buildings lit up, to mingle with crowds, to hear performers and to see some of the holiday decorations, maybe some bright surprises.

(crowd applauding) The giant tree decoration on the corner of Stanwix and Penn is officially called The unity Tree but lots of Pittsburghers still call it The Horns Tree after the old department store that was in that building until 1995.

Horns began this whole big tree on the corner tradition in 1953 and there's been one here every year since except for 1978, when to save energy, it didn't get put up.

But Light Up Night is so when The Tree of Lights in Point State Park is turned on.

A holiday gift from Duquesne Light.

And all the activities are capped by fireworks, bringing light to the darkness too.

Actually at this time of year, whenever there's an event or a parade like this community celebration in Greenfield, you're likely to find fireworks exploding at some point or another.

(fireworks popping) - Merry Christmas.

- Merry Christmas to you too.

So Light Up Night, the first one was in 1960 and that tree on the corner of the old Horns Building, it doesn't always look like it does now.

If you're interested in the holiday history of downtown Pittsburgh or if you just love old black and white photos, you're probably gonna want to know about a photo exhibition that's on display this holiday season of 2010 in One Oxford Center.

- [James] This is Pittsburgh memories.

It's an exhibit of rare photographs, historic photographs of downtown Pittsburgh through the holiday season dating as far back as the 1800s.

- This collection of vintage photos was gathered by James Richards, local writer and arts entrepreneur, who realized there were photos in various archives of our city in winter that had never been put together in a show.

- And I had noticed originally the Photo Antiquities on the north side had a lot of great images and it's just sort of grew from that.

I also knew having worked at Horns that there was a lot of great images there that were being donated to the history center and that's where most of the Horn's archives are now.

And as word got around amongst the people I had connections with, I started, Kauffman's opened up their archives back in the late 90s as did some other companies including The Hilton, The Carnegie Library, and it just continued to grow.

Today it has 27 images in it.

- Is that the Dollar Bank?

- That's the Dollar Bank there.

The ones that seemed to draw the most attention are the first Light up Night which came from Jack Kahn's company for the original exhibit, Jack Kahn created Light Up Night as we know it as a start of the Christmas season.

The other images that people talk about a lot are the original Horns Tree which began as strings of lights and the buildings beside before the custom tree that we all know was built.

Another one that people love to talk about is the oldest photo, which comes from Photo Antiquities, it's of a fire on Fourth Avenue just after the first of the year in 1882, first week of January.

And the other one is men walking across like a frozen Mon River.

Young people, teenagers especially, just seem fascinated by that.

They will stand there and stare at it for I don't know how long at a time.

Now this one is one of those that people love to talk about because it reminds of so much of the glory days of department stores.

This is from the University of Pittsburgh's archives of Kauffman's around 1950, families enjoying some of the animated windows.

A friend of mine, Stan Kohn whose family company, The Ad Kohn Company sold a lot of these decorations for years.

They designed the Santa as a PPG place.

They just, you know, a lot of the decor that Pittsburgh has known downtown for came through the Kohn family.

They gave me a photo of Kauffman's, Kauffman's Facade with decorations they had sold of Kauffman's.

One of the images we were able to add this year, I was really excited when I came across this.

It is a photo from the early 1900s of what is believed to be the first official municipal tree in Pittsburgh.

But it's really interesting 'cause they're still constructing it.

They're still decorating it.

And I was really surprised to see that 'cause I didn't think anything like that look still exist but it does.

I also have a photo of the City County Building, the lobby of it decorated for that first Christmas after World War II.

So you will see flags as well as Christmas finery and it's really touching to see 'cause it's an attempt to get back to some sort of normalcy.

I also have a great one that we added this year that was taken at the rooftop of Jason's Arcade, looking down Fifth Avenue.

The entire world was thrilled with the electric light 'cause remember that was introduced in the late 1890s and here is essentially downtown, fully electrified and it's part of the excitement.

You see these incredibly huge detailed light exhibit all the way down Fifth Avenue.

So you can imagine what it must've been like to drive down there or ride a trolley down there.

My favorites maybe because I used to work at Horns 'cause I used to work in their air department, probably the ones from Horns.

I especially like the one on the first floor and decorated in the 40s with all that beautiful old decor hanging from the ceiling that beautifully trimmed ceiling with the balcony.

Just the beauty of a holiday seemed to be expressed in that.

- [Rick] And so, its beauty and history and the fun of old photos in a pretty snazzy storefront.

