‘A real feel-good time’: Locals share magical Christmas memories

The Macon Melody talked to 10 Macon residents and asked them to share their Christmas memories and traditions. Here’s what they had to say.

Please note that comments have been edited for length and clarity.

“You could smell it all over the neighborhood”

Mark Prigatano, 72, is a retired child psychologist and volunteer at The Big House, the Macon museum honoring The Allman Brothers Band. His enduring memories of Christmas begin in the kitchen of his childhood home in Acadia, California.

“I come from an Italian background. And, on Christmas Eve, we make up a big batch of homemade spaghetti sauce with meatballs, using a recipe that’s been in the family for probably 120, 130 years. It’s all made from scratch, and we guard that recipe.

“It has such a beautiful aroma. When my mother made it, you could smell it all over the neighborhood. It would drive the neighbors nuts. She’d have the windows open because it was pretty warm, even in the winter. She’d be standing there cooking, and she was always singing. She was from Sicily. And she would always sing and hum.

“I moved here from California 30 years ago. Most of my siblings were on the West Coast. My parents passed years ago. But, in my immediate family, we get together and make this stuff.

“It takes all day long. You pretty much get up early in the morning and make the meatballs. You have to put all the ingredients together, and you let it simmer on the store stove for hours and hours. My mother used to say, ‘You have to let the sauce blup.’ All those flavors have to combine, and it can’t be watery. So you’ve got to get all the water out so you’re left with the good stuff, right?

“And then we’re eating it all week long because, when you make it, you can’t just make a little bit of it. It takes you so long to do it, you might as well just make some extra. It’s great. I could eat it three meals a day.”

“I like to see other people happy“

Eric Duggan, 53, is the manager of Creole/Cajun eatery Parish on Cherry. He looks forward to the holidays, mainly because it means quiet time at home, with his wife and son.

“I just enjoy spending that day off of work with my family, just cooking and celebrating Jesus. … I have a 15-year-old. He really doesn’t want much. He likes money. We just sit at the house in our pajamas and chill out. I get up and do the breakfast part. I leave the other part to the wife.

“I like giving back. I like to see other people happy. It’s not all about gifts. If it makes somebody else happy, that makes me happy.” 

“It’s more about the friendships and the gathering of friends“

Steve Welsh, 57, is a local attorney. His memories of Christmas always revolve around his mother. He was an only child, and she made the holidays magical. She did the same for his daughter, also an only child.

“Christmas was everything to my mother. I always think of her, and I think of my daughter when she was little and watching my mother with my daughter.

“She made me feel like the center of attention, and then she did that for my daughter, too. She was very selfless. We were both spoiled by her. She was everything that Christmas should be — with the spirit of giving and family. It was the meaning of Christmas that she instilled in me and then my daughter. It was just fun to watch.

“She passed away in 2007, but my dad is remarried to a lovely woman, so they now come here to Macon. We have a tradition on Christmas Eve. I have a group of about 10 friends, and we rotate a Christmas Eve party. That sort of sets up the magic of Christmas morning when you have no kids at home now. That Christmas Eve, it’s very nice to see friends. I take my dad and his wife.

“I still look forward to Christmas. It naturally brings up sad times, too, thinking about people who are no longer with us, and you wish they were. I think that’s normal for any holiday though.

“Without kids in the house, it’s not the same. That’s why I do like the Christmas Eve tradition, rotating houses. Everybody’s kids come home. Some of them have grandchildren. To me, it’s no longer about Christmas morning. It’s more about the friendships and the gathering of friends and families.”

“Holidays bring out the best in individuals“

Richard Keil, 92, is the founder of The Tubman Museum in Macon. When Keil thinks back to some of his happiest holiday memories, he often recalls lean times in the late 1930s and early ’40, growing up with his five siblings in Sheboygan, Wisconsin.

It was home to a diverse population of first- and second-generation European immigrants, including many from Germany.
“Where I came from, everybody celebrated St. Nicholas Day. On December 6, we all got a big stocking full of goodies — not necessarily toys; it was usually some things to eat.

