Inter Lake news staff shares memories of holidays past

From hilarious lip-syncing and a covert Christmas tree in Saudi Arabia, to sneaky siblings dipping into their Legos and enchiladas for Santa, Daily Inter Lake news staffers are sharing some of their favorite Christmas and wintertime memories with our readers this year. We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

‘Baby It’s Cold Outside’

Christmases of yore at the Baldwin household held many traditions, but none more appalling than the annual brother-sister lip-sync performance of Barry Manilow’s “Baby It’s Cold Outside.” 

The annals aren’t clear on how, or more importantly why this tradition began. But family historians are certain it all started with the 1990 release of Manilow’s smash album “Because it’s Christmas.”

At the height of the tradition, the performance included costumes and elaborate choreography. Oblivious to what the lyrics were about — or why it was wholly inappropriate as a sibling duet — we’d act out the song from beginning to end, over and over and over again.

“Well, honeybuns. It’s been fun, but I gotta run,” my sister would begin.

“Oh, sweet lips. Stay a little while longer won’t you?” I’d reply, with my best 11-year-old Manilow impersonation.

And as bizarre as this “tradition” might have been, it’s also emblematic of the memories I have of our sibling friendship at that time. Kooky, theatrical and full of fun. I hope my own daughters foster the same rapport — and create a few mortifying Christmas memories of their own along the way.

— Matt Baldwin, managing editor

All is calm, all is bright

We celebrated Christmas every other year with my aunt and uncle and their children in the “big city” of Moorhead, Minnesota, which meant getting the cows milked super early before heading out on Christmas Eve.

My cousins typically got at least twice as many gifts as me and my brothers, and it was complete chaos when it came time to open them. They tore into the presents like kids literally gone wild. I remember us being much more reserved in our gift opening. We were taught to open one gift at a time, and thank the giver.

My favorite memory of those trips was the car ride home. As we snuggled together in the back seat, sated with sweets and dreaming of our new toys, I vividly recall an utter sense of peace and tranquility as we looked at the brightly colored Christmas lights through the frosted car windows. Safe and secure with Dad at the wheel, I appreciated the peace and quiet of those Christmas Eve nights after the hoopla was all over.

— Lynnette Hintze, news editor

An evergreen in Saudi Arabia

From age 3 to 10 my father worked for ARAMCO and so I had the privilege of growing up in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. One of my dominant Christmas memories is a family in my neighborhood that barely managed to skirt the rules and got away with the nearly impossible.

In Saudi we were not allowed to build churches. Christians could gather, but not in a structure specifically designated as a church.

Christmas had its own restrictions. We could decorate, but only inside our homes and decorations could not be seen through the front windows of the house.

A few doors down from us lived a family named Rockwell. The Rockwells somehow managed to keep a giant evergreen alive in their front yard. Every year around the holidays they hung lights around it. No stars. No ornaments. Definitely no crosses. Nothing that could definitively label it as a Christmas Tree — but we all knew what it was. They kept this going for more than a decade (maybe two). When they finally moved out I heard the government came in and bulldozed that tree within a week so that the next owner of the home wouldn’t be able to do that ever again.

It’s been 30-plus years since I’ve been in Saudi, but I remember that tree. And to this day, pine trees wrapped in simple colored lights will make me smile.

— Brenda Ahearn, photographer

It’s never too early for Legos

When my brother Lucas and I were little, our parents made the rule that we had to wait until at least 6 a.m. to wake them up on Christmas morning. But, being the highly excitable youngsters that we were, the pair of us were often up well before sunrise.

One Christmas when we were around 9 or 10, Luke and I woke up at 4 in the morning and there was no falling back to sleep. Instead of waking our parents (and facing their fury!) we decided to go rogue. We snuck out to the tree in our Christmas PJs and shook all the boxes until we heard the familiar rustling that could only mean Legos. We tore open our boxes and built our creations. Mine was some kind of blue, alien bug, if I remember correctly. By the time we finished, the Christmas morning adrenaline had subsided and lo and behold — we were tired again! With our Legos complete, we hopped back into bed for a little while longer, much to our parents’ delight. My brother has since passed away, but whenever we adopt a family for Christmas or buy gifts for younger boys in the family, I always suggest Legos.

— Mackenzie Reiss, reporter and Bigfork Eagle editor

Santa wants savory, not sweet

When we were little, my older sister Taija and I used to obsess over what to feed Santa and his reindeer the night he came down our chimney. We would labor over the details weeks before the day, eventually handing our mother, Misty, a grocery list for everything that was required to make our house the most memorable house on the block food-wise.