- [James] This is a beautiful retail space on the main floor of One Oxford Center above the food court adjacent to the Fourth Avenue entrance.

Used to be a Talbot store.

Today it's used for the exhibit and for gift wrap for customers of the mall.

It's open every day of the mall.

One Oxford Center is open throughout January 7th and you can just wander in and take a look.

- And you gotta bring your own camera 'cause there's wonderful holiday stuff all around downtown.

Right here in Oxford Center, there's this delicious looking gingerbread village, not too fussy.

And there's that great tree in the lobby of the building.

And you might see Santa if you walk by at the right time.

And one of the few advantages of these long nights is that you have plenty of time to look for well decorated houses.

I love this 19th century beauty here in the Oakland Square Historic District.

It's amazing that the shape of a house and lights can make you feel so good.

And I learned back when we made "Happy Holidays in Pittsburgh" in 2001, that if you have a camera crew and you find a well decorated house, you can go up, knock on the front door and ask if someone will come out and talk.

That's what we did recently in Region Square and that's how we met Michael Ladon on Milton Avenue.

- This is a house I grew up in and my late father used to decorate the upper and bottom parts.

And then he passed away and I wasn't allowed to decorate for a few years 'cause the old time tradition.

So then mom passed away and then that's just time to take up the tradition again.

And I went all out.

So I went from the house to a little bit of the yard and a little bit more and a little bit more and more pieces all each year and like I kinda cheat.

I don't like going up a ladder, so I hit the top part up all the time and then redo the bottom part every year, you know?

And then when they break down up above, I get a neighbor kid to climb the ladder to give him 20 bucks, changes the lights for me.

When there's a civic cessation, a home decorating contest, I won it a couple years.

They don't do it no more 'cause I guess like nobody can compete with me.

- [Rick] Not that it's about competition but we spotted John Bovis house on the south side slopes from the other side of the Birmingham Bridge.

- It's 2320 Primrose and you can actually, if you're coming out of a Squirrel Hill tunnel, when you come down the park where you can actually see the house from there.

I have people call and say, I can see your house from the Parkway.

It's pretty cool.

Just kinda keeps on going and kinda gets bigger every year, more interesting.

These sticks, I went to see that Shallowly Glass Show at Phipps Conservatory few years ago.

And I was so impressed by the glass that I said, how could I incorporate that into my Christmas design?

I know, it was kinda crazy.

So I was down in West Virginia, my sisters have a place down there, a cabin and we went through for a walk one day and we saw this massive bamboo patch.

And I got this crazy idea, let's cut down some bamboo, scram silver, string them with lights and there it is.

I know it sounds crazy but it's how it came about.

- [Rick] You do it all yourself?

- [John] All myself, all myself.

- [Rick] I was curious about that.

- It's horrifying.

I went up on the roof one year and I really thought I was gonna have to call the fire department to get me down.

I was so scared 'cause going up was okay, going up the ladder and hopping on the roof but coming down I was like, you gotta be crazy.

So I use this crazy pole thing now to get the lights on the very ends of the roof.

- [Rick] Well, it's great when decorating gets contagious and you can spot a set of houses like these in White Hall that I drive by every evening.

- We're in on Baptist Road in the South Hills, right up from past the village.

And it's pretty bright on this little strip.

- [Rick] At the house on the far left, Mary Beth Novak came out to talk.

- And we've lived here probably five, five and a half years, six years and I like the red and white, so usually it's pretty much red and white every year.

I've always loved decorating.

I used to decorate my mom's house and we moved to this house.

It was just full out, making my husband do it for like three days straight.

This is a picture of, this house used to be an old school house.

It was the first school which is now White Hall.

- [Rick] So might the old school and the newer brick houses have a kind of rivalry going on?

- [Mary] Well, if you would ask my neighbor Jack, he'd probably say no but we were the only ones to start with decorating here when we first moved in.

- [Rick] Jack and Karen Diggins and their kids live next door.

- We've lived here 15 years, we pretty much started it the year after we moved in.

- And then Jack started and then the three houses down, they started.

- You know, we started right after Thanksgiving.

Usually when the neighbors start to come out, we all kinda come out together and.

- So, I think it's a little bit of a rivalry.

(laughs) - Little, yeah.

(laughs) Between the men, yeah.

- A fun one though, a friendly one.

- I said the battle of the Grizzwalls.

Every year, my eight year old son who won't come out here makes his dad go and buy more, more and more and more.

