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The Horton Christmas will be sad this year

A Bittersweet Christmas in Salem

GET OUT THOSE HANKIES. One of the most beloved traditions in soaps, the decorating of the Horton Christmas tree on Days of Our Lives, will be a lot less cheerful this year due to the death of two major family members, Mickey, last played by Kevin Dobson, was killed off by the writers in January. Then grande dame Alice passed away in June, several months after the death of actress Frances Reid, who portrayed the feisty matriarch since Days' debut in 1965. But Salem's premiere clan is determined to press on and make the best of the holidays.

"It was hard when we shot the Christmas episodes [airing December 24 and 27] because the Horton living room felt so empty," says fan fave Melissa Reeves, who recently returned to the soaps as Alice's granddaughter Jennifer Rose after a four year absence. "Bo and Hope are on the run. Jennifer's husband, Jack, is on a walkabout in Australia. Her kids are snowed in at Heathrow airport. But the few Hortons who are left - Doug, Julie, Maggie - are not going to break with tradition because of troubles and tribulations. They make sure every ornament is hung on the tree."

Many of those ornaments - each with the name of a family member - have been seen on the show for decades. "We've never broken one of them," says Reeves. "When the prop department brings out that box, it triggers so much emotion in all of us, especially this year, because we all miss Frances so much. We've kept her chair on the set - her place of honor- and none of us ever sits in it. I don't know that we ever will."

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