Editor's Voice

Written by Leigh Ripley

I have always loved the holidays–more specifically, the traditions that surround them.

Autumn would signal the beginning of the season, with falling leaves and my favorite, football. In my youth we didn’t have Spirit Halloween stores. Most costumes were handmade with lots of needle stab wounds, copious amounts of glue and a whole lot of creativity and imagination. When the big night finally arrived, I would trick-or-treat with a posse of kids from my neighborhood and zero adult supervision, armed with a flashlight and pillowcase for my goodies. Looking back on it now, it was like a scene out of Lord of the Flies

A few short weeks later would usher in Thanksgiving. Family would gather at our house, football playing in the den, my aunts “helping” my stressed-out mother with dinner, while kids flipped through the Sears catalog and Toys "R" Us "Big Book," meticulously crafting our Christmas lists.

In those days, children were better seen than heard during Thanksgiving dinner. Once served, my sister and I (along with our cousins) ate our meal on the outskirts of the kitchen as the adults enjoyed the dining room. A promotion to the dining room table usually came with someone passing away or moving out of state.

And then, Christmas—my family’s achilles heel. We are the over-doers, and that’s an understatement. The tree went up pretty much the day after Thanksgiving, along with an attic full of decorations.

Holiday music filled the house. I am still transported back in time when I hear “Feed the World,” Bob Geldof’s mobilization of the biggest pop stars of the '80s performing a song on MTV and spurring everyone to help relieve famine in Ethiopia. And what about “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” by Band Aid and how the proceeds went to relief efforts.

We baked cookies and decorated them. Went to the mall and had our picture taken with Santa.

We watched Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, A Charlie Brown Christmas, Frosty the Snowman and John Denver and The Muppets. And it required effort. We had to scour the TV Guide to find the show’s air date and time, and make sure our butts were parked in front of the TV so we could catch it the one time it came on that year. With no DVR or streaming service, if you missed the one airing, you had to wait another year to see it.

Parents had to physically go shopping and do their best impression of a linebacker to secure whatever the hottest item of the season was. I remember when it was the Cabbage Patch doll. My mother waited in lines at stores covering a 30-mile radius but to no avail. So, to avoid disappointment on Christmas morning she made me one…out of a pair of nylons. It was really quite creepy, but it’s the thought that counts, right?

On Christmas Eve my sister and I had a sleepover that barely involved sleep, and morning found us in our new holiday pj's running into the living room to discover what Santa had delivered. Family would come over for dinner and then we all sat around the fire, opening presents from each other. The over-do would absolutely come into play during this portion of the day. So that everyone could enjoy what was being given and received, we were only allowed to open one present at a time (without tearing the wrapping paper so it could be reused the next year); needless to say, it wasn’t uncommon for someone very old or very young to fall asleep.

We do things a little differently in my house these days. The tree goes up in early November. The Hallmark Channel is on 24-7 and we have our new family favorite movies… that we can watch whenever we want. Everyone sits at the dining room table for all holidays, even if I have to add folding tables to accommodate. We tear through our presents and make a huge mess of the living room. Slight changes, but all built around the strong traditions that will stand in my family for years to come.

Happy Holidays Montana Parents!