Christmas Special: Hot Cocoa, Decorations & Traditions

On this special Christmas episode of Travel Time Stories join host Shannon and co-host Ann as they discuss all things Christmas. 

• Christmas Past vs Present
• Traditions they grew up with and ones they share with their kids and grandkids
• Holiday food & recipes
• Gifts & Games
• Family gatherings & Christmas spirit
• Movies, Memories & Music
• Holiday Travel & Christmas Markets

https://www.christkindlmarket.com/

#christmas #christmasdecorations #holidayrecipes #christmastraditions #holidaytravel #christmasmarkets #achristmasstory #achristmascarol #miracleon34thstreet #christmasmusic #christmasspecial #newepisode #podcast #tunein #travelpodcast #holidaytraditions 

Transcript

Welcome back to Travel Time Stories. I'm Shannon, your host from Texas, and with me is my best friend and co-host Ann.  Today we're talking about Christmas, how it's changed from when we were kids to now as grownups with our own families and grand babies. Everybody grab your hot cocoa because we're about to unwrap some holiday memories.

So before we dive in, tell us what's one tradition you've kept since childhood. Drop it in the comments or tag us on social. We'd really love to know. So we're gonna talk, about childhood past versus present. What was Christmas like when you were a kid Ann decorations, family size, excitement level, that kind of thing.

Oh yeah. I mean it was a big deal at our house. My mom baked all of December. It's funny, she used to hide the goodies in these plastic Tupperware things, and she would hide them under her bed thinking that nobody knew where they were. I did every day. I'd go in and I'd sneak a couple cookies and I'd fix it back.

Like nobody was in there. She never said anything to me, but I know that she knew that I was sneak cookies the whole month. Yeah. Decorations, things were a little bit different then. They didn't make Christmas trees. that really looked real like they do now. I remember one year we had a white one.

It had the, little turn dial underneath it. It changed it to different colors. I love that tree. I thought was so awesome. Santa. Yeah, we'll get into that later as far as believeing in Santa, I did for a while. How'd you find out the truth, Shannon? Actually kids at school told me, oh yeah, Christmas at our house was kind of similar to yours, my mom did, extensive baking and the whole nine yards.

We had a large family. So yeah, it was loud and proud at Christmas time with all the family. 'Cause I had all my brothers and sisters who were all older than me married. They had kids of their own. There was a lot of young kids running around, that kind of thing. I did believe in Santa Claus, wholeheartedly.

When some kid at school told me that it was not real, I literally had a meltdown. I bawled my eyes out and then went home and asked Mama about it, and mama told me that the kid was lying, and that if I didn't continue to believe in Santa, I wouldn't get gifts anymore. Even though I pretty much.

Believed that the kid was telling me the truth. I still had to act like I believed in Santa because I was worried if I didn't, I wouldn't give gifts anymore. Oh my gosh. There was just the five of us in our family. Of course we always had neighbors and friends.

It was nothing to have 30 to 40 people around the table at Christmas, Thanksgiving. Always had a big crowd. I found out about Santa at school too, but I wasn't sure if I believed it or not. So that night I decided I would find out on Christmas Eve. So I did. I stayed up, pretended like I was asleep and waited and waited.

I'm telling you, I thought they were never gonna get to it. Finally, I hear rustling, right? My mom giggling. I wait and I sneak out and there was a closet right there by my bedroom, and then my bedroom door was here, so snuck out right by that wall and I peeked out. Sure enough, there was mom and dad putting out the presents so how about y'all's house? Did you decorate like the outside of your house or whatever? My dad, that was his thing and he was huge on decorating the house. He was basically like, the Griswolds when it came to decorating the outside of our house, that was hilarious because it was not my dad that did it.

It was my mom. My mom grew up in a family with 22 kids, very poor. So for Christmas they would get a stocking and it would have an apple, an orange and some nuts in it. And that was pretty much their Christmas. When my mom got married and had kids and could do it. She would go crazy at Christmas.

She would decorate outside, inside, you name it. She had little twinkly lights on all the bushes. Yeah. Anywhere she could reach, she would decorate, so I loved it. That's amazing. Yeah. She had a manger, big manger set that she would set up in the front yard and light up. And then she had this big old Santa, he was probably five feet tall plastic.

He lit up. Girl, we had that thing I bet for 30 years. She had that Santa before the paint finally chipped off so much. I was like, mom, gotta let it go.

Oh gosh. So how does it compare now with your own family, Shannon? Bigger, smaller, relaxed, stressful. It's definitely smaller, that's for sure. Because, we don't have any family that we celebrate with anymore. Our last Christmas that we celebrated big as a huge family, it's sad to say, was in, 2000 and.

