“We spend Christmas Eve Eve in a fancy hotel. I asked for it as a Christmas present when the boys were little, and it’s been my Christmas present ever since. We’ll find a hotel that has beautiful decorations and wander the downtown soaking it all up. It seems that the holidays get busy with social obligations—which I love, yet when we spend Christmas Eve Eve together, it’s as a family. The experience has become a mighty pause for me as the mom. If it’s not done by Christmas Eve Eve, it will not be getting done—that’s my marker to say, let the festivities begin!”

~Stacy Sheehan-Wilson (with family), Fairhope, AL

“My favorite tradition is Posadas (a traditional Mexican Christmas celebration) because it reminds me of my childhood in Mexico— breaking piñatas, eating tamales, singing from house to house in the ‘cold weather’ much like caroling, and the colorful decorations with green, white and red. This is the time of year I’m most homesick, and I can’t wait for my little girls to experience it. Christmas Eve is a big deal too. You get to rock baby Jesus and set him down in the nativity set.” 

~Veronica Diaz, Mobile, AL

"Each Christmas we would have Christmas morning at home doing small family things like opening gifts but in the afternoon we would get together at my grandmother’s house for a great, big family gathering—it was a huge gathering, around 100 people. I’d see the whole family and even people I didn’t know, distant cousins of cousins of cousins. Everyone would bring certain foods and it was a day party with a big dinner. I really looked forward to that; gift giving was always good but getting everyone back together like that is what I enjoyed most."

~Jonathan Walton, Daphne, AL

“Like many churches, Open Table observes Advent, but we observe this tradition sometimes with a nontraditional twist. For instance, we offer a Lessons and Carols service on the third Sunday of Advent, but we add contemporary writings including poetry that we put in conversation with the songs and sages of old. In the greening of our worship space and through many of the Advent scriptures, we advance the theme of God’s love for this earth and our call to care for creation. Before COVID, we invited children to wear pj’s to our Christmas Eve service and then we'd adjourn for Christmas cookies baked by the pastor and mugs of hot cider or hot chocolate.”

~Ellen Sims, Pastor of Open Table in Mobile, AL

 “As a family we celebrate Hanukkah each night by saying blessings and lighting the menorah. Hanukkah is a celebration of religious freedom and we tell stories about the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. We eat potato latkes fried in oil to remember that a day’s worth of oil miraculously lasted 8 days to light the Temple’s menorah after victory over the Syrian ruler Antiochus IV. On the eighth night when the menorah is full of glowing lights my favorite thing is standing there with our kids and seeing the candlelight reflecting in their eyes. It builds each night, with more and more light as we remember ancient stories of our religious freedom, which is so important right now.”

~Sam Small (daughters Dori and Ryan pictured), Mobile, AL

“We are Unitarian-Universalist and have had our own family tradition for over 50 years. Before Christmas dinner, with everyone around the table, the two youngest children light a candle and either an older youth or an adult gives the reading of Howard Thurman’s, The Work of Christmas. A second candle is lit and someone else reads For So the Children Come by Sophia Lyon Fahs. The reflection and hopefulness of these two teachings are quite powerful.

Another silly tradition is that we always have bagels on Christmas morning! Our children grew up in a predominately Jewish area and seemed to always have Jewish friends overnight on Christmas Eve. With their parents’ permission they too received presents from Santa. Sharing traditions was a very powerful lesson for the children.”

~Irene Wegner, Fairhope, AL

 My wife and I enjoy celebrating Christmas Eve Mass at the home church we were raised in, opening gifts at midnight, and then celebrating Christmas Day Mass the next morning. Growing up Catholic, this tradition focuses our attention, I believe, more on the spiritual aspect of the holiday. And because of this, I think we really appreciate how meaningful the gift giving has become since we have engaged consistently in this tradition.”

~David Dai (with wife Haley Pham), Mobile, AL

 "We have photo albums that my mother created years ago that include pictures of my great great grandparents, who immigrated here from Cuba in the early 1900s. Every year, my husband, children and I compare pictures of the ancestral family members to pictures of our kids to see who they look like the most, and we re-tell the story of how and why love, sacrifice, ambition and faith set the foundation for the success of our family in America. 

  In celebration of my husband’s faith—he’s a devout Christian, we remind each other of God's ultimate sacrifice, John 3:16. This tradition reminds us to be grateful for the gift of family and that anything is possible with the power of love and the faith of a mustard seed."

~LaToya Bass-Barnes (with family), Gulfport, MS

“I was born and raised in the Philippines and am Catholic. In the Philippines we start putting Christmas decorations out on the first “ber” month [months that end in “ber”]. Since we moved to the U.S. we put them out after Thanksgiving but this year we put them out earlier. We love the Christmas atmosphere. We attend nine early morning masses December 16th to 24th. This is in preparation for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. December 24th is called Noche Bueno and we have a scrumptious dinner and open Christmas gifts. If other families are at the house we have some games for everyone (charades, stop dance, musical chairs). I miss the coconut salad dessert—fruits, milk, coconut, cheese, etc.”

~ Emily Ricafort, Mobile, AL

“In December the Baha’is of Fairhope center devotions on the birth and life of Christ. On one occasion we had a special presentation by Kim and Julian MacQueen, of Pensacola, speaking on “The Promise of World Peace” with discussion by the group centering on what walking towards peace means to us individually. Last year, many of us attended the Eastern Shore Choral Society’s Gloria Concert and then gathered for refreshments and meaningful conversations to celebrate. In short, the Baha’i community continues to concentrate our efforts on building peace within Fairhope to celebrate the holidays. This year we will be hosting virtual gatherings to accomplish those ends.”

~Beth Carrier and Sonya Bennett, Fairhope, AL

“My favorite tradition was Christmas Eve dessert—rice pudding. Mother cooked it in a double boiler for hours. Then right before dinner she would slip one walnut into the bowl. The person who got the walnut got to start opening presents. This was a tradition from my mother’s Norwegian side, and in her youth, the lucky nut finder got to sleep with grandma. This is one tradition I brought with me to Mississippi. I loved the suspense of who would find the nut! Sometimes the whole bowl of pudding had to be eaten in
search of it.”