Mike Moser "I Say" Published Dec. 30, 2005

Traditions abound this time of year

Christmas this year carried my thoughts back to simpler times when I was a child, especially the years growing up in Minnesota. Like most families back then, we had traditions that were kept from year to year and the holidays were no different.

Christmas Day was always the focus of the season. But Christmas Eve was a special family time as well.

On Christmas Eve we always had our traditional family meal of oyster stew (later clam chowder) or chili. It seemed to be the perfect meal on a cold Minnesota winter's night. The adults usually enjoyed the stew or chowder and the kids chili.

After the dishes were done, all the gifts wrapped and chores completed, we would gather for a reading of the Christmas story and then the kids would be allowed to open one present. Just one.

Depending on how much wrapping and putting together "Santa" had to do that night, we either were encouraged to go to bed early, or go to bed late. Most years we would go to the candlelight service at church. The stillness of a snow-covered Christmas Eve was almost eerie.

Christmas lights illuminated against the snow making the seasonal colors more vivid as we rode to the church.

At midnight we would spill back out into the cold for the return trip home. I remember it was nearly always snowing on Christmas Eve in Minnesota and that just added to the festive feeling.

A sip of hot chocolate and it was off to bed.

New Year's Eve also had its tradition at home. The afternoon was usually spent at the town's public skating rink located adjacent to the school. A little brick ice house offered us respite from the blustery north wind, but at that age the cold didn't hurt that much and we would skate the day away.

Home at dark, we would be greeted by the smells of pork and sauerkraut baking in the oven. I am not sure from where this tradition came but Mom always said it would bring us good luck.

I am still waiting.

I am not much of a sauerkraut person. In fact, I order reuben sandwiches without the kraut. But the pork was always tasty and I always related that to New Year's Eve.

Then it was playing with the Christmas toys which still felt new and then TV with Dick Clark ringing in the new year. Ginger ale and popcorn and Chex Mix and other goodies were treats reserved for New Year's Eve. We even stayed up in time to see the new year arrive a time or two.

Others have their own New Year's Eve traditions.

People in Naples are famous for throwing their old furniture and other items out the windows so they can buy new ones. Another tradition is taking new coins (the current year obviously); penny, nickel, dime, quarter, half dollar and dollar coin, facing up, putting them on the window sill before midnight to bring good luck as we pass from the old year to the new.

In the South, it's dining on black-eyed peas accompanied by either hog jowls or ham where black-eyed peas and other legumes signify good luck while the hog meat symbolizes prosperity

One old New Year's custom is to make as much noise as possible to scare evil spirits away from the New Year. By the 1700s colonists in America were continuing this custom with cheers, shouting and using noisemakers on New Year's Eve. These customs, along with lighting firecrackers, continue to the present day.

And everyone sings or hears "Auld Lang Syne" played.

Whatever your traditions, hold to them. And here's wishing you a better 2006.

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Mike Moser is the editor of the Crossville Chronicle. His column is published periodically on Fridays.