Seven, no, 2006. Because my mom passed away 2007, so it was that Christmas before she passed. So it was 2006. is the last Christmas that we had with my family, because after mom passed just like everybody went their separate ways and we didn't have Christmas or holidays together anymore. And with Jeff's family.

It's been many years since we had a holiday with them as well. We just don't get invited anymore, we don't go to holidays with them. So it's just been for the last several years, it's just been me, Jeff, and the two boys. Yeah. And then now that both boys are grown. And one doesn't live at home anymore.

It's just me, Jeff, and Kevin now. It's very small and actually very sad. It's very sad that it's just us. I'm used to and loved having the big holidays with everybody together. Me too. The fun of all the kids, watching them open their gifts and yeah, I miss that tremendously. So guys treasure those this moments, you know, they go by so quick.

My Christmas is still crazy. So we have two daughters. They each have two kids. They each have a boy and a girl. They are three, four, and two five year olds. So yeah, we have a pretty loud, crazy paper flying, screaming awesome Christmas. I love it. I love watching the kids open their gifts. It's so fun.

Yeah. That's always was my favorite thing, was watching the kiddos open their gifts. Yep, exactly. Speaking of traditions, let's talk about what's stuck and what's brand new. So what traditions do you still keep from childhood? I still do the tree decorating. I really don't do stockings anymore.

We used to go to, I was raised Catholic, so we had to go to midnight mass every Christmas. And then after midnight mass, our good friends were French, the Lapierre's, and after midnight mass, we would go to their house on Christmas Eve and they would make waffles and they had all kinds of, just French pastries prepared, all kinds of yummy stuff.

And so we would go there and have, warm wine and waffles. Just all kinds of yummy French foods and we get home about 2, 2 30 and God, now that I'm a grandparent, poor mom and dad, us kids were up at 5 30, 6 o'clock yelling for everybody to get up. So yeah, they didn't get a whole lot of sleep on Christmas, well, for me, the traditions that we still do that I did as a child was we decorate the tree, we still do stockings. That's big for me. I prefer stockings over gifts, actually. And a lot of times we just have stockings and no gifts. So there's that. I still cook a huge meal and I do a huge spread of baking.

As you know, I normally, make goody baskets, of all my baked goods and hand those out to coworkers, friends, neighbors, that kind of thing. We used to go to church when I was a child. To the, Christmas Eve service that's something that I don't keep, we don't do that anymore and, we never did caroling when I was a kid,

Us either we don't do that either. So what new traditions, have you started or does, your kids or grand babies do? I pretty well let their parents do their, I want them to have traditions like we had. So like every New Year's Eve, I'm, weak, my girls would talk me into letting them open a gift.

So every New Year's Eve, somebody got to open a gift that I pick. You mean Christmas Eve? Christmas Eve. Thinking New Year's here. That was one thing we let the kids do and I think that they let their kids do it too. I think they let their kids open a gift at Christmas Eve for fun.

Not really into Elf on the shelf or matching jammies or any of that stuff. Now that the girls are older, last year my oldest hosted. My youngest is hosting, so it's been kind of , a little treat for me. So I've always hosted, so I'm kind of enjoying this stage of my life. Yeah, that's really nice that you get to do that.

Yeah, go eat. Have fun with the grand babies. See everybody and good to go Yep.

Holiday food and recipes. I gotta ask, what do you cook now versus back in your childhood? Got new dishes you've added. So I'm looking at my notes here regarding dishes. Oh no, she has notes guys. So the favorite dishes that, I had from childhood that I still do not every single time, but from time to time that I do, is, my mom gave me the recipe for eggplant dressing.

I absolutely love it. Some people may hear that and be like, Ooh, I don't know about that. But I did. Lemme tell you guys, it is fabulous. I absolutely love it. If the other two people in my household would eat it, then I would make it every single time. I'm the only one that will eat it. The boys will not eat it.

The other thing that we make every single year is the broccoli rice casserole. 'cause that's Jeff's favorite. So I have to make that every single year. And that was a recipe that my mom used to make as well. Then new recipes that I do now. Is the zucchini brownies, which are always a big hit.

And the Italian cream cheese cookies. Oh, those are to die for. Yeah, those are a must have. And guys, I can literally eat the whole batch by myself. I have to stop myself. It's bad. And as they, you keep 'em in a closed, like tin container. As they sit, they get better. I mean, oh, those things.

Yeah. You cannot stop yourself. Exactly. The new recipe that I tried out this year, that was amazing. I tried it at Thanksgiving and it was a hit, so I'll be doing it again at Christmas, and that is Gnocchi dressing. That looked really good. It was fabulous. So I'll have to send you the recipe so you can try it out.

Yeah, do that. I'd like to check that out. Yeah. So what about you recipes? Favorite dishes? I do, one of our favorite things are the rolls, the yeast rolls. Mm-hmm. I cannot show up without them. I don't dare invite any of my kids over unless those are on the menu. So those are a must have at our house.

