By By Lindsey Sherrill
Staff Writer
A couple of days ago I was looking through some of our archives here at the Advance and found a December 1952 edition. On the front page were two stories about Christmas events occurring around Atmore. The first story was about the Christmas parade. Apparently, even fifty years ago the parade was an established Atmore Christmas tradition. On the same page was also a story about the Christmas lights up around the city and the addition of some new decorations.
This got me thinking about different Christmas traditions. I suppose most people have some kind of Holiday tradition that is unique to their family.
We have so many little things in my family that are integral parts of
Christmas that I don't even know where to begin. A major one is decorating the tree. I love putting up a Christmas tree in that same corner of the living room, and trimming it with all those special ornaments. We have boxes and boxes of ornaments and each one as its own story. Like that little log cabin we bought on vacation several years ago. Or the seashell that we found during a school project. We have a doily angel that a girl in my senior class made for my mom when we were four years old. My personal favorite has got to be the clay angel that I made in Sunday school when I was two or three. The ornament is cut out of white clay with a cookie cutter and baked. It has been broken and glued back together so many times, but every year it's there, hanging somewhere on the tree with all the other memories.
Another tradition is the cooking. I've always loved baking cookies,
breads, and making candy to give away. When I was younger mom and I would make dozens and dozens of goodies to share. We'd nearly kill ourselves doing it all, but it was still fun.
A huge part of Christmas for me, and I'm sure for most other people, is family. Christmas is a time when I get to be with my family and truly enjoy being together. I get to see my siblings and have the fun of finding gifts for them. I love getting gifts for the people I care about! But the gifts aren't really what it's about. I think it is about the joy of being with people you love at a time when you can slow down and really appreciate them.
Whatever your holiday tradition may be, have a wonderful holiday season!