Your Journal-Record staff members took a few moments out of their busy holiday print schedule to share a few of their favorite holiday traditions, both new and old, for readers to enjoy. We hope you have time to slow down for a few moments amidst your own holiday bustle and sip a cup of coffee or hot chocolate and savor these shares, and possibly recall a few of your own favorite childhood traditions or find some inspiration for new ones.
Erin
Advertising
manager
One of my favorite annual traditions is for me and my husband, Bryan, to spend Christmas Eve with my family. This includes my mother, Debra; my father, Jerome; my grandmother, Elaine; my sisters, Angie and Dana; my brother-in-law, Junior; my nieces, Zoe and Karter; and my nephew, Jack.
My boys, Dylan and his wife Kara, and Blake and his girlfriend, Isabelle, will also be there. My aunt Cindy, and my uncle Phillip, will join us. And my number one cousin, Jerry, will round out the family members for this special night.
This will be a different celebration this year, though, because my other grandmother, Maxine, is no longer with us. She’ll be greatly missed. But... next Christmas, we’ll have a new family member—my sweet “grandgirl,” Athena, will be joining us in February!
On Christmas Eve
we’ll eat a big feast and then open presents. We don’t draw names. We still all get special presents for everybody there. My younger sister, Dana, and I are the ones who pass the presents out. And we all kind of open them at the same time. It’s wonderful Christmas chaos.
But my momma and daddy always wait until the very last to open theirs, because they really enjoy watching everyone else open their gifts.
Another Christmas tradition Bryan and I enjoy is driving around to look at all the Christmas lights. We also watch every version we can find of “The Christmas Carol.” Bryan really likes the 1984 one with George C. Scott as Scrooge. I like the Muppet version and the 1938 version with Reginald Owen as Scrooge.
A tradition from my past I enjoyed was watching “White Christmas” with my mother and sisters. We always watched it every year and still try to do so, if possible.
And lastly, I remember fondly being driven around as a child to see the Christmas lights by my grandfather and grandmother, Rollen and Elaine Weaver, and seeing my other grandparents’ house with the Christmas lights—Billy and Maxine Wisham. They would put the big, original colorful Christmas bulbs all around the house.
I look forward to making many more new traditions next Christmas with our new grandbaby! And introducing her, as well, to all these traditions I’ve mentioned.
P.J.
General manager
A new tradition I started this year began in the mind of JR Advertising Manager Erin Williams, who jokingly suggested I play the Grinch in a local Christmas parade. She said she thought it’d be funny and I said, “okay.”
So, I ended up being the Grinch for Hamilton’s Hometown Christmas, and I was in Guin’s Christmas parade as the Grinch, too.
The best part about being the Grinch was these two little boys, about 9 or 10, who didn’t notice me at first. I was close to them, and they dropped something and bent down to pick it up. When they looked up and saw me, they squealed and ran off. But then, they came back. And every time I had my back turned to them, they’d try to sneak up on me and hit me. I’d turn around and chase after them for a few seconds. That was fun.
And then there were the other kids. Most of them were not shy to come to me, but a few were. I think every kid did eventually come up and get their picture made with me. And instead of a beard pull, I kept getting my mask squished. One of them grabbed my mask right in the mouth.
The worst part about being the Grinch was wearing the costume. It was so hot. When I pulled the mask off, it was completely dripping with sweat. I’m not sure if I’ll do it again next year, but there is a possibility.
Advice I’d give to other Grinches is be ready to engage with kids. Something that’s made this very ironic is that I’ve never watched a Grinch cartoon or movie. I’ve seen nothing of them. And I don’t plan to. I’ll keep it mysterious. I do think I’m sort of a Grinchy person, anyway. I love being Grinchy. I was very sarcastic during the Christmas parade. I tried to steal some kids’ candy canes--just because they said I couldn’t have any.
Regarding other traditions, since my birthday is Christmas Eve, my family always made sure I had a separate birthday, with gifts, and then Christmas gifts later. Or they would give me my birthday presents first, while everyone sat around and watched me. I didn’t like that.
One tradition was my Aunt Bessie would usually have a unique metal ornament made every year for me for our tree, including one for the year I was born, which was the last week of 1980. The birthday ornaments would all have my name engraved on the back.