And we're not big Turkey eaters, so usually we'll do a prime rib roast or a ham, and then all the fixings, potatoes, gravy, all that good stuff, different veggies, salads. One thing that we always had childhood. My dad made this cornbread dressing that is just so delicious and I literally can't have a holiday without it. It's just. The staple, you know, for holidays for us. Yeah. I like a good cornbread dressing.

Now that we're full, let's talk about gifts and games. So do you buy gifts for everyone? Make gifts? What do you do? I buy for the grandkids. I usually give the adults money because they wanna get their own stuff and I don't know what to get for them. So unless they give me a specific thing, I just put that cash, let them get their own thing

and then, gotta make the goodie trays up for all the neighbors in our house, the way we always did it is, we bought gifts for all the kids, all the little kids, and then all of us who were adults. My mom would give, she didn't buy gifts for each adult. She would give each couple. Each married couple, a hundred dollar bill, and that was our Christmas gift from her.

We bought gifts for every single kid and then us siblings amongst ourselves would draw names and buy a gift for whatever name that we got. Rather than buying for every single sibling. That was fun. Yeah, and sometimes we didn't buy, we would make gifts. The one year I made wreaths, candy wreaths, for everybody.

I did that a few years ago as well for all of my coworkers. I made Candy Wreaths for all of them and mailed them to their houses so I kinda like making gifts.

So do you have any, games that you play during Christmas gatherings or anything? You know, we really don't. With the grandkids it's usually just crazy and it's all about them. So we're usually looking at toys, playing with toys with them. In the floor doing grand baby stuff.

So we don't really play games. We'll sit around chat and snack and, you know, that kind of stuff. Yeah. We like to at our house, now that it's just, me and Jeff and the kids, we do board games every Christmas, every Christmas after presents we'll pick out a board game and do a board game.

And then we watch, a movie together. And that's our Christmas evening. And now in Jeff's, yeah, yeah. Now in Jeff's family, when we did, holidays with them, that's when I learned about the white elephant game. I had never played that before, and that's what they always did in their family was the white elephant game where everybody brings one gift.

You put it all in a big pile, you have numbers, and when it's your turn, you either open a new gift out of the pile or you steal a gift from somebody who's already opened one. And yeah, so that's a lot of fun as well. Yeah. Especially if you have a lot of people, it's really fun. Yeah, exactly. Speaking, of games, what's your go-to holiday game?

Share it with us. I'd love to know. So when was the last time you celebrated with your whole family and why Does Christmas still hold that same excitement and spirit for you? Yes. Christmas for me is a magical holiday. I just know it's silly, but I just feel like there's magic in the air at Christmas time.

Miracles happening. It's a really blessed time of year. I try to hold on to what Christmas is all about. Every year there's a birthday cake involved in my desserts for that reason. Yeah, I love Christmas. It's just magical.

How has it changed emotionally? For me, it's just different. Things change as life changes. You're not celebrating with mom and dad, brothers and sisters anymore. You've evolved your own traditions I do miss getting together. Just so spread out. Yeah. Yeah. That's the same for me.

Like I said, the last time we celebrated with the whole family was in 2006, and so for me, it hasn't held the same excitement. Since then, and especially after my kids are grown and I don't have grand babies yet, so I'm sure that will change once I have grand babies or if I have grand babies. This is why I still buy gifts and send them to your grand babies.

'cause I don't have any of my own yet, so I've just adopted them and there you go. They love it. That way I have little babies to buy for. 'cause you know, when you buy for an adult, it's. Not the same thing. So Yeah. And I miss that a lot. She's Nana Shannon in our family, so. Exactly. So speaking of magic, let's talk Santa and movies.

Okay. Did you share the Santa story with your kids or grandkids? Oh yeah, for sure. And every Christmas Eve. We always read the night before Christmas before bed. That was just something that we did every year. I love Christmas. Yeah. Same movies. Yeah. So yeah, we would watch all the old rerun and of course if there were any new ones on, we would watch those.

So yeah, to this day, I love Christmas movies.

Yeah, so for us, our favorite Christmas movie that is watched every single year in my household for the last 33 years. Every year Jeff has to watch a Christmas story the last several years. Now they have the Christmas story marathon where it shows it all day long. Back to back to back.

Yes. God help me. Yeah, so thank God Jeff has TV in the bedroom to watch and I have my TV in the living room to watch because when it's that all day special, that's all that's on his TV in the bedroom is the Christmas story on repeat? No. Gosh. Mm-hmm. I like it, but I can't watch it that many times.

That's just, that's overkill for me. It's too much now. My favorite movie, each Christmas and I only watch it one time. I'm not gonna watch it on repeat. And that's a Christmas Carol. I love that movie. That is a good one. That is, I like Miracle on 34th Street too. I always managed to watch that. So that one's a good one as well.

