Traditions of the Season

Jan & Rob, Jim & Dee, and some of our listeners share traditions of Advent and Christmas - some rare, some a bit unnerving, all inviting. Plus, Jan reveals the secret for a can't miss for Cranberry Pie.

Thanks for listening. Share with your friends. Find this and more at cheynemusic.com/podcast.

Transcript

MAKING OUR WAY - A McMahon/Cheyne Podcast

Traditions of the Season (Season 1; Episode 4) - 12/6/23 

[music]

JIM: You know, when I hear children singing at Christmas time, it warms my heart. When I hear Rob singing at Christmas time, well…

ROB (singing): “O Chemistree! O Chemistree! How lovely are thy test tubes! O Chemistree! O Chemistree! How lovely are thy test tubes! The Bunsen burner perched on high, our science teacher, what a guy! O Chemistree! O Chemistree! How lovely are thy test tubes!”

JIM: Yes, it's Christmas traditions on our podcast. Fair warning, there may be more singing to come.

[music ends]

JIM: I’m Jim.

DEE: I’m Dee.

JAN: I’m Jan.

ROB: I’m Rob. And we are making our way.

[music]

JIM: So, what are we drinking today?

JAN: We are drinking Starbucks Christmas Blend, in honor of this being our Christmas episode.

JIM: You brought Starbucks into my house?

JAN: I did, and here's what it says, so it'll help to make us enjoy this more. “Back again and filled with joy,” apparently, “Starbucks Christmas Blend is here to brighten up any celebration. Our beloved recipe combines perfectly aged Sumatra coffee with dark roasted beans from Guatemala, Colombia, and Papua, New Guinea. The rich, robust flavor complements traditions new and old with sweet and velvety notes of spiced chocolate and spruce tips,” which I never knew went into coffee, but there you go. “With each cup comes a way to make the holidays all your own.”

JIM: There it is, Starbucks, is it called Christmas Blend?

JAN: It is. We get it every year. It's part of our Christmas tradition in our house. 

JIM: Well, thank you for bringing it in. How do you take your coffee?

JAN: Black.

JIM: Black, Rob?

ROB: With a little bit of whiskey.

JIM: With a little bit of whiskey.

DEE: *Oo!*

JIM: And Dee, what are you drinking today?

DEE: Well, because it's too stinking hot in Florida, I am drinking Califia Holiday Nog.

JIM: Is that egg nog?

DEE: Well, it's non-dairy. It consists of, I think, either oat or coconut milk and almond milk.

JIM: You know, the egg nog we made could be classified as non-dairy.

ROB: [Laughs] I think it was non-dairy.

JIM: We have a non-recipe we might share with you in a little bit. So there it is. And that's our coffee for today. So it's Christmas time here in Florida, even with the heat. And we want to talk a little bit about some traditions that we have at Christmas time. We're sitting in Studio C right now. Studio A we had to abandon because it's being decorated for Christmas. Studio B that we used last week is just too small for the four of us. And here we are all together in Studio C of the Making Our Way recording complex.

ROB: And it's a Christmas wonderland.

JIM: It is. Dee has…

ROB: Beautiful.

JIM: I think I am going to put some pictures up. I mentioned that last week.

DEE: I like my new tree.

JIM: You’ve got a tree here. We've got a tree right over there. There's a tree up over there. And everything looks wonderful, Dee. Thanks for doing that.

DEE: And there will be a tree in there pretty soon.

JIM: So Christmas traditions. I don't like the Christmas season to go by unless I've done a reading out of Luke 2. And we had a listener, Lori Henderson, who also does that tradition with reading Luke 2. She shared that with us that they do a reading from Luke 2. Everything is on hold until that is done. Do you guys have traditions in your house?

ROB: Oh, yeah. We always decorate the tree together. And the ornaments that we use are places that we've been. That's one of the souvenirs that we usually go for.

JIM: I know your travel habits. How big is this tree?

ROB: [Laughs] This year it's not very big. So we're purging a lot of old, old ornaments that don't - they don’t mean as much to us as these. The newest this year came from Newfoundland. We've got an ornament from Gros Morne National Park. We've got one from L’Anse aux Meadows. And we've got a little map of the island itself. Yeah.

JAN: Yeah.

