Holiday Traditions
By Shaw Media Staff
Although the pandemic may interrupt holiday traditions this year, Shaw Media staff members and correspondents reflected on some of their personal favorites. From cookie-baking to Christmas lights driving tours, many families look forward to not just the activities, but the time spent with friends and family.
Jeanette Smith, Advertising Director
The Holidays are special to me because they are spent with family and friends. Spending Christmas Eve day with two of my best friends at a local restaurant has been a tradition that we started several years ago and it is something we look forward to every holiday. We have even made a point to take a photo posed in the same spot each year to mark the occasion (I don’t think we have aged a bit) It’s not about gifts, it’s about catching up and spending time together. Unfortunately, due to this crazy year we may not be able to get together this Christmas but I know come Dec. 24, 2021, we will be back to our yearly outing for many more years to come because... “It’s the tradition!”
Ali Braboy, Correspondent
At a time when so much has been canceled, I’m glad knowing one of my favorite holiday traditions will be around — Christmas lights. My love for the bright, flashing decorations was instilled at a young age. Our five-person family drove every year to view the Festival of Lights display in East Peoria. Driving in a packed car to Peoria is magical (the trip seemed longer back then). We were oohing and aahing at the prettiest displays, and my siblings and I most likely shouted which ones were the best displays (bigger is better, right?) I have a new favorite display as an adult: Celebration of Lights in La Salle. There are so many area businesses, organizations and individuals who care for our home and helped grow the display to what is today. Those twinkling lights make for some memorable dark, winter nights with people I love.
Goldie Rapp, Associate Editor
One of my favorite holiday traditions is getting together with a dear friend the week before Christmas to bake Christmas cookies to take to our family gatherings. With work, kids and busy everyday life in general, we don’t get to see each other as often as we like, but for the past five years, we’ve always ensured no matter how busy we get around the holidays, we will always set time aside for this special tradition. Each year we coordinate what cookies we’re going to make and plan an afternoon/ evening of baking and catching up on life. We try new cookie recipes each year, and I have to admit some years the recipes have been better than others. But no matter how awful or how great the recipe, the getting together, talking away about life and getting into the holiday spirit with one another is what makes this tradition worth it every year.
Tammie Sloup, Regional Editor
A relatively new tradition in my family is an annual bake-a-thon every December. The aunts and cousins (I’m in the cousins group) meet at my aunt’s house early in the morning in our pajamas and spend the morning baking and decorating cookies. (The cousins do more of the decorating and sipping mimosas while the aunts bake). As the aunts bring tray after tray of sugar cookies to us to decorate, sprinkles and frosting wind up on our shirts, in our hair, on the floor and the table. We proudly hold up our creations, soliciting compliments on our cookies decorated like reindeer and snowmen. There’s about a dozen of us, and after about five years we’ve got the process down to a science (at least the aunts do). By lunchtime, we’re ready to pack up our containers with the freshly-baked treats, including kolaczkis, sugar cookies, gingerbread, and peanut butter blossoms, among others, and head home for a much needed nap.
Kim Shute, Reporter
Since my oldest was a toddler, we have a tradition of driving around town on Christmas Eve to look at the Christmas lights. The first time we went I think she must have only been about 2 or 3 and I told her we could get an eggnog milkshake. My husband made the fatal error of assuming she’d wait until the end of the drive so we spent the entire time listening to her lose it over getting her milkshake instead of enjoying the lights. After that rookie error, he learned the treats have to come first. She’s old enough to drive this year (!) so maybe it’s time to turn over the keys and enjoy the lights as a passenger.
Annette Barr, Correspondent
Traditions can be funny as they sometimes stem from seemingly random events. One Christmas Eve in the early 2000s my mom and I celebrated with a couple of cousins and my great-great aunt whom had found themselves without plans. We had so much fun together that the next year my cousin Kandis hosted what has become an annual Christmas Eve party. More family has joined the festivities throughout the years. Kandis makes lasagna. Brenda bakes and brings a tower of treats. Kerri always brings some yummy appetizer. My mom usually makes spinach dip. And once we’ve eaten, we gather in the living room and split into two teams for a game of Catch Phrase. There have been such memorable words and phrases such as scrimshaw and martial law. One of the most giggle inducing was delivered by an uncle, Marv. He looked at the game as the time ticked and sat silently. We all looked at him expectantly when finally he bellowed “horny!” Turns out he was describing a prickly pear. I don’t remember if anyone guessed it, but with a laugh like that, we were all winners.
14 November 2020 | Illinois Valley Woman | A NewsTribune Publication
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11/12/20 8:57 AM
