COLUMN: Always Christmas in the Meriweather family

It happens almost every time Bill Meriwether III sees someone who remembers his father. 

He will smile and wish them, “Merry Christmas!”

And they will return the “Merry Christmas!’’ salutation.

It doesn’t matter whether it’s the middle of February or the Fourth of July. It’s always Christmas in the Meriwether family. 

Bill and Jeanene Meriwether even named their youngest daughter Meri Christmas Meriwether.

For generations of Maconites, Bill Meriwether Jr. represented the walking, talking spirit of Christmas. When he died in 2008 at the age of 89, his obituary read Bill “Merry Christmas” Meriwether.

His signature “Merry Christmas” did not depart this world with him.

 His family has kept the tradition going … year round, of course.

This month marks the 75th anniversary of what became more than a Christmas card but a calling card. 

Meriwether owned a photography studio in Macon for 48 years before retiring in 1993. He preserved grins for posterity in high school yearbooks and his lens captured life’s milestones at weddings and reunions.

In December 1950, as the calendar rushed toward Christmas, customers came by his studio on Cotton Avenue to pick up their holiday orders.

He said “Merry Christmas” to everyone who came through the door.  Even into the new year, Meriwether kept repeating the greeting … partly out of habit but mostly out of joy. It wasn’t just Christmas leftovers. It was genuine. It was heartfelt.

Sure, he got his share of curious looks, but he kept circling back to season’s greetings. He insisted it had nothing to do with a play on his last name, as in “Merry Weather.’’ He loved the way it made people feel special, as if he had bottled the spirit of the season and spread it throughout the year.

He soon began answering every phone call with “Merry Christmas.’’ He and his wife, Betsy, would get mail addressed to “Merry Christmas” at their home on Winston Drive in south Macon. The glee club at Wesleyan College once paid tribute to him with a rendition of “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.’’ 

Whenever children would remind him that it wasn’t Christmas, he would tell them, “Well, it’s Christmas to me!’’ 

Riverside Plaza opened in the late 1960s, and Meriwether moved his photography studio to a corner of the shopping center. When the plaza was torn down in 2024 to build River Edge Behavioral Health Center, Jeanene Meriwether said she began getting messages on Facebook from people who told her the demolition had stirred fond memories of her late father-in-law.

“They remembered him walking through that shopping center telling them ‘Merry Christmas’ in the middle of summer,’’ she said.

Jeanene said Meriwether loved to tell the story about the time he went to a Jewish synagogue to photograph a wedding.

“People there who knew him were telling him ‘Merry Christmas’ before he could say anything,’’ she said. “So his response was ‘Happy Hannakah!’ ’’

Bill said his father was a regular at the S&S Cafeteria on Eisenhower Parkway in Bloomfield, where employees would wish him a “Merry Christmas’’ every time he pushed his tray down the serving line.

For 35 years, Bill followed in his father’s footsteps and had a photography business in Macon. He said people would often ask if he was the “son of Merry Christmas.” He is now the cemetery supervisor for Snow’s at Macon Memorial Park. 

His sister, Meri, died in 1997. Her parents did not give her a middle name, so she went through life as Meri Meriwether.

When Jeanene was pregnant with their youngest child, they decided to name her Meri, in honor of Bill’s sister. 

“We found out we were going to have a girl, and Bill said he wanted to name her Meri,’’ Jeanene said. “I told him she had to have a middle name. We were not going to go through what his sister went through. Everybody called her Meri Meri. When he said ‘Christmas’ I told him my mom would kill me if I named her grandchild ‘Christmas.’ But she was fine with it.’’

Meri Christmas Meriwether was born on May 23, 1989. It didn’t seem to bother Bill’s dad that it was springtime. He called the florist and had a bouquet of Christmas balloons delivered to the hospital room.

Her family decided to call her “Christie.’’ Once, when a cashier told them to “have a Merry Christmas,’’ her older sister, Elizabeth, giggled and said, “We already do.’’

Christie graduated from Mount de Sales and later worked as a server at several local restaurants. She always requested that her name tag read “Christmas.”  

“If she gave them good service, people would come back and ask to sit in the ‘Christmas’ section,’’ Jeanene said.