ROB: Very cool.

JIM: Real tree or artificial?

JAN: Real, but I think we decided this year may be the last time we can afford to get a real tree here in Florida.

DEE: You say that every year. [laughs]

JAN: I know. I'm telling you. It was stunning to see what we - I can't even tell you what we paid for this tree that's not probably six feet tall.

ROB: Barely.

JAN: So anyway, yes, we've had a natural tree for 45 years. So it'll be a hard one to break because we like doing that.

ROB: But that's a tradition, too. We buy from this family farm from Wisconsin.

JIM: Right.

ROB: They bring their trees down every year. They set it up at the high school down at the corner. McMullen-Booth and 580. And we've been doing that for a long, long time.

JIM: Yeah. We have a high ceiling here. So we've always gotten an 11, 12 foot tree or something. And the first one that we bought broke the tree stand. And I had to tie it up with fishing line to keep it from falling over. But we have an artificial tree now. And it was, again, it was the cost. And also you guys always travel around Christmas time. So is your tree still up? Does it survive?

ROB: Um-hm. We usually keep it up until after Christmas. A lot of times we've taken it down on the day after when we were going to go someplace. When did we go with you guys? That was a Christmas time, wasn't it? We went to the Smokies or was that Thanksgiving?

JIM: It wouldn't have been Thanksgiving because your family traditions would have taken that.

ROB: That would have been…

JIM: So it must have been around Christmas time.

DEE: I think it was the day after Christmas.

ROB: And that's what we would do. We'd take it down before if we're going to go someplace like we did that year with you. We'd take it down then.

JIM: Dee, do you have any traditions growing up around Christmas time?

DEE: Oh, yes. The tradition in my home growing up, and you will all appreciate this, is the Roger Whittaker Christmas album, A Time for Peace, specifically the song Darcy the Dragon. It is not Christmas until Roger is comin’ through the sound system.

JIM: I’ve recognized that you have brought that tradition with you.

DEE: Yes.

JIM: And so now we listen to Darcy the Dragon.

DEE: And you are blessed to have it in your life.

JIM: I’m blessed to have YOU in my life and all that that entails.

DEE: Right.

JIM: What are mummers?

DEE: Mummers are people who dress up in costume and hide their identity and cross-dress, which might not go over well in Florida right now, and they visit your home. They just knock on the door and they say, "Any mummers ’lowed in." And you invite them in, and you always have food ready because you have to feed the mummers. And the mummers will dance and sing and entertain you. And the whole idea is to try and guess who they are. And then there's also something called the Ugly Stick…

JIM: Yup.

DEE: …which is a silly stick that has, like, an old rubber boot and noisy stuff attached to it, and they bang that on the floor and they sing and dance. They'll bring their guitars, accordions, whatever they have, and entertain you. And then you feed them, and then they go. So it was a tradition for hundreds of years. Do you want to hear the story?

JIM: I do.

DEE: Because I've got some history behind it.

JIM: I do.

DEE: In Newfoundland, at least, in the early 20th century, people took advantage of that time of year because they were hidden and disguised and people would let you in. So if they had a vendetta against someone, they would, like, beat people up [laughs] and they wouldn't be able to identify the person. So it became so violent that then it became outlawed. Well, then in about the 1970s, people wanted to bring back this tradition. So there's like a society…

JIM: The tradition of beating people up?

DEE: [laughs] Yeah. There's a society that keeps the tradition going, keeping it alive. So it's grown back and it's one of the things that make us uniquely Newfoundlanders.

ROB: Did you do it as a child?

DEE: No.

ROB: You never did it?

DEE: No.

ROB: Anybody in your family?

DEE: No.

JAN: Just a thought on mummers. It would be great if you had the way to put a photograph.

JIM: We have-- there was at the rooms in St. John's, Newfoundland, that place that we went to this summer, there's a whole room dedicated to David Blackwood, which is a cousin of Dee's mom, and it has a whole series of The Great Mummer. And we have a print of The Great Mummer and we're going to pull that out. It's not been framed yet, but we'll pull it out, get a shot of it, put it up there. I remember your mom sent us a couple of ornaments of mummers, things that she had made. And of course, now you've got to get these pictures in your mind for this story to work. You know, they're just wearing, like, sheets and stuff. They might just cut holes out of the - you know, it looks like a really bad Halloween disguise. And so she gave us these ornaments. Now, they are a little bit heavy for the tree. So we're going to put them on the mantel, and then your mom said, "Well, what you could get is those ornament hangers.”