So this is what lit up this year.

We had some casualties, some things didn't make it.

Couldn't get enough lights lit so, they're in the basement.

- Yeah, we have to have lights so Santa can see.

I think Santa will like the sled, how it's going like that.

- [Rick] There is a somewhat less decorated house in the number three position of these four.

- [Lady] Well, we've been trying to get our neighbors here to put icicle lights so that we have them all the way up but we just can't seem to get them to put icicle lights up.

- Yeah, We're trying to get them to do a little more but.

- Santa will have a hard seeing their lights in their house.

- [Karen] Sometimes we would just take a ride in the evening and just ride around and look at the lights.

- [Girl] Yeah.

- [Rick] That's how we found this bright display put together by Kevin Retinaur on Hazelwood Avenue and I'm not sure which neighborhood.

- Kinda borderline Greenfields per hill Hazelwood.

kinda right on the outskirts of the mall.

It has many lights.

I moved in at '78 and little by little, it just keeps getting bigger and bigger.

Some styles are bought, most of it's made, you know.

I look at a piece of wood and then I get creative and start cutting and painting and you know, it all goes from there.

And just hoping everything plugs in and nothing blows up.

I'm nicknamed the Park's Grizzwall of Hazelwood Avenue 'cause I'm always at it.

You know, my wife started telling me, come in the house and get warmer, come in and eat dinner.

I say, I'm almost done, honey.

Then something blows out and then I gotta start over again.

- [Rick] I'm not sure why we do this but I like it.

- I just think it gets you in the spirit of Christmas.

- It's the child in me more, you know we don't have any children and my wife says, "I never need any children 'cause I have you."

I said, "Well, I never wanna grow up then."

- [Karen] I just love it.

- I think just to showcase that you know, in hard times there still is a spirit and.

- I just think it's something enjoyable and it makes your house look festive and.

- [John] Sense of warmth and there are people that are willing to you know, put up the lights and go out of the way a little bit.

- And I just like going back with the street and looking up and seeing it all lit up.

- Maybe fall off the roof just to make everyone happy.

- [Michael] And a lot of the kids in the neighborhood look forward to it.

- [John] Oh, it's just kinda neat 'cause it's up so high on the hill and just kind of sticks out and makes everyone like the others.

- We had a lady live across the street and she said, I don't have to go nowhere.

I just gonna look out my window.

Says it's Christmas when I look out the window.

- We need some red on the garage, maybe next year.

- [Rick] So some people light up our lives and some live to eat.

On December 18th this year, the fabled Saturday before Christmas in the Strip District, cameraman Frank Caliero and I went to see what we could see.

We started at Wholeys where we were able to get in the door before the crowd got too big.

- Everybody is happy, everybody is festive, everybody's wearing it go.

- [Reporter] I mean, it's just nine o'clock in the morning, will it get busier?

- [John] Oh yeah, you won't be able to walk through here in another hour.

- We've been here since what?

6:30.

- Yeah, yeah.

- We start at Penn Mac, now we're coming up this way.

- Line number 210 and my sister is 211.

- [Reporter] And what number are they on?

- I don't know, I'm trying to find out.

We just walked in.

Oh my gosh, they're only on eight.

- [Reporter] What are people getting today?

- They're getting the frozen fish and some of their fresh fish smell.

- Oh, Christmas Eve fish.

We do the seven fishes.

- I'm gonna get some jumbo shrimp.

- This a holiday tradition, we always come down the Saturday before Christmas and get the food for the day.

- I had a couple this morning came in at 6:30 and they started on that end and worked their way here.

So they had the most groceries at the end to put in their vehicle.

This time of year, you give people in patch.

With 1500 people walk in, we have have 50 people walk out.

- [Man] Stop over to the cutting table and see Mr. Armand cut up at 75 pounds fresh tuna.

- We're from Youngstown, we drove an hour to get here.

- Us we don't get this quality in too often but when we do, it's a real treat.

Yellow fin tuna, 15.98 a pound, don't get any fresher than that.

- [Woman] I never said steak.

- [Reporter] Oh, you're gonna be soon.

- Soon, I'm next.

- Christmas Eve is shrimp and fish.

It's an old Slovak tradition.

- [Man] 10 O'clock on, you won't be able to walk in here.

- [Man] And then on Christmas day, it's the Hammond turkey.

- We're in charge of the tilapia and the calamari.

My sister-in-law is in charge of the shrimp and buckler and I'm really told to bite it up.

