Free rooms at the Skirvin are Christmas Eve's past
Free rooms at the Skirvin are Christmas Eve's past

By Steve Lackmeyer

Published: December 25, 2007

As the Skirvin Hilton Hotel marks its first Christmas holidays in almost 20 years, general manager John Williams is happily counting on a full slate of reservations Christmas Eve in the landmark's Park Avenue Grill and at least half of his rooms filled with guests.

"Not a bad night,” Williams says.

In another era, guests were greeted with a surprise gift — a free stay on Christmas Day.

George James remembers those days after World War II — it was then that he and his father Dan James ran the hotel as a family business.

Christmas trees could be seen in every corner, George James said, as his dad went all out to make a big splash on holiday décor.

And between 1945 and 1963, when the James family owned the hotel, stays on Christmas Day were free.

"Nobody wanted to leave their hometown over Christmas, so we felt that they weren't really here by choice,” James said. "Either somebody was here visiting somebody in the hospital, or involved in a lawsuit, but we couldn't see anyone being at a hotel Christmas Day by choice.

We were very casual about it. And just to see a smile on their face — ‘by the way, there's no choice' — it was great.”

James wishes he had saved all the cards and letters from grateful guests. He also recalls that even though they only averaged 20 of 365 rooms being booked on Christmas Day, word of their generosity eventually got around.

"It was a lot of fun, and eventually everybody got to know about it,” James said. "People would come up and say, ‘I guess my room is free tonight.'”

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