This a story about the impulse to reach out, to make Christmas mean more than getting expensive presents and giving obligatory reciprocal gifts, and of starting something that ends up much bigger than you had planned. It is a story that has been told before and from different angles, but it should be recalled often because it is a Hawaii story.

In December 1908 three young men from the mainland were visiting Hawaii during the holidays. They got the idea that if they couldn’t be home for Christmas, they should have Christmas in Honolulu. This was not the first Hawaii Christmas, mind you, but it marked the beginning of a lovely tradition that went on for years.

The Honolulu Advertiser reported on the plans:

“A great big Christmas tree from the summit of Tantalus, selected by Ralph S. Hosmer, Superintendent of Forestry of the Bureau of Agriculture and Forestry of Hawaii, will be planted in the Young Hotel park on Friday and loaded with Christmas gifts for the poor children of Honolulu. This is part of the Christmas celebration that is being given to the cosmopolitan youthful population of the Paradise of the Pacific by three young men from the mainland stopping at the Young Hotel. They find themselves this year far, far from home, with a longing for a snowy Christmas, but being here, decided that they would not be lonely and would do some good.

“At first they thought to give something to each of about 300 children. Then the Salvation Army and many missions about town said they had many, many children under their care whom they wished to include if it were agreeable to the donors. Then the latter planned for 600, then 800, then a thousand, and yesterday afternoon the figures had reached 1300.”

The effort became known as the “Malihini Christmas Tree,” a name that sounds odd by today’s standards and sensitivities. Over the years, the Malihini Christmas Tree became much more than newcomers giving presents to “underprivileged” island children. The generosity spread and multiplied. In 1912 author William Richmond, who stopped in Hawaii as part of a long voyage, noted that the gift-giving had flipped, and it was kamaaina extending presents to malihini under the big tree. “Understand, this was not a ‘charitable’ tree but an expression of goodwill from the oldtimers to the newcomers,” Richmond wrote.

The year before that, there was another version of the Malihini Christmas Tree. On Dec. 17, 1911, Honolulu newspapers reported:

“The suggestion that the entire Malihini Christmas Tree fund be turned over to the immigrant children came, by the way, originally from the Salvation Army Home, an institution which was benefited every year from the Malihini Tree fund. The children of that institution, by a vote, decided that they would give their share to the little children on Quarantine Island. Theirs is an example of giving that should awaken a responsive chord throughout the city.”

Quarantine Island was what we now call Sand Island, and it was where passengers were held if there had been illness on their ship.

At that Christmas season of 1911, passengers from the ship Willesden were being held at Quarantine Island. There had been an outbreak of smallpox on board, and 25 children had died during the voyage. One of the surviving children who was being kept at Quarantine Island was a baby, Francisco Cataluna, my grandfather. My great-grandfather Antonio Cataluna wrote a letter of thanks to the people of Hawaii which was published in the newspaper:

“The Portuguese immigrants ask the favor of allowing them a little corner of your paper to thank the Portuguese Consul as well as the respectable public of this Territory who contributed towards the subscription for the Portuguese immigrants who are isolated on Quarantine Island. We wish a Merry Christmas to the people of this Territory. On behalf of said immigrants, yours, Antonio C. Cataluna.“

(In this instance, “subscription” means the donation to a cause.)

The Malihini Christmas Tree project lasted for several years before fading away to other community events and charitable efforts. It is just a lucky fluke that I know my family’s connection to this lovely expression of aloha and to all those people long ago who followed their impulse to reach out, but there must be thousands of us, tens of thousands, who are the descendants of those joyful givers and grateful recipients.

Reach Lee Cataluna at 529-4315 or lcataluna@staradvertiser.com.