- We have large family people coming in from out of state.

It's a feast.

He thinks it's a hassle, I think it's fun.

- And it's not difficult to explain, it's cold, it's fishy, it's crowded and it's fine.

- [John] We've got the clams, oysters, mussels, squared the eel, you name it, we have it.

Smelts, today is today, after all the Rockies coming today and the old timers will be in next week.

- [Reporter] Huh, what do you eat on Christmas Eve?

- What I eat?

(laughs) Usually a pizza.

- [Rick] You know, sushi would be a good possibility too but we've got a lot of Penn Avenue to cover.

And even the sidewalks around here are full of goodies.

- On Saturday mornings, we got breakfast bagels, a steak egg and cheese bagel.

- We have fresh cannolis.

We also have sorta cookies for Santa Claus.

Poppy seed, nut roll and apricot roll.

And we made it all last night, we're really tired.

(laughs) - Fresh Mancini's pepperoni rolls, they're excellent.

There's 21 slices of pepperoni.

Third pound of mozzarella.

Half a pound of bread dough.

And I believe that's what they're getting ready to make in there.

- [Rick] So Frank goes into Mancini's to grab a quick shot.

- [Girl] Are you the guy who used to get like Dave and Dave?

- [Frank] That's me.

- [Girl] Okay.

- [Frank] Don't hold it against me, all right?

- [Girl] I will now- - [Frank] I just do what I'm told, you know?

- [Girl] You're the funniest one out of the three.

- [Frank] Sorry everybody, I never knew that.

(group laughing) - [Seller] It's nice, hot and fresh, they're very good.

You guys should buy some and eat some, you know?

- Hey Frank, over here, over here.

I don't know, you probably don't remember this guy.

Tell him, who are you?

- My name's Tony Altimore.

- And why do we recognize you?

- Well, a few years back, you did a special on traditions and Christmas.

- [Rick] That was "Happy Holidays in Pittsburgh" and we met this Tony in Roland's in 2001.

He loved the cheese room at Penn Mac and he had a great line.

- If they can make an air freshener out of it, I'll put it in my car.

- You wanted an air freshener that smelled like Penn Mac?

- Absolutely.

- [Rick] Oh, so much smells good in the strip.

And if you want peanuts and coffee and good deli stuff, you wanna make a quick run into Presto George.

- They have good BLTs, they're awesome.

And they have good hot cup of coffee and there's a lot of treats and imported goodies too, so.

- I'm here for loose tea.

Vanilla coconut, that's a Christmas tradition.

Mr. Preston George introduced me to it last year.

- Another pound of the same thing but they need to be in the two separate bags.

- It's just a great place to come, I have fun every time I come here, spend a lot of money.

- [Rick] What are you guys here for?

- Coffee - We're here for coffee.

- [Rick] The gorgeous balancing.

- We're thinking light things at the beginning of the trip and then the heavier things toward the end when we're going to the car, so, - [Rick] Smart.

(couple laughing) - I'm in Preston George to get some coffee.

Let's go get some stuff from Reina.

Just loading up on some stuff here for the holidays.

I like to come down here in most Saturdays and yeah, get what I can.

- [Rick] Yeah and I know I always want to stop at Parma Sausage for their famous prosciutto and all sorts of meats.

- Cup of cola, they got the best cup of cola for none.

- So presada, spicy and mild.

- [Girl] We're buying cabassi to take down to Florida for my dad.

- [Woman] I'm a vegetarian but I still come to Parma to get sausage for salami for my brother.

(crowd chatting) - Merry Christmas everybody.

- Merry Christmas.

- Merry Christmas.

- Thank you.

(crowd chatting) - [Woman] It was great, you come for the atmosphere too.

You come for the fun.

And you know, the nice thing too is people don't mind the wait, that's what makes it so great.

I mean, how many times can you go into places and wait for half an hour?

People don't seem to mind, it's just comradery, just happens.

- Consume a market dollar with the world's in Italian style baloney, peppercorn, fat goodness.

- A little bit of wine, anybody?

- [Announcer] Number 86.

- Right here, on a pound a cup of cola, nice and lean.

And give me two wine pan pieces of the mild Italian sausage, a rope.

- To Luigi.

- To Luigi.

- [Woman] You got a number?

- I got a number.

- [Woman] Well, come on in.

That's gonna be enough.

- [Rick] And before we left, John and Rena invited us like Luigi use to, to come behind the counter and step back into the office.