DEE: Yeah.

JIM: So we got some ornament hangers. And now we've put them on the mantel and we've got these things hanging. So now get this picture, because as soon as I put them up there and I step back and I realized, “Oh. No." Because you've got these hooded figures dangling from these things.

DEE: Yeah, you typically wear a pillow sheet over your head. And I was clueless. I'm just looking at mummers and Jim's like…

JIM: Yeah, it looked like a lynching.

DEE: Yeah, because they were hanging from the ornament thing, and I'm like, "Oh, my gosh." So I told my mom, and mom was mortified. So then she sent us two other ones, which I have out there now, and they're freestanding, and the bedsheets have stripes on them, so it's not quite… So she thought that was better. And they have instruments, because they play instruments. So, yeah.

JIM: So you guys, it's the… One of the identifying things for you is that you have ornaments on your tree that represent your travel. Deanna, beyond the mummers, you also have Roger Whittaker.

DEE: Yes.

JIM: That’s fine. Some people have written to us with some of the traditions they have. One actually has a tie-in with a show that we're going to do next week about books. And that is your cousin…

ROB: My cousin Beth.

JIM: …Beth. And so she wrote in with some things that she does. It goes on the cookie theme, but this is from the McMahon side of the family. "One of the holiday traditions my spouse and I look forward to is gathering together with my sister's family each December and making batches upon batches of cookies." It's Christmas cookie day. Have a great time. Now, when you make cookies, as you know, I don't know what you do with your leftover dough, but what she says, "We encourage creative use of leftover cutout cookie dough and things get weird. At the end of the day, we have some sketchy, non-traditional cookies hanging out with a more standard fare. The day is filled with laughter. This is one of the things I love the most." I like traditions like that.

ROB: Yes.

DEE: The four of us have a nice tradition…

ROB: Yes, we do.

DEE: …where we get together, we alternate Christmas Eve, and then Christmas day, and then Jan's birthday on the 26th - Boxing Day.

JIM: So, one year, we go to your place for Christmas Eve, then you come to ours for Christmas day.

ROB: Right.

JIM: Feast, food.

ROB: Oh, gosh, yes.

JIM: And then we realize we have to look through the house because we forgot to get something for Jan.

JAN: I actually always liked my birthday being then.

JIM: Really?

JAN: Yeah, because for everybody else, Christmas is over, and there's a sort of a down feeling that you get at the end of Christmas, but I always knew that I still had my birthday to come. And Mom, specifically, and of course Rob, always did a really great job of making it special and totally separate from Christmas…

JIM: That’s good.

JAN: …like none of my presents were ever wrapped in Christmas paper, so she always made sure that it was distinct.

JIM: Well, Mom is just... that's Mom.

JAN & ROB: Yeah.

JIM: One of the things I do for Dee's birthday is I buy all these things for Christmas, and the company that ships late and it gets here after Christmas, that's her birthday gift, so I'm all set.

DEE: *Um-hm*

JAN: Perfect.

JIM: What other Christmas traditions have we heard about?

JAN: Well, we've heard about Advent, and this is a pretty great story I want to share with you. I just want to say how I learned about it. Rob and I have had an Advent wreath for, I don't know, 10 years, and it actually is the same as yours. It's a Celtic knot Christmas wreath. And the joy of that has been that Advent has become more important in our lives. It isn't just what we do on Sunday at church anymore. It becomes a daily time together of devotion. So I've been focused more and more as I've gotten older on Advent, which led me to notice something that one of our friends did. They posted on Facebook that they had an Advent log. I was pretty impressed with this. So it's Andy and Connie Barrington. They have an Advent log. So I wrote to Andy and I said, "Can you please tell me the story about your Advent log, and let us include it in the podcast?" So here's his story.

“My parents started this tradition with our family in the early 1980s. I am not sure exactly where they got the idea, but it is simply a tool for getting the family together at the end of the evening to have Advent devotions and sing together. When Connie and I moved to Oklahoma, Anthony was four, we agreed that this was a tradition we wanted to continue. Ours consists of three logs in which I drilled holes to hold a candle for each day of December leading to Christmas. This alone was a humorous experience, because I am not handy at all with power tools.