“On Christmas, we would walk over to my grandmother’s farm, probably a mile away, because my dad didn’t have a car. We would put on our hats and mittens, and I remember going through the snow and ice and cold. My grandmother ran a small farm and raised fresh vegetables and fresh flowers. On Christmas, she might have some cookies and things like that for us. She spoke English very hesitatingly because she was from the old country, Alsace-Lorraine, which, in those days, depending what war was going on, belonged to France or belonged to Germany. 

“When I got married, my wife and I spent time at Christmas with our family and our grandchildren.

“… Before that, as a priest, my main concentration was on helping others. I can remember several Christmases spent with people in trouble. Once, after Mass, a lady I had never seen before came to me and she told me a tragic story about almost being killed by an assailant with a knife. She escaped, but she was traumatized and didn’t know what to do. I spent most of that Christmas talking with her. It might sound like a funny way to spend Christmas, but that’s part of being a priest. Holidays bring out the best in individuals or families, and holidays can bring out the worst.”

“Continue to love each other and keep God first in our lives“

Rosamerry McElroy, 69, is a professional caregiver. She carries with her memories of a childhood spent celebrating the holidays with her large and close-knit family. She still mourns not being able to hold the hand of her mother as she died early in the hallway of a crowded hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I’m the third child of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Lee Moore. They are deceased. They left behind 10 children, all of us still here today. Growing up, it wasn’t always pleasant, but my parents did the best that they could with the 10 children that they had. The most important thing that we all shared is, every holiday, showing each other love, caring, devotion and faith.

Mom and dad always taught us, ‘Don’t give up.’ Even though there were 10 of us, each one of us graduated from high school. Some of us went a little further. I wanted to devote my time taking care of others. I had a grandmother that was in an accident, and at age 13, I moved in with her to take care of her, and so that’s where I get my devotion for taking care of people that really need me.

“Daddy worked all the time. He was a hard worker. The family didn’t have much, but what we did have, we made Christmas out of it — wrapping our gifts in newspapers, going to the graveyard to get the bows off the flowers. … going to buy just the simplest thing, a candy bar or something like that. I remember, one time, I had a shoebox —  I had saved biscuits for each of the kids — and I wrapped it up and I said, ‘I have something for every one, and I put it in the middle of the table.’ I was 7 and trying to do my part for the dinner.”

This past November, she and her nine siblings and their families got together for a pre-Thanksgiving dinner. They set up photos of their parents in the rented events venue.

“We just had a good time, all of the children and their children and then the grandchildren. My mother’s birthday was on the 29th, so we brought that into play also,” she said.

McElroy felt her parents’ presence, remembered their words and promised to keep following their guidance.

“You asked us to continue to love each other and keep God first in our lives,” she quietly told them. “I do my best.”

“I’m trying to go big this Christmas“

Peyton Torbush, 28, is a server at Toasted Kitchen & Cocktails. She is seven months pregnant with her second child. Her best memories of Christmas are focused around her mother — “She would decorate the tree different every year” — and the wonder of the season.

“What I miss about Christmas is, as a child, believing in Santa. The Christmas spirit was there. I have a 9-year-old. My problem is I don’t want him to not believe in Santa. I don’t want that to die for him. And I know he’s so close to being there because he’s 9. He’s getting to that age where he’s starting to question. He’s like, ‘Is Santa even real?’ And I’m like, ‘We’ll see.’

“I want him to get everything he wants and, even if he doesn’t get what he wants, I want him to appreciate all the gifts. I’m trying to go big this Christmas for him — because this is last Christmas as a solo child.”

“The cookies, the cakes, the Christmas dinner“

Bunnie Bell, 65, is secretary of the Council of Catholic Women, St. Peter Claver. Her favorite holiday memories are from her childhood, waking up on Christmas morning, believing in Santa Claus.

“All the gifts and toys were under the tree. We didn’t ever know what we were getting for Christmas. We never knew, so I remember being so excited to come down the stairs to see all the gifts and toys.”

Her favorite gifts were dolls, she said, “because I didn’t have sisters until I was 10. The dolls were my play sisters.”
She also remembers the smells of Christmas — “the cookies, the cakes, the Christmas dinner. My mother enjoyed Christmas. That was one of her highlights of the year, so we looked forward to it.”

