‘Tis the season to share and continue holiday traditions! All around Peppershock, the crew is abuzz with holiday spirit! What better way to emphasize that than sharing our favorite holiday traditions?
Rhea, our President and CEO, enjoys watching all the classic holiday movies with her kids! Her boys like to act out Ralphie and Randy from “A Christmas Story,” then on to “It’s A Wonderful Life.” To wrap it up, she and her family enjoy watching the original “Rudolph” with the entire collection of misfit toys they have decorating their house for the holidays!
Drew, Creative Director and Co-Owner, loved spending a chaotic morning at his Grandma and Grandpa Ward’s house. There are over 30 kids, grandkids and great-grandkids, all packed into the Ward house with only ONE bathroom! Everyone crowded into the living room, gazed at the presents Santa brings, anxiously awaiting their turn as Grandma and Grandpa handed out all the gifts. After the unwrapping there were BBQ Little Smokies and Baklava sent from relatives in Montana. Drew’s grandparents are the most generous people he knows, always willing to share whatever they had. Sadly, Drew’s grandfather passed away this year, but luckily his children were able to experience those Christmases a couple of times and will hopefully continue on that tradition!
Brandon, our Account Manager, sticks to tradition. He and his family attend the Christmas Eve church service every year, then go home and get to open one present. The present is the same every year, pajamas and a book!
Angie, our Art Director, has always made sugar cookies and decorated them with her family for as long as she can remember. There is always Christmas music and contests for whoever can make the most ugly and most artistic cookies. Even when she wasn’t able to be with her family, she would still make the cookies! Now, with a family of her own, Angie shares the Christmas cookie baking and decorating tradition with her sons.
Alex, one of our Graphic Designers, recalls his family tradition of the mystery change jar. Over the year this jar accumulates mostly change, but can take on oddball coins, a roll of mismatched coins, and a small roll of bills (the value is hidden). On Christmas, the jar is passed around the family throughout the evening and everyone takes a guess of the total value in the jar, whoever gets the closest wins the contents!
And I, Julie, the Executive Assistant, love that my family, whoever is in town, will all gather at one house on Christmas Eve to bake sticky buns for the morning and after the midnight church service, spend the night together. We set out carrots for the reindeers, and of course cookies and milk for Santa and snuggle into our sleeping bags, and air mattresses. The first one awake is responsible for waking up the rest of the house, although over the years we had to set a time, no more 5:30 a.m. wake up calls. We all rush to the tree to see what Santa brought and after, we watch Christmas movies and eat sticky buns by the fire.
There is one thing we all have in common here with our traditions; we share them with our family, which is what holidays are really about, spending time with the ones you love.
What is your Christmas or holiday tradition?
—Julie Kissler