“Each night we meet before bed to read an Advent devotional, sing carols and pray. We light a new candle, alternating sides until Christmas day. I would like to say that this is a reverent experience, but it often turns into laughter and chaos. We have now been doing this for around 40 years. My brother,” that would be Jeff, “has also continued the tradition with his family, and we have a few friends who have adopted the tradition. For us, it is the most important Christmas tradition our family has.”

So that is pretty special, to picture that family gathered around that log, having devotions together and lighting the candle, and also laughing together.

ROB: Yeah. I had a Christmas tradition, well, I couldn’t call it - I called it a holiday tradition, that I did at school. I was a science teacher for 36 years, and the day after Thanksgiving, I would start plugging for my class that this thing called the "Chemistree" was going to be coming, and we were going to light it, we would sing a song. Every day I would have a little PowerPoint presentation that would be on the board when they first walked in, saying, you know, "It's coming, the Chemistree. How exciting!" And really get them riled up on that. "What's the Chemistree? What are you talking about?" Well, I built this thing out of a giant ring stand. It stood about three feet high. And then the rings themselves - big ones at the bottom, and it got smaller as it went up, so it sort of formed a tree shape, a Christmas tree shape - and then I put test tubes and Erlenmeyer flasks and beakers and things on the different areas of the thing. And I put lights on it as well. And I wouldn't reveal it until the last week of school before Christmas break - the holiday break. And then there it would be, and they'd come in, and they'd just stare at this thing and it's like, "Wow, that is really cool!" I was thinking, "These are eighth graders, so they're not easy to impress." But yeah, so, and then the last day before the holiday break, we would light the Chemistree. And so I'd turn on the lights, and when they came in, actually when they came into the class, I would have in the beakers, I'd put dry ice so there'd be smoke and steam and the lights and different color liquids in the test tubes and things like that. This is a very colorful thing. I think we're going to post a picture…

DEE: Oh, that’d be cool.

ROB: …that we've got so the folks can see it. See an example of one that I did.

[music]

And then we'd sing. And they made up this little song called "O Chemistree." And it goes like this. [sings] “O Chemistree! O Chemistree! How lovely are thy test tubes.” And we'll repeat that. “O Chemistree! O Chemistree! How lovely are thy test tubes. The Bunsen burner perched on high. Our science teacher, what a guy! O Chemistree! O Chemistree! How lovely are thy test tubes.”

[music ends]

Now it was generally a solo the first time around, but I'm telling you, every year by the time we were done on that day, everybody in the class was singing it along with me. And they had a lot of fun with that. And it was just one of those things I thought, this is cool, we can do that.

JAN: Well, and they would come back in later years…

ROB: Oh, yeah. I had kids…

JAN: …to see you with the Chemistree.

ROB: …I had kids in high school that would come back after school got out in the afternoon, they'd come in and say, "Have you lit the Chemistree yet? Can we see the Chemistree?" [Laughter] So, yeah, it was great. It was fun.

JIM: Rob, in the back on your porch, you put up the most remarkable village. How did that all start?

ROB: That started a long time ago, and visits to Bronner's in Frankenmuth, Michigan, and I started to collect these snow village houses and buildings. Initially, we had it under the tree, and then it moved to our hearth by the fireplace when we moved to Florida. Then it expanded, because every year we'd go and we'd buy a couple of more houses, or somebody would give me one as a gift.

JIM: Didn’t Don Kerr find things like on eBay or something?

ROB: Oh, yeah.

JIM: He would find, "Oh, here's something, I'll get it for Rob.”

ROB: Well, he'd go to estate sales and things like that…

JIM: Oh, is that what it was?

ROB: …and if he found one of these, he would pack it up and send it to me. So, yeah, I probably got four or five pieces from him. And then I just received three or four more pieces from our neighbor across the street…

DEE: Oh, wow.

ROB: …who knows about the village. He said he's got these that they never put up anymore. And so I've got, you know, a couple of houses and another church and some figurine things that I have from him now. So I don't know the exact number of pieces, but it spreads out a good area around - on our screened-in porch on the back.

