Many of us have our own holiday traditions. For some it’s a favorite family recipe to share during Christmas dinner or watching Christmas movies all night long. For others, it’s not Christmas till you have a sip of Christmas punch! Williamson Forward asked a few locals to share their favorite holiday traditions.
Sights, Sounds, and Smells of Christmas
Shelby Porter, a member of the Williamson Woman’s Club and one of the organizers of the Tug Valley Area Juniorettes Club, says one of her family traditions is they typically travel throughout the area visiting family. Also, she can’t go through Christmas Eve without her mom’s punch. Shelby says, “My mom makes sherbet punch every Christmas Eve, and I always look forward to that.”
Ralphie Hall with Ralphie & Homer RealTime always exchanges presents on Christmas Eve instead of Christmas Day, and his family also enjoys certain delicious treats. “We make my famous Christmas punch, and my mother’s sock-it- to-me cake. It’s been like that ever since I was a kid, and I kept it up after my mother passed,” he says.
Tonya Cool ,owner of Reflections Salon & Spa, says her family always enjoys banana pancakes on Christmas Day. “Every year, we have banana pancakes on Christmas Day, in memory of my father-in-law that passed, because he always made us banana pancakes.” Tonya also shares her favorite childhood tradition, “Growing up, my entire life, we didn’t do anything until we had read the Christmas story from the Bible.”
David Walker at Walker Family Farms enjoys the classic family tradition of cutting down his own Christmas tree. David says, “Every year we go find and cut a live cedar tree for our Christmas tree. I love the smell, and they last a lot longer than a pine tree would.”
Zoe Yates, a Williamson Forward content writer, and her family enjoy going out to appreciate a local holiday attraction. “Every year we drive through Christmas in the Park at Chief Logan State Park while listening to Christmas carols. We’ve done it since my brother and I were kids, and we’ve just kept it up. It’s so much fun to see all the lights, and it wouldn’t feel like Christmas if we didn’t do it,” she says.
What Christmas tradition do you love?