OPEN SOURCE: What are your favorite holiday traditions and why. If you’d like to share them, we’d like to hear them. Email directly to Larry Phillips at Larry@RichlandSource.com. Just give us your name and what town you’re from if you’d like to be included. Later in December, we’ll share with our readers what you shared with us.
MANSFIELD — The holiday season is upon us, and I wonder how many folks are replaying the same scenario that grips the Phillips home this time every year.
It’s a chore because there’s so much of it, but we all go to the basement and bring up the ornaments, decorations and lights.
This year we put up an artificial tree in the dining room with clear lights. We had to rearrange the room, but it was something new, and it’s a nice touch in front of a big window. We also put a collection of special ornaments on it that we’ve purchased over the years.
If we like it (and we do) it will probably become a new tradition.
Just doing that reminded me of something Mom started when I was very little.
She went to Wells Department store in Heath, and put on layaway a small but sturdy Nativity Scene with colorful ceramic characters including the Holy Family, the Three Wise Men, and barn animals. It also features a windup music box in the back that plays Silent Night when cranked.
It was a big deal 50 years ago, and it became a permanent staple over the holidays.
We always got it out around Thanksgiving to go in our bay window. It was like a teaser before the real Christmas season began and I loved it — and still do. It triggers a flood of wonderful childhood Christmas memories, and also provides a subtle reminder of the reason for the season in our home.
I helped Mom get it out again last week.
Another tradition our family enjoys is cutting our own Christmas Tree at Timbuk Farm a few miles north of Granville.
The story goes that in kindergarten our class took a field trip to the farm to pick out a Christmas tree for our elementary school. Apparently, this made a huge impression on me. After talking about it for days, my parents (almost certainly to shut me up) decided to give it a try. That was in 1972.
Except for 1976, when we lived in Wyoming, a member of the family has gone back every year since.
A couple of years ago, I had sweatshirts made marking the first year each of us made the trip. Even last year, when everyone was masked up for COVID, there was still a huge crowd and the festive mood filled the air.
All of these thoughts of the season made me wonder what holiday traditions or ornaments or gifts are most special to our readers, and why?
If you’d like to share your story with us, we’d like to hear it. Feel free to send us a photo too.
Go ahead and email me directly at Larry@RichlandSource.com. Just give us your name and what town you’re from if you’d like to be included. Later in December, we’ll share with our readers what you shared with us.
We hope this season can be special for you, too.