JIM: This village was not built in a day. It takes you several days to do it. And I'm just doing some back of the envelope - it's got to be something like 30, 40 square feet.

ROB: And it varies from year to year. It's never the same. It's always a different layout. This year, because we've got a lot of family visiting at Christmas time and there are going to be people actually sleeping on the porch. So it goes up a lot higher than normal. And so it's a little bit more compact. And things are pretty tight. I mean, the buildings are close together. But, it's fun to do. It takes me three or four days to actually set the whole thing up. And that's working, Jan can tell you, most of the day.

JAN: Yeah.

ROB: But it's fun. And I enjoy doing it. And as long as I keep enjoying doing it - people enjoy seeing it too. So it's one of those Christmas traditions that we've done for a long time.

JIM: Well, it is. It's this thing that you look at. It feels like a Frank Capra movie. You come in and you could just see the camera coming down into the village. And then over there is George Bailey or someone like that. It's a marvelous thing. And it's an evocative setting. I like that.

DEE: You just reminded me of another tradition. We like going to the Tampa Theatre…

ROB: *Oh*

Dee: …downtown for their Christmas…

JIM: Oh my goodness. How many times have we seen "It's a Wonderful Life" just on TV or whatever over our lifetime?

DEE: A lot.

ROB: Oh, yeah.

JIM: I mean, I must have seen that 40, 50 times. And then we went to the Tampa Theatre once and watched it there…

ROB: Right.

JIM: …and suddenly everyone - who has also already seen it is..

DEE: *um-hm*

JIM: …this community laughter. It's reaction to it.

DEE: And applause.

ROB & JIM: Yes.

JIM: And it's like, yeah, that is wonderful, you know. Tampa Theatre has this - well, they do one before Halloween, and all these things, we went there. And when we saw the "Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" silent film…

DEE: That was pretty good.

JIM: with - Stephen Ball is the organist there. And he does the live music with that. And then when Christmas time comes along, the organ is there to do some sort of a sing-along…

ROB: Right.

JIM: …before the movie starts. Then the organ goes back down into the thing. And we just, in this great old theater, we get to watch a classic. That is - yes.

[music begins]

JAN: Well, it speaks a lot to the value of doing something like that in community versus doing it at home alone. Sorry, "Home Alone" probably works like -

ROB: That IS a Christmas movie.

JAN: Yeah, I know. But it is - you think I've seen this movie so many times. But to see it like that is a totally different experience.

ROB: I think we saw "White Christmas" that way, too.

DEE: Yeah, we did.

ROB: And it's the same experience. It's totally - it's like new.

[music continues]

JIM (voice-over): And that was a little bit of Jolly Ol’ St. Nicholas with Dave Peto on the flugelhorn and the Sunshine Brass Band.

JIM: Rob, one Christmas, many years ago, when we were little boys…

DEE: *snicker*

JIM: …we, uh - there was no eggnog in the house, and we thought, well, we can solve that problem. 

ROB: How hard can it be?

JIM: How hard can it be? So we decided to - what did we decide to do?

ROB: We decided to make eggnog, and, um…

JIM: That’s right. And, you know, we didn't have a recipe, did we?

ROB: We had no recipe whatsoever.

JIM: It’s right in the name. Get some eggs and some other stuff. So what did we end up making?

ROB :We [laughs] - whatever it was, it wasn't-- it was not edible.

JAN: Scrambled eggs?

ROB: It was closer to scrambled eggs.

JIM: It was very close to a French toast batter is what we ended up with. I remember taking a drink of it. And because the egg white hadn't really been mixed up…

DEE: Ah, geez.

JIM: …it kind of came in one string, you know?

JAN: *Ew*

ROB: Do you like raw oysters?

JIM: Yeah. It's [inaudible]. So we - so that is going to go in our ANTI-recipe portion of the show.

ROB: Eggs, milk.

JIM: Probably had sugar in there.

ROB: Yeah, there was probably some sugar.

JIM: Probably plenty of nutmeg.

ROB: Nutmeg.

JIM: That’s got to be a base ingredient. Nutmeg. We started with nutmeg and then said, what goes with this? It was terrible.

ROB: It was horrible.