She would oblige us year after year — cupcakes and red velvet cake for Santa, a tower of vegetables and ratatouille for the reindeer. We found out later what she didn’t eat herself she would either bury deep in the garbage or throw into the chicken coop. Sweets aren’t her thing, neither was our mediocre ratatouille as she would so lovingly describe it years later.

So one year she presented us with a “letter from Santa” announcing he was craving more savory dishes that year. Specifically, he wanted enchiladas, which happens to be my mother’s favorite food. Taija and I were up for the challenge, and with the help of our family’s enchilada recipe and a parent who was now much more willing to help that year than years past, we were able to pull it off.

Our mother said food never went to waste again and she, a single mom, would enjoy her enchiladas at 1 a.m. every Christmas morning as a bit of a tradition of her own. That is, until we found out later through conversations at school that Santa had not requested savory dishes from any other household.

— Kianna Gardner, assistant editor and natural resources reporter

Wrapped up in tradition

I grew up the oldest of four siblings, including a set of twins, so my parents figured out a creative way to avoid having to take the time to wrap all of our Christmas presents. Instead of individually wrapping each present, they covered the entire entryway to our living room with wrapping paper on Christmas Eve. In the morning, we would line up at the bottom of the stairs, eagerly count down from five and then go barreling through the wrapped doorway like a football team busting through a banner onto the field. Once we crashed through the wrapping paper barrier, we would find the tree and our assortment of presents strewn around the living room, but the gift-giving usually paled in comparison to our excitement at tearing through the doorway.

Even when we moved into a house with a much larger entryway and grew too old to believe Santa Claus was behind the elaborate wrapping, we continued the ridiculous tradition. My siblings and I still don’t know how to wrap presents properly, but we have a lot of fun memories from Christmas morning.

— Bret Anne Serbin, reporter

Snow days made winter fun

I’ve got just two words for you — Snow Day!

The announcement of a snow day was the greatest music to the ears of any school-age kid. First, you got to stay in your PJs, which to a kid on a school morning is high fashion. Then you got super-stoked about all the fun you were going to have since you had a totally unstructured day and no one could take it away from you.

Here’s a picture of me (yes, I was the baby) and two of my three siblings after displaying our super-crafty handmade hats and uniforms made from the Columbus Dispatch newspaper. See? I was destined for a career in journalism!

— Carol Marino, community editor

Grandma’s cookie finesse

My grandmother passed away early this year, so I immediately thought of the high-stakes, cookie-decorating extravaganza that would take place whenever my Grandma Gaiser would visit for Christmas. She was deceptively competitive – I’ve never known a more passionate Denver Broncos fan or ruthless cards player in my life – and it was no different when we were lathering frosting on a pile of baked goods.

I’m just as competitive as my grandma was, so what should have been good old-fashioned holiday family bonding became a vicious cookie clash as we tried to make miniature Van Goghs out of cookie-shaped football helmets and reindeer. And I’m not sure I ever won – Beverly really knew her way around a sugar cookie. But that doesn’t matter now, and I don’t think it mattered then. It was always an excuse to spend time with grandmother and create memories I’ll cherish forever. I just hope this Christmas I can decorate some cookies my grandma would be proud of.

— Colin Gaiser, reporter

Turkey and trimmings made holiday special

Christmas was very idyllic for us when we were younger. Heck, I was pushing 11 when I learned that Santa Claus was possibly something other than what I had knew him to be.

The anticipation of Christmas morning was preceded by the warm feelings from pizza for dinner on Christmas Eve before services at church.

Mom, Dad, my brother Todd and I always enjoyed singing Christmas hymns, the lighting of those little white candles in the cardboard holder as the person next to held out theirs while we dipped ours to the flame.

Then the magic morning! The anticipation had us up super early to see what Santa had brought us. After unwrapping the presents, Todd and I played while Mom and Dad got the turkey stuffed and into the oven. We loved stuffing so much we always did turkeys for Thanksgiving and Christmas!

Once the bird was in, Mom made a small tray of cinnamon rolls for breakfast.

If the grandparents were coming, there were feverish preparations before their arrival. We had to put the leaves in the dining room table so there was enough room for everyone to sit and eat.

Of course, Todd and I couldn’t wait to see what presents Santa had forgotten to leave with us, but had dropped off at the grandparents’ homes.

Sharing stories with aunts and uncles, chowing down on that delicious stuffing and turkey and mashed potatoes doused with gravy made from the birds’ drippings, it couldn’t get much better. Desert was pumpkin pie with coffee or tea. It didn’t take long for sleep to come that.

Yep, those were some times.

— Scott Shindledecker, regional editor for Hagadone Publishing; Inter Lake law enforcement, courts and outdoors reporter.