Aletha Wright teaches family traditions to her grandson, 20-month-old Mac Taylor.
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Perhaps the most important thing one generation can pass to another is family traditions.
And there is no time of the year for family traditions like the holidays.
Some families keep it simple with church services on Christmas Eve and present exchanges and dinner on Christmas Day.
Amy Loyd, mother of four, grandmother of eight and great-grandmother of four, simply has a “good, old-fashioned southern get-together” with turkey, dressing, ham and all the fixings.
“We all get together and I give out Christmas ornaments to the children and grandchildren,” Loyd said. “That’s the only thing we do. We eat. We also dance and turn the music on.”
Loyd doesn’t look at it as anything special, just the family gathering and sharing for the holiday.
“I don’t know if it’s special but it is to me,” Loyd said.
Gerald Noffsinger, father of three and grandfather of five, looks at it the same way.
“We gather round for all the normal type of things,” Noffsinger said, adding he doesn’t think what his family does is special, but he does think it’s important.
“Traditions are wonderful to help folks,” he said. “As grandparents, we carry on from our parents and grandparents.”
Noffsinger’s family goes to Christmas Eve services together. Then on Christmas Day they tell the Christmas story and his wife hides a tiny baby Jesus for the grandkids to find. Whoever finds it gets a prize and a hug. It’s always a highlight for the younger kids, he said.
While it may be simple, it’s family. And it’s important.
County Commissioner Joyce Ealy said what’s most important to her is for her grandchildren to know the true meaning of Christmas.
Ealy has a wooden Nativity her grandson plays with that he can’t break and knows is his.
Aletha Wright does the same with her grandson, 20-month-old Mac Taylor.
“I think it’s so important for kids to make it not all about presents,” she said.
Mac Taylor also helps her decorate some of the 50 Christmas trees in her home.
“We decorate a tree in every room and sometimes three,” Wright said with a laugh.
She starts in late September or early October every year with the decorations and this year she had a little helper in Mac.
She’s taught him how to be gentle with fragile ornaments, along with the meaning of Christmas.
Like Ealy, Wright has a toy Nativity Mac plays with and every time he comes over she explains the importance of the scene to him.
Her family also has their own Christmas Eve getting together, where she gives out new ornaments each year to her three children and grandson and has a big family dinner.
“No matter how old the kids are we get together on Christmas Eve, read ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas and put their stockings up,” she said.
But Wright is working on starting a new tradition with Mac.
Earlier in the season she sat at her piano with her grandson and playing Christmas songs.
She said he usually just bangs on the keys, but when she started playing this time he looked at her, wrapped his little arms around her and asked for more.
“My heart just melted,” Wright said. “This is what Christmas is about.”
Michelle Willard can be contacted at 615-869-0816 or mwillard@murfreesboropost.com. |
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