I like that one too. Yeah. Yeah. Hey guys, what's your most watched Christmas movie? Tag us with your pick. We'd love to know. Yeah. And my favorite Christmas song, I have two actually, and I. Go around the house singing these every year. They're my favorite. And that's Let it Snow and then Winter Wonderland.

Those are my all time favorites.

So do you have a favorite Christmas memory? I always love when I reminisce thinking about, my kids when they were little, you know. Giving them their gifts and sharing their excitement and seeing their excited little eyes. I do miss that, but I'm kind of getting it back with grandkids, so That's nice.

Yeah. I think thinking back on Christmas memories, yeah. Is for me, it's the same when the boys were little and, the wonderfulness of having to stay up late. On Christmas Eve after you put them in bed to put together whatever it was that Santa was leaving for them under the tree, what's the worst thing you ever put together in the latest you've had to stay up to do it?

Oh my God.

That's a good one. 'cause there's been several things. One thing that was bad was the swing set in the backyard. That was an experience That was rough. And yeah, that was very, very rough. And Jeff is amazing at putting things together. However, there's a lot of cussing and leftover parts and all of that involved in the putting together of whatever item it is.

And don't ask about those parts. Don't do it. Don't ask about those parts and don't dare try to read the instructions on how to put something together to him. Oh, God forbid I don't need those. Exactly. Exactly.

What about you? What's the worst thing y'all put together? How late have you had to stay up? You had girls, so I can picture like, I know for me as a small child, my dad having to put together the doll house and things like that, I didn't have to worry about that with boys, but.

Yeah. No. What's the worst thing for you? We had a Barbie pool. We didn't think anything about it. There were thousands of pieces. Thousands. We were up to four o'clock in the morning. It was so bad. So bad. They love that stupid thing.

That's great. So have you ever traveled during Christmas jam? Yes and no. So when I think of traveling during Christmas, I'm thinking did you and your family go somewhere else and celebrate Christmas somewhere else? Yeah. We've never done that. I would love to, but we've never done that.

Now we have traveled during Christmas when we lived in Tennessee and all the family was here in Texas, we would, do the road trip from Tennessee back home to Texas to celebrate Christmas with the family here. Same. If you counting that as traveled during Christmas, then yes, we've done that many times, many, many times.

Us too. Hey, have you ever been to a Christmas market? Yes, I actually have been to a Christmas market. Thanks to work. We were in Chicago one year, before Christmas, and I got to go to the Chriskrindle market in Chicago, which is the German Christmas market, and it's huge. It's a huge one in Chicago.

That was the best time I ever had in my life. Even though it was freezing outside, my hands were literally like ice. They have buckets with the fire, going all scattered throughout the market. You still couldn't get warm from that. It was me and my boss.

We actually went to the Christmas market together and it was so much fun. She had never had the mulled wine, so we had mulled wine together. All these. Wonderful, delicious German treats that are my favorite at Christmas time. Yummy. I normally go to Aldi to get those. Oh girl. I have been just snacking so much on that stuff so bad.

I know it's my favorite. Mm-hmm. And then, we saw all the booths and bought some really cute ornaments and different stuff. Yeah. We had a blast. So how about you? Have you been to the Christmas market? Actually, I've been to several. My dad was military, so we spent four years in Germany when I was growing up.

So we went to the Christmas market in our little town every year, but recently, not recently, a year ago in November, we went to Bamburg, Germany and with the Christmas market there, and it was just wonderful. The gluhwein was hot and delicious. It kept us warm and. Yeah. Lots of good snackies. We've had so much fun.

Yeah, I love a good Christmas market, so if you've never been to one before, check to see if there's one. In your city, there may be one and you don't know about it, so check and see. Or if not, if there's one in a big city close to you, or even if it's far away and you have the time and the money, it's worth it to go check it out.

Yes, for sure. Yeah. A lot of really cool crafty things and Exactly things. Oh, just, yeah. Great food. Great music. Yeah. Lots of the food drinks. Yeah. So fun. So fun. Exactly. It's a lot of fun. So before we wrap up, let's leave you with a little holiday cheer here, guys. Christmas may look a little different now, but the heart of it is always gonna be the same.

It's about family, love, joy, being kind to one. That's right. So share your favorite Christmas tradition with us on social media or in the comments, and thanks for joining us on Travel Time stories. Remember to subscribe to our channel so you don't miss out on future episodes. Give us a like or a thumbs up.

Leave a review and share this episode with your family and friends. And if you would like to be a guest on the show, we would love to have you. Yeah. So email us at lamkintravel@gmail.com or join the Facebook community facebook.com/travel time stories with Shannon. Happy holidays everybody. Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, and Felize Navidad