For several years, she kept that up. I’ve kept all of them. And I still have my kindergarten ornament I made for our tree. I have pictures of it.
I usually have Christmas dinner with my Aunt Judy on Christmas Eve. My plans are to eat a great holiday meal at some point, but hopefully, mostly just rest and enjoy some time off of work.
Regarding Christmas music, I do listen every year to a playlist I made about 10 years ago of specific Christmas songs, not traditional ones.
As for looking at Christmas lights, when I was little, we did go riding around for a little while at night to see the lights.
And putting up Christmas lights and garland was always a good tradition.
Luke
Sports editor
My favorite tradition is getting to spend time with my extended family around Christmas time each year. Most of my family lives in either south Alabama or in Texas, but we usually try to get together in south Alabama (those of us who can make it).
The food is always incredible! Being that we’re in south Alabama, it’s a blend of the expected Christmas foods with the addition of boiled shrimp, fried catfish and more! My grandmother’s roast beef and gravy is another annual favorite of mine.
A recent tradition has been playing “Dirty Santa,” where the men bring men’s gifts and women bring women’s gifts, draw numbers and then go around either opening a new gift or “stealing” someone else’s. We started that recently, and it’s been fun to play that each year.
In years past, we would all draw names of another relative and get them a specific gift, but over time as it became more difficult with work schedules and other complications to get everyone together each year, Dirty Santa become the more practical game.
Growing up, my family always had the traditional Christmas morning of waking up to see what Santa brought us. Now we exchange gifts with each other.
One tradition that will probably never go away is our shared love for the movie “Elf,” starring Will Ferrel. That is one of a few movies that I can nearly quote in its entirety. My sister, who lives in New York City, even managed to find the coffee shop shown in the movie boasting of “the world’s best cup of coffee!”
Watching and quoting that movie is one of my favorite traditions, past and present.
Even as my family, both immediate and extended, live all across the country, it’s nice that we still try to get together as often as we can for Christmas.
Chazz
Staff writer
One of my favorite Christmas traditions is Christmas chili. I traveled home for decades for Christmas and enjoyed all the usual delicious holiday meal fixings. But as family members passed on, and I had to stop traveling, I found there was no way I could duplicate all those great dishes. So, one year, I made chili for Christmas. I loved it, and I’ve had it ever since, creating a new tradition for myself.
Another tradition I love is sharing Christmas songs each day in December up until Christmas with my Sissy. From new artists, to the old and familiar favorites, sharing songs is a special connection that fills us both with joy and brings far-away family into our hearts on a daily basis, which is a true gift of the season.
Another of my traditions our readers may be familiar with by now is my annual Christmas song contest. From the songs sent by my sister and the songs I choose to send her, and any other Christmas songs I hear, I select a top ten, then a top five. And on Christmas Eve, the favorite of the year has to be chosen.
I’m not sure yet what the Christmas song of 2025 will be (for me), but it’s a fun tradition, and one you could share with your own family, your friends or just enjoy all by yourself.
(Two top contenders this year are older songs I recently heard for the first time: “Snowy White Snow and Jingle Bells” by Vaughn Monroe (1950) and “Mary and Joseph and The Baby and Me” by Ray Stevens (2016). And I have had ties before.)
One of my favorite traditions from my childhood was the opening of one gift on Christmas Eve. As one of four children, there were packages piled all around the bottom of our tree. It was fun to go through them all and select one to be opened early. I carried this tradition on with my own son when he was little. And sometimes, I will still open one gift early from among the packages sent to me by my family.
Merry Christmas!
We hope you’ve enjoyed this little roundup of holiday traditions. And no matter the traditions you enjoy carrying on, or the traditions you are creating anew, we hope and pray you all have a blessed Christmas.
Thank you, Lord, for the Greatest Gift of all, your Son, Jesus, who is the real reason for this holy holiday season. As The Message paraphrase of Romans 3:24, states, “God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity He put us in right standing with Himself. A pure Gift. He got us out of the mess we're in and restored us to where He always wanted us to be. And He did it by means of Jesus Christ.”
Merry Christmas to all! And Happy Birthday, Jesus! To God Be The Glory!
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