The 2024 Holiday Season is Here

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Here we go! The 2024 Holiday Season begins today! That's right, Halloween has come and gone, and now it's time to getting for two of our most favorite holidays; Thanksgiving and Christmas. And we can't wait!

We can't remember when this time of the year became so important to use. Somewhere along the way of raising kids, serving in the church, and making our own family traditions, Thanksgiving and Christmas have become a significant part of our year.

We have always enjoyed celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas. In fact, I (JAY) can remembering celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas with my family growing up. For Thanksgiving, mom would make a feast; turkey, potatoes, stuffing, cranberries, pies, the works. And let's not forget the Thanksgiving Day Parade. Filled with marching bands, clowns, floats, music, balloons, and of course Santa and Mrs. Claus, it we the start to the Christmas holiday.

Christmas. Where do I begin? So many stories about Christmas. The lights, the carols, the TV specials with Charlie Brown, Rudolph, Frosty, and Santa. From Christmas Eve services with candle lighting to our traditional trip downtown for the live nativity scene to decorating the tree on Christmas Eve, every moment creating a memory. Then Christmas day...it was pure magic.

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For the Higham House, Thanksgiving and Christmas are more than just 2 special days out of the year. November 1st, through January 6th, is a season. It's a season of gratefulness and joy. It's family and friends. It's lights, decorations, and music. It's movies and gatherings, tastes and smells, and the celebration of all that God has done for us.

For the longest time, we kept the two holidays separate. First we celebrated Thanksgiving. November was all about being thankful. We had a tradition. For many years, Jay and Amy would leave for a Youth Workers Convention, about a week before Thanksgiving. The convention ran Thursday through Monday. We would drive or fly on the Wednesday or Thursday, and return on the Monday or Tuesday. It was a weekend of youth leader training, networking, worship, and rest. When we arrived home, we prepared for the Thanksgiving holiday. Christmas didn't begin until after Thanksgiving. 

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Early on Thanksgivings happened in either Baltimore or Philadelphia (mostly in Philadelphia.) We would come home from the convention, load up the car, and head east. As the kids multiplied and grew older, the trips 'home' became more of a challenge. We had to navigate school schedules and/or sports. As the older kids took part-time jobs, work schedules made it even harder to travel. So we forged our own traditions and began making memories. But we always missed time with our extended families.

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When we did make it 'home' the drives back west provided the opportunity to welcome Christmas. The multi-hour drive was filled with Christmas music. Steve Curtis Chapman, Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith, were just a few of the CDs we wore out. But as Thanksgiving became a stay home holiday, Christmas started with the decorating. It was usually the weekend after Thanksgiving that the decorations and lights came out.

So many sweet moments watching the kids hang their ornaments on the Christmas tree. From top to bottom, ornaments representing their year were hung beside a menagerie of hand-crafted keepsakes and treasures from preschool, Sunday School, King's Kids, or the classroom. 

Along with the decorating, we counted the days till Christmas with various Advent calendars and traditions. We watched movies, baked cookies, went Christmas shopping, wrapped gifts, and sang along with our favorite Christmas carols and songs. It was such a great time.

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But in 2020, everything changed. We were all homebound due to Covid shutdowns and/or restrictions. With all that was happening we decided to make the most of our time together. So instead of celebrating two individual holidays, we joined the two together and created a season of celebration. It was the first weekend of November, 2020, and we decided to decorate the house for Christmas. Sure it was early. And yes, it violated our self-imposed rules of, 'No Christmas until AFTER Thanksgiving.' But, we didn't care. We needed a little joy in our lives and so we said, why not! That weekend set into motion a new tradition, and a new way of thinking about the two holiday's. 

Today is November 1st. 2024. And today, we begin our holiday celebration. We embrace the reminder to pause and be thankful while we prepare for the coming of Christmas. We have so much more to share with you, so be sure you are following along!

Happy November 1st!

​- jay

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