Christmas cheer in short supply for some Katrina refugees

HOUSTON (AP) — No lights ring the rooftop. No Christmas tree beckons holiday well-wishers through the living room window. No wreath adorns the front door.

For Cheryl Lee and the thousands of others who fled the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina, those little traditions that make each family's Christmas its own were washed away, turning the weeks before Dec. 25 into a bittersweet season.

“If I was in New Orleans right now, I already would have got presents for one of my kids. The house would have been decorated,” Lee said as the tears began. “Not too much, some simple stuff. Just make it a warm, cozy Christmas for me and my children.”

Lee, 45, lives in a far-flung, still-developing suburb of Houston. It's a 30-minute walk to either a bus stop or a grocery store. A cab ride can cost $20 or $30.

The suburb is a stark contrast to downtown Houston, where elaborate decor and lavish shopping are standard during the holidays.

Once a cook in New Orleans, Lee is running out of money and is still looking for a job. It's becoming particularly difficult to put on a brave face for her 10year-old daughter.

“She asks me, 'Mom, are we getting a tree?” I said, 'We'll decorate my plant and we won't need a tree.' She said, 'That ain't no tree, that's your plant.'”

In a refugee campground outside Birmingham, Ala., David and Lorraine Dawson and their three children are finding Christmas has to take a back seat to more practical worries, like the $561 utility bill that arrived. The family's home on the Mississippi coast was washed out in the hurricane.

“It's not going to be a big Christmas,” said a dejected David Dawson, a one-time construction worker living on less than $200 a week in unemployment benefits.

For others, gathering the family for the holidays will be impossible this year. Shaleta Sudds' family is scattered across four states, so the large family gatherings of the past won't happen.

“I'm not putting up a tree this year,” said Sudds' cousin, Yvonne Washington. “It just doesn't feel right.”

Sudds is taking her 14-year-old son to New Orleans to visit his father. But she's not looking forward to the trip, and doesn't know if she will ever return again.

“It's hard,” she said. “You know a lot of people that died, that drowned, and a lot of people who lost everything.”

Some are trying their best to harness the spirit of the holiday season despite being far from home. In Houston, Faye Burnett, a 48-year-old former Head Start teacher in New Orleans, hung a plastic candy cane from a front window. Instead of a Christmas tree, she strung some lights across a small plant in her front yard.

Burnett lives across from Lee in the still-developing area. Lee said she moved there because she knew it would be isolated, but safe. Burnett says she often consoles her.

“I told Ms. Cheryl that anything I have I'll give to her,” Burnett said. “All these children need a Christmas.”

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Associated Press writers Jay Reeves in Birmingham, Ala., and John Rogers in Los Angeles contributed to this report.