How Christmas traditions help spark holiday spirit

Maybe it was the snowstorms and deep freeze that came earlier this season and buried our outdoor Christmas lights and forced cancellations of some holiday events.

After all, having the Electric Christmas Parade in St. Charles simply taken off the season’s calendar because of a storm was something out of one of the Grinch stories.

Maybe it was that, like many other families every year, we were dealing with some health issues that took a lot of time to deal with.

Maybe it was the barrage of news about political conflict, war in Europe and the Middle East, and a flood of statements and often misleading information designed to trigger anger and mistrust flowing through the social media pipelines.

Regardless of the reason, it seemed a little tougher to muster up the holiday spirit this year.

Yet, holiday spirit has its ways of overcoming woes, and getting you in the right frame of mind for the season. The foundation for that is your family and friends.

And it’s also your belief that something bigger is in play here and that we celebrate the holidays with gusto, not only because we need it, but because we understand why.

The late Rev. William Beckmann of Immanuel Lutheran Church in Batavia helped many of us for many years to get excited about the holidays simply by sharing his findings after