“We go back to it just because of the laughter“

Adrienne Hixon, 44, is the wellness coordinator at Atrium Health Navicent Wellness Center. She lives in Macon but frequently gathers with her parents and twin sisters in her Cuthbert, Georgia, hometown. For her, Christmas always evokes memories of the holiday atmosphere fostered by her mother.

“The older you get, the more you realize your parents created that ambiance and tradition. We would come together on the night that ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’ was going to be playing on TV. Mama would get us together in the den, and we would all watch it together. We would sit together and watch ‘Frosty the Snowman.’ You know, she was working full-time and had gotten off work and probably would rather not sit and do that, but she would make that a priority.

“She was a secretary. She worked at a law office. She worked at a school. There were just a variety of places that she worked full time. But she created this great atmosphere for us.

“We had a fake tree. But I remember my sisters and I would build it. It was the kind where you put the little pieces into little rungs to build each layer of it. She would let us decorate it, which is kind of rare. Some parents want the adults to decorate it, so it doesn’t look like a hodgepodge, but she’d let us decorate it.

“We still go every Christmas down to Cuthbert because that’s where her and Daddy still live. We have a cabin on farm land, so what we do now is go there. It feels more Hallmarky because it’s a cabin with a fire and a pond. But it’s still just very nostalgic because we did things there as family with grandparents.

“Now, when we’re all together at the same time, we watch ‘Christmas Vacation’ with Chevy Chase. That almost feels more real now, as adults. It’s fun for us, watching it together, even though we’ve seen it hundreds of times. We go back to it just because of the laughter and, you know, silliness of it.  And, every so often, we still watch the others.”

“I can’t believe I’m tearing up, talking about my dad“

Peter Givens, 76, is a retired construction engineer. Christmases haven’t been the same for him since his girlfriend died four years ago. He has happy memories of time spent with her and the  tree-decorating competitions with her daughter. He also thinks back to his Christmases growing up in Pleasant Hill.

“Christmas has always been a feel-good time for me. I had two older brothers. Us three boys, my parents, we had a tradition. My dad decorated the tree. We had all these lights. He was very handy with electrical stuff, and he’d have it doing all kinds of crazy things. 

“We would usually decorate about two weeks before Christmas. Then dad passed it along to my oldest brother, then my middle brother, then it finally got to me.

“Christmas was always a real feel-good time. We would always make an ambrosia, and we’d always make it after Midnight Mass. We would stay up all night and peel oranges, put in all the fruits and everything. That was another thing we enjoyed. Because we were family, we did this together.

“As we grew up, we went to different parts of the country, so we weren’t able to always get home.”

Givens hasn’t made ambrosia in a while. But, he said, “every once in a while, I think about it. It’s something that was ingrained in me as a child. Those were good times.

“My dad was always trying to make these kinds of rituals. He was always trying to set things up that were family kinds of things, so that we would have those memories. That was really something that I admired about him. I can’t believe I’m tearing up, talking about my dad. He died in 2003, but we were very close.

“Chrismases now are just another day, but I think about past Christmases.”

“The Christmas lights down here really make it very lively“

Alexis Ford, 41, is a bartender at The Rookery. She enjoys wandering through downtown Macon with her 4-year-old daughter and experiencing, through her child, the wonder of the season.

“The Christmas lights down here really make it very lively. They make it magical. Last night was her third time seeing it, and she’s already planning her next time.

“She just loves to be down here. She thinks the fake snow is fun, and she likes to just walk around and see the lights. The (carriage) ride is her favorite. She feels like she’s Miss America as she waves to people.

“When your kids start growing up, you see them losing the sense of what Christmas really is, what the tradition should be also as you lose family members. When you don’t have your mother or mother-in-law or father, the time comes when you forget the traditions that you’ve done with them because you’re trying to make new traditions.

“It’s hard today. It really is, with work and school. Christmas is supposed to be beautiful and magical, and it really has lost some of that magic. But you can always bring it back. You can get it back with your family. One thing that I think I want to do is start in my tradition is to put my Christmas tree up on time. I always say I’m going to do it at Thanksgiving, and I never wind up doing it. I’m always late. I’m going to get there though. 

“I’m going to make something better each year.”

These reflections and photos were captured by Colleen McMillar of The Macon Melody.