The inner sanctum for a little spoontino, some wine and a few quick samples of their new domestic prosciutto made from Berkshire hogs.

You know, we could spend the rest of the day here but there are vegetables at stands and all the liveliness of the street and- - Best bread in the city, folks.

- [Rick] There's some incredible bread at Jimmy and Nino Sunseri too.

- Due Today, time for Christmas, time to get fat.

Hibernation season.

- Jimmy and Nino Sunseri have moved their store across Penn Avenue since we last had a camera down here.

- These our famous pepperoni bread.

Pepperoni inside, outside cheddar cheese.

It only gets better when you add the cheddar.

- [Old Woman] That's heavenly looking.

- [Vendor] It's Christmas.

This is one of the crazy people come out.

Thanks brother.

- Pepperoni cheddar folks, fresh out the ovens.

All our bread is made fresh every single day.

You'll never ever come into Jimmy Nino's and get a loaf of bread that's over four hours old.

And we also have homemade supersad which for the holidays, it probably one of the biggest and best sellers.

- They're ready to rock and roll if you are.

- Also we have our legendary dipping peppers.

This has jalapeno peppers, hot banana peppers, portabella mushrooms, fushuko, and we bake it.

We bake it for 4 hour at 350 degrees.

I sell this like I'm giving it away.

- [Rick] I can spend all my money here but we gotta go.

- Merry Christmas, Dani.

- It's just a short walk across an up Penn to the little pizzeria called Bella Notte where Don works.

He's Frank, my camera man's brother.

He makes a mean calzone.

We're not pausing here either.

We're back on the sidewalk.

We're heading for Pennsylvania Macaroni Company.

This is the place with the legendary cheese counter.

- Yeah we've been coming here for 12 years, it's a tradition.

- Every year I come from San Diego, California to make sure I come to here.

- [Announcer] One, two.

- It is so cool to see everybody's smiling faces in this chaos.

- Is the fourth generation right here.

- Mana have to hurt, I think I just made it.

- 47.

- 47 and we're on number 14.

(women laughing) - [Man] No, no, that's G14.

(women laughing) - [Man] You're on F. - [Man] After G. - [Crew] Are all these people crazy?

- [Woman] Yeah.

- [Man] We're all crazy.

- Yeah?

- Yeah.

- [Man] But it's kinda fun, isn't it?

- Yeah.

- What else can I get for you?

- [Rick] Oh, there's so much to get here.

There's even free samples of really good homemade wine in the back but we still have to stop at Enrico Biscotti, get something sweet.

- Is it pumpkin walnut?

- [Seller] We have a pumpkin walnut.

- I need one of those and a peanut butter chocolate chip.

- This is the time to come I mean, this is when the strip is what it is.

Today's the day to be in the strip.

Awesome day.

- Five macaroons in chocolate covered- - Five chocolate macaroons, sure.

- [Woman] I bought you something- - Penn, here you go.

- Yay!

- We will be cleared out by four o'clock, no question about it.

Hi, thank you very much.

- [Customer] Thank you.

- Thanks.

- Too much good stuff in the strip.

You know what I like about this program?

All these stories could have been longer.

We had to edit a lot.

They're just too many great holiday traditions, too many old photos, too many decorated houses, too many good things to eat in this town but you know, too much of something can be good at this time of year when the days are so short.

So happy Christmas, happy holidays, happy everything.

And do me a favor, stick around for the credits, our last ones in 2010.

- [Announcer] If you want to see other productions from Rick Sebak and his cohorts at WQED, check out the many DVDs offered at shopwqed.org or call 1-800-274-1307.

- It's it's funny, every night before I go to bed, I look out one of those windows on the third floor and I see something different every night.

Like they just put the new lights on top of a, I think it's the Melon Building downtown.

So I mean, every night you look out and you kinda see something different every night.

And I think I lived here for two years before I realized that that one little dot over there was the Armstrong Tunnel, it's kinda neat.

- I can't feel my feet.

- [Crew] Look ar you frozen.

- Yeah, you got boots on, I got slippers.

(man laughing) - [Announcer] To find out more about these stories, to leave a comment or a suggestion, go online to wqed.org/its-pittsburgh.

We also have a Facebook page and on Twitter, follow @rickaroundhere.

"It's Pittsburgh & A Lot of Other Stuff" is made possible by the Buhl Foundation, serving Southwestern Pennsylvania since 1927.

And by Huntington Bank, helping people in businesses with their money since 1866.

Welcome.