By NANCY NELSON VINES
Contributing Writer
"Traditions are so much a part of the holidays," says Susan Leggett Shea of Bloomfield, "but as our life situations change, traditions are altered or maybe disappear altogether.
"Hopefully," she adds, "new traditions evolve and find a place among the changes."
Shea says her happiest childhood memories of Christmas are centered around her family being together.
"When we were kids my dad would take my brother and me to get a real tree," she remembers. "When we got home we would all decorate it together."
Shea says the tree was not finished until the icicles were hung.
"Mom insisted we place them one-at-a-time, but we threw them on in bunches!' she laughs.
Shea says her favorite new traditions are an annual dinner with friends at Hickory Log to admire the decorations, and attending the Christmas Cantata at First United Methodist Church.
Jana Moore of Dexter, mother of three adult young men, says Christmas ornaments are among her cherished gift traditions.
"When the boys were younger, they each received a special ornament which they would open on Christmas Eve and then hang on the tree," she explains. "There are enough now, that they each could probably decorate a small tree."
Moore goes on to say her sons still enjoy going through the ornaments each Christmas and reminiscing about their various interests through the years. Moore adds she is very glad she thought to date each one, now that time has passed and memories aren't so good anymore.
A recent tradition Moore and a friend have begun has origins in Iceland, where books are usually published toward the end of the year. Jolabokaflod, which means Yule Book Flood, is the tradition of exchanging books on Christmas Eve, and then spending the evening reading.
"My friend actually started the tradition by sending an anonymous package containing a book and box of chocolates," Moore says. "Once I figured out who had done it, we have been gifting each other books and chocolates ever since."
Tinki (Ramona) Lemons, whose Larson family heritage is Scandinavian, says her family's seafood on Christmas Eve tradition came from her father, who was raised in Minnesota.
"My grandma would always make oyster stew for Christmas Eve," explains Lemons, "and through the years my dad expanded the theme."
Lemons says one of her funniest Christmas memories is of her dad putting a live lobster on the floor to scare the dog. Though her father has been gone for several Christmases, the family still observes the seafood on Christmas Eve custom, with everyone looking forward to his or her favorite dish.
"My daughter and her husband are crab leg fans, my mom and I love shrimp and lobster, and my son likes oyster dressing," Lemons says.
She says her husband is not fond of seafood, so he has steak with just a bit of seafood. Lemons goes on to say that gifts can't be opened until the kitchen is cleaned up, which she uses as a bribe to get everyone to pitch in and help.
"After opening gifts, our tradition for ending the night is trying our luck with Christmas themed scratch-off cards," she says laughing. Bonnie Blue of Bloomfield says years ago, when she was married and lived in a large city, she looked forward to entertaining during the holidays.
"We would invite business associates and some couples from the neighborhood," she says. "I made each of the foods I served, and completely decorated my historic home."
Blue says now her holidays are much more subdued.
"My mother lives in Cape, so I usually spend the day there with her," she explains; then adds, "and since my son lives away and usually works the holidays, we wait to get together until after the first of the year."
Blue says as she has begun to scale back in her lifestyle, she tends now to focus on the reason rather than the season.
"I might get together with friends for a holiday dinner or to ring in the New Year," she explains, "but I have found I can celebrate Christmas quite well without all the fuss."
For Jo Nell Seifert of Poplar Bluff, a memory of Christmas comes, not from her childhood, but from her adult holidays.
"After my mother passed away, our friend Kay Porter would join my dad and me to decorate the tree. I can still see in my mind, the assembly-line procedure we observed as we brought the Christmas tree to life," she reminisces.
Seifert says her dad was on one end of the sofa and Porter on the other.
"Kay would pick up an ornament and hand it to my dad. He would put the hanger in and hand it to me. I would find the perfect spot on the tree, and then the process started all over again," she recalls.
Seifert says a holiday tradition she began several years ago started quite by accident, when she bought a Christmas-themed jigsaw puzzle because it was on sale for 50 percent off.
"Since that first puzzle in 1984, I have 23 framed and hanging in my basement," she says, "and I still have 10 or 15 that have not been framed because I have run out of wall space," she adds laughing.
Reflecting on the approaching holiday, Seifert observes, "When we're younger, we have our set ideas of what a celebration should entail, and "However," she observes, "there comes a point where life forces change upon us and we must create new ways to celebrate."