Families celebrate Christmas in Havre

With Christmas Day less than a day away, people and families across Havre are preparing for the holiday, some following long-standing family traditions and some making new ones which they hope will continue for generations to come.

Kevin Ruby, assistant professor at Montana State University-Northern, said that Christmas for him and his family involves a couple of fun things. He said that one tradition he and his family has is going to the college Christmas parties every year. "It's tradition to go to the department Christmas party," he said, and he, his girlfriend and his daughter usually go every year. 

"The department Christmas party is a pot-luck event where the faculty can get together right after the students at the college leave for Christmas break," he said. He added that it is a fun way to get into the spirit every year.

"The college also has another Christmas party at the chancellor's house," he said. The party at the chancellor's house is just for adults and is always a good time, with staff, faculty and administration having a chance to get together and wish a merry Christmas to each other, he added.

For his family, Ruby said, a few days after the university Christmas parties his family puts up the Christmas tree. He added that his family does something a little different with decorating the tree. Their tradition is to put the star on top of the tree first. Once the star is in place, they put the rest of the decorations and ornaments up. He said it is also a tradition for his family to always have some eggnog at hand for tree decorating.

"You've got to have eggnog when you're decorating your tree," he said.

Once the tree is all set up, it is time to start putting the presents underneath it, he said, which is always a fun time.

Christmas Day, Ruby said, he usually spends with his daughter and girlfriend. He added that his family also does something unique for the holiday, opening the stockings in the morning before breakfast and waiting until dinner to open up the presents underneath the tree.

He said Christmas dinner is usually something like a ham and some other traditional foods.

His traditions were picked up in part from his family growing up, he said. His family use to open up the stockings either the morning of Christmas or on Christmas Eve. He added that his family changed it up every year, but he likes doing all of the gifts on the same day, and enjoys opening the presents under the tree in the evening because it encourages people to spend more time with each other.

Something else he picked up from his family is getting gag gifts for his loved ones, he said. His parents would usually get small cars for Christmas as well as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, sometimes as a gag gift. He added that the idea of getting someone a gag gift is something he enjoyed and wanted to continue.

"Something funny, usually," he said.

He added that his daughter is now 17 years old, but he also remembers their first Christmas they had together.

"I think I bought too many presents for her," he said, laughing. "It was too much fun getting kids toys. It's kind of the fun part."

Ruby said that Christmas is a special time of year and he enjoys it every year.

"I think it's about coming together and letting people know you care and sharing moments with people that you care about and celebrating God's birth," he said.

He added that his parents and extended family live far away from Montana, but he is grateful for the people he does get to spend the holidays with.

In the future, he said, he would like to see his daughter continue some of the traditions they have, such as decorating the trees the same way and doing gifts the same way. But the most important part of the holiday is spending time with people you care about, he said.

Different traditions for the holiday

Christmas has many different faces and ways to celebrate.

Ashley Verity, children's librarian at the Havre-Hill County Library, said that since her in-laws moved away, she usually celebrates Christmas with her husband, Paul, and their cat, Asuka. She added that after working retail for 12 years a lot of glitter and glam of Christmas faded, but she is starting to get back her Christmas cheer. 

She said this year, especially, she was feeling the Christmas spirit. Throughout the month of December, the library was doing ornament making with children, Christmas story time, and a movie pajama party with the children in the community.

"That helps me feel Christmassy," Verity said.

"Snow helps," she added, laughing about the recent snow melt.

Christmas in her house this year will be their second with their cat, she said. She and her husband will be making deep-dish pizza from scratch and watching "Mystery Science Theatre 3000 The Movie." She added that they will also be opening presents and making phone calls to their families.

Cooking is something special for her during the holidays, she said, adding that she and her husband cooked some recipes from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking last year. She said that cooking was something her family always did for Christmas. 

"Cook something crazy," she said.

She added that her family always made Christmas tamales and other finger foods.

At some point in the future, she said, she wants to start tamales herself for Christmas.

"It's a labor of love, but I feel like it's not tamales unless you have, like, three kids making them horribly beside you," she said, adding that she remembers her mother fixing her tamales as a child while they were cooking together.

Verity said she also grew up in a large family, with her siblings coming home for Christmas with their children either a few days before or the day of Christmas. She said her family also did a rotating Santa Claus, with all the of-age family members having a good time the night before Christmas and while preparing for Christmas morning.

She added that her sister told her a story about one year when she was the Santa in charge of putting together a Lincoln-Log cabin for their brother, which their brother destroyed the next morning.

Something else she and her husband try to do is go around and look at Christmas lights around town, usually Highland Park because they have good decorations, she said. She added that she also has a tradition of watching different Christmas movies on Christmas in addition to "Mystery Science Theatre 3000," such as the original "Black Christmas," "Home Alone," "Lethal Weapon" and "Die Hard."

Verity said, laughing, that "Lethal Weapon" and "Die Hard" do count as Christmas movies.

Food is a big part of Christmas for many families, with many people having traditional meals, snacks or treats their family specifically do for Christmas, and also have fond memories of many of these dishes.

Sue Pollington said that while she was growing up, her mother was never much for baking, so her mother always bought lebkuchens, a German baked Christmas cookie. Pollington said that her mother had done this throughout her entire childhood and, when she was still alive, would also send the German cookies to her grandchildren. After her mother died, Pollington continued the tradition, partly because of tradition and partly because - like her mother - she does not enjoy baking, she said laughing. She added that the cookies make her think of Christmas and she still sends her children some lebkuchens every year to continue the tradition.

Family times and family traditions

Another major aspect of Christmas is family, with families from across the country or across the state traveling to spend time with one another for the holidays.

Jessica Walker said that her family usually spends Christmas with their parents. She said that her family has a number of traditions they do every year, but usually on Christmas, her husband, Chris, and their two children, Rachel and Jordan, travel to spend time with her or her husband's parents.

Last year they went to Portland, Oregon, where Jessica Walker is originally from, and this year they will be traveling to Kalispell to spend time with her in-laws.

She said she got a lot of her family traditions from her parents, such as making cinnamon rolls every year for the holidays, which her mother would call tee-rings. She added that, although her parents were more elaborate with decorating the Christmas tree, how she and her family decorate the tree is very similar. Walker said they did make a few adjustments because they have a toddler at home - now hanging the ornaments higher up on the tree - but it is something that she very much enjoys about the holidays.

When she was growing up in Portland, her family used to cut down their own Christmas tree every year, she said, although that was a tradition she and her husband did not continue. She said they bought their tree and start decorating it after Thanksgiving. Seeing the tree decorated is something that gets her into the holiday spirit but also seeing decorations in stores, the Nativity scene in the churches, having hot chocolate and cold weather are also big parts of Christmas to her. She added that it is also nice to have some snow.

As a child, Walker said, she remembers one tradition her family had was that her younger brother, who is 8 years younger than her, would wake up around 4 or 5 in the morning to open up the Christmas stockings. She said that her family had a rule that everyone had to be awake before they could open up the presents under the tree, but they could open the stockings themselves.

Walker said that she and her husband also have some of their own family traditions they have started, such as going around Havre and seeing the different decorations and wearing special Christmas pajamas. She added that her family also watches "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" and "A Christmas Story" together every year.

The most important part of Christmas is spending time with those she cares about, she said.

"I would say just to spend time with each other," she said.

She added that Christmas is about the birth of Jesus Christ and celebrating it with family and friends.

Some of the traditions she would like to pass down to her children, that they can celebrate with their families in the future, are how their family celebrated Christmas, with a big Christmas dinner, how they decorate the trees, how they do presents and watching movies together. But, if nothing else, she said, the one Christmas tradition she wants to pass to children is spending the holiday with each other and the ones they love and care about. 

Walker said that this year was also a special time for their family because they have a foreign exchange student, Hyelin Park of South Korea, joining their family this year for the holidays. Walker added that this would be the first American Christmas Park will be celebrating and her family has been very excited to share everything with her. 

In the country Park is from, Walker said, people do not celebrate Christmas the same way Americans do. They have Santa and presents for the younger children, but once the children stop believing in Santa, presents stop, Because the gift-giving is more geared toward children. But in America, people don't need to believe in Santa for presents and people of all ages can get Christmas presents.

Walker said that celebrating with Park has been a great experience and Park has really gotten into the spirit of gift giving, including participating in her school's gift exchange. Park will also be traveling with Walker and the rest of their family to Kalispell for Christmas and be able to celebrate with them and the whole family.