Image Source: Unsplash- Tatjana Dimovska
Christmas for me, when I was a little girl, always felt magical because I loved going to the Ohio Valley Mall to visit Santa Claus every year. There was just something magical about seeing a fat old guy in a red suit with a big white beard that made the holidays magical for me. As a kid, I believed in all of the magic that the Christmas season had to offer, like Santa Claus, his magical flying reindeer, and Rudolph guiding his sleigh on Christmas Eve night, but what I always loved the most about the holiday season was getting to spend Christmas with my dad. On Christmas Eve, my dad would always read ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, and my favorite part was always when he would describe what Santa would look like. We have been reading the same copy of that book since I was three years old, and it has the prettiest illustrations of Santa imaginable. We originally got the book after buying a lot of cards at Hallmark, and ever since then, it has been one of my favorite parts about Christmas.
Another part of the Christmas season that I have always loved is going to see The Nutcracker ballet because even though I never grew up doing ballet, I’ve always enjoyed watching it be performed. There was always something that felt magical about seeing Clara receiving her beloved nutcracker doll from her Uncle Drosselmeyer, which always felt so joyous to me. I think my favorite part of the ballet is seeing the battle between the Nutcracker and the Rat King because it was always the most entertaining part of the entire ballet to me.
Hanna in 2015 with Santa Claus on one of the many trips to the Ohio Valley Mall, when her brother Luke was little, to see Santa Claus.
The Festival of Lights at Oglebay was always another memorable part of the holiday season because every year my dad would take my sister and me up to Oglebay to see them. We would sit in a long line of traffic just to see hundreds of different light displays, like ones with the Peanuts characters, a chef flipping pancakes, and many more, but those were just two of my favorites. Seeing multicolored light displays at Oglebay was truly one of the most magical things when I was younger.
I grew up in a divorced family, so I got to see my biological mother for Christmas Eve, but Christmas Day was always spent with my dad, and it was always way more enjoyable seeing him than it was seeing my mom. Contrary to the popular belief of some people, celebrating two Christmases wasn’t always peachy keen, but at least my sister and I always had a great Christmas when we celebrated it with our dad. It wasn’t just about the gifts we would get what I loved the most was going to my Pap’s house for Christmas dinner and getting to see all of my uncles. Since I didn’t really have cousins growing up on my dad’s side, having two wonderful uncles was the next best thing because they were always fun to spend time with whenever we saw them.
Image Source: Unsplash- Mike Cox
When I was in second grade, my class was given the task of creating Christmas ornaments for our classroom Christmas tree that year. Since I attended a Catholic school, each student was tasked with creating an ornament that resembled something in the Bible, and when I drew my paper out of the hat, it said “the star of David” on it. After that, I asked my second-grade teacher if the star I could create could be the Christmas tree topper, and she said it could be as long as it was big enough. So, after I went home that day, I told my dad about the latest homework assignment that I had to complete for school, and so we drove to our local Ben Franklin’s craft store, and we bought Styrofoam, glue, and gold glitter, and then my dad and I got to work.
My dad cut a star out of the Styrofoam, and after several tries, he finally cut one out that he was happy with. Then we covered the star in a lot of glue, and after using almost an entire bottle of gold glitter, it was finally almost complete. The only thing left to add to it was a toilet paper tube at the bottom, and then it was done. After it was completed, I brought it back to school to turn in and my second grade teacher was very impressed with the star my dad and I had created and it did end up becoming the tree topper for our classroom’s Christmas tree that year and then every year after that whenever we would put up a Christmas tree at home we would use it as the tree topper for our family Christmas tree.
Another one of my favorite Christmas memories was when my dad took my sister and me to Disney World for the first time. There is nothing more magical during the holiday season than visiting Disney World because it’s amazing to see Christmas decorations around the theme parks, Christmas light displays that are stunning, a Christmas parade with all of the memorable Disney characters, and seeing Cinderella’s Castle covered in Christmas lights, because that in itself is truly magical. My sister and I’s first trip to Disney World came as a surprise to us because neither of us had expected to get to visit there that year and after wishing on every birthday candle for a chance to visit Disney World someday I knew that I wanted to go so when the chance to go finally came it was a huge surprise for my sister and I. I don’t remember too much from my first trip there, but I remember having dinner in Cinderella’s castle and ordering my first steak. It was cool because after we finished eating our dinner, we got to get a picture with both Cinderella and Prince Charming.
Photo credit: This photo was taken by Hanna’s dad Brandon Perry.This picture is of Hanna and her little sister Teresa in front of Cinderella’s castle in Disney World back in December of 2009.
When I was in second grade, I got my first American Girl doll for Christmas, and I named her Charlotte. She has dark brown hair and brown eyes, just like me, and although wavy hair wasn’t a thing around 2007 or 2008 when I first got her, I still love her. Since then, I have accumulated six other American Girl dolls because, let’s just say it, I absolutely love them. In my collection now, I have Charlotte, Blaire, Kit, Lea, Grace, Nanea, and Lila. I absolutely love all of my dolls equally because they are all very cute and unique in their own way. American Girl dolls are for all ages, not just kids, and I am so glad that I got back into collecting American Girl dolls again recently.
Photo credit: Hanna’s dad, Brandon Perry. In this picture is Hanna and her very first American Girl Doll she named Charlotte that she got for Christmas back in 2007.
Although I’m not a kid anymore, the thing I enjoy the most about Christmas is that I get to spend it with my husband, Ian. However, we don’t do very much for Christmas aside from normally going out to dinner for sushi at our local sushi restaurant. I love that the holidays for us are always very laidback since we don’t travel anywhere for them, because I always hated long car trips anyway. My dad lives six hours away from us, so I only see him a few times a year, but it’s always nice to see him whenever he comes to visit us. Other than that, I don’t see much of my family for the holidays. Sometimes it’s nice to see it snow in December in Delaware, but because our weather is way too warm here most of the time, it doesn’t happen very often. Although if it did snow on Christmas at least once, that would be nice because it might mean we wouldn’t feel like we have to go anywhere.
This was written by our founder and editor-in-chief, Hanna Peters.
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