JIM: It was a great thing.

[music begins]

This being our Christmas tradition show, Jan, what do you have as this week's recipe?

JAB: Well, this - what I love about this is it's easy. And anybody can make this cranberry pie. So, I'll give it to you quick. Three cups of fresh or frozen cranberries. One and three-quarters cup sugar. One half cup chopped walnuts. Two eggs. One cup flour. A half a cup unsalted butter melted. And the final ingredient is sweetened whipped cream, but you could also use vanilla ice cream. So you preheat your oven to 325. Spread the cranberries in a buttered 10-inch pie plate. Sprinkle three-quarters of the cup of sugar on top. Sprinkle the walnuts. Set that aside. In a bowl, you combine the eggs, the cup of sugar, the flour, the butter. You stir all that together. You pour the batter over the cranberries and you bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until the top is brown and a toothpick comes out clean.

JIM: This is one of those techniques that - I'm not a cook, right? I just try to do some things. But a toothpick comes out clean is actually what you’re…

ROB: A toothpick.

JAN: Yeah, it doesn't have any moisture on it. The pie is great warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on it. And again, people are impressed. It looks much more complicated than it is.

JIM: Is this something that - I could make?

JAN: Well, yes. Minus that whole eggnog story? Yes.

JIM: Great. So that is our recipe. You'll find that on our website and along with all the other recipes, they're all sorted by the episode they're on, the date that they were published. So look for episode four; season one, episode four, and it'll be - what's the name of this recipe?

JAN: Cranberry pie.

JIM: Jan’s Delectable Cranberry Pie.

JAN: I’ll go with that.

JIM: For the season.

[music end]

All right, Rob. Favorite Christmas movie of all time?

ROB: White Christmas.

JIM: Is it White Christmas?

ROB: It is.

JIM: Okay. Dee.

DEE: Oh, It's A Wonderful Life.

JIM: It’s A Wonderful Life.

DEE: Yes.

JIM: Jan.

JAN: Well, I'm going with Scrooge, 1970 version.

JIM: The Albert Finney one.

JAN: Albert Finney.

JIM: *Oh*

JAN: And the musical one. And it's gotten so that the only other Scrooge version I can watch is The Muppets [laughter] because anything else doesn't compare to that movie. You know, our family has a common history of that movie because we went together to see it in the theater.

JIM: Did we?

JAN: Yeah. It was on a Saturday right after working kettles, and I sat next to Rob. 

JIM: Is this pre-marital?

JAN: Yes. It's pre-dating. I sat next to Rob and I think we held hands during that movie.

DEE & JIM: *aw*

ROB: We did.

JAN: So now we have to watch it every Christmas.

DEE: Oh, that’s special.

JIM: And hold hands.

JAN: Exactly.

ROB: Yup. Usually we watch it while we're decorating the Christmas tree. Yeah.

JIM: It's a great one.

JAN: “Thank You Very Much” is all I want to say.

ROB: That’s right.

JIM: Isn't that a great song? The way it comes back twice. And Mom, I remember, was particularly taken by Alec Guinness - Sir Alec Guinness - in that playing Jacob Marley. And the way he delivers his lines is just incredible.

DEE: What’s your favorite?

JIM: Well, that one is pretty strong. There are a couple scenes in there that will get me every time. But that one, uh, It's A Wonderful Life, and I'll just say, I mean, Donna Reed.

ROB: She’s hot. I was just thinking as we make our way at Christmas, we don't let go of everything from the past. We hang on to that. And the memories, you know, our family members that are no longer with us, they're still with us, and - but we do take on new things, as well. Traditions and what's your favorite word, Jan, you like to use?

JAN: Rituals.

[music starts]

ROB: Rituals, yeah. And that makes our way even better.

JIM (voice-over): And that's our show. I want to thank you for listening. And I especially want to thank Jan and Rob for braving their colds that they acquired up north. We were able to extract about a 30-minute podcast out of an hour and a half of coughing. They did a great job. And careful listeners may also have heard children playing in the background. We recorded this on Sunday morning, and there were a lot of kids in the neighborhood just outside the window. I hope I was able to keep their sound out of the podcast. Next week, we'll be visiting the private libraries of some of our podcast members. So please join us then. Until next time.

[music ends]