New Orleans ? The congregation of First Emmanuel Baptist Church drove from Baton Rouge, Houston and other points far and wide on Christmas, then walked past collapsed buildings and piles of storm wreckage to worship in their old church for the first time since Hurricane Katrina.

“This means everything. We’ve come home,” said Lila Southall, the minister’s wife. “My house is gone but I’m still home for Christmas.”

The 118-year-old church had lost much of its roof, part of the ceiling still hung precariously and the soggy carpet had not yet been replaced. But the magnificent stained-glass windows survived, and so did most of the 1,200 members.

Only a handful of people swayed in the pews to the music on Christmas morning, but that number will grow, Southall said. The church in the Uptown section will run a bus from Baton Rouge each Sunday to bring members back for the 7:30 a.m. service.

“It’s a grand feeling to be back home,” said Southall, whose house was submerged in 8 feet of water after the hurricane.

Christmas was a lonely time in much of New Orleans. Miles of houses stood deserted. Toppled signs, flooded cars, and boats that rescued people trapped by flooding were scattered along streets, in yards and parking lots.

In St. Bernard Parish, Charlie and Andrea Licciardi watched daughters Alixandria, 5, and Abigale, 4, open presents inside their tiny FEMA trailer.

Harold Hansford puts out flood-damaged Christmas decorations in front of his house, which was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, in Arabi, La., just outside New Orleans.

The girls pointed out the skylight that Santa used to bring gifts into the trailer, but seemed unaware of the wrecked houses that he had to fly over to find them.

“They really haven’t noticed all of that,” Andrea Licciardi said.

Cheryl and Melvin Anderson and their son and three grandchildren celebrated Christmas in a mobile home, one of a little group of trailers occupied by cemetery employees at Metairie Cemetery.

“It’s a nice, quiet neighborhood,” laughed Melvin Anderson.

Cheryl Anderson, 46, got up at 2 a.m. to begin cooking Christmas dinner on the tiny stove.

After floating out of her house when the water hit 9 feet, Cheryl Anderson spent two days on an overpass, then took shelter at the Superdome before evacuating to Birmingham, Ala.

“This is a very, very special Christmas,” she said. “If you’d seen the things I seen, you wouldn’t think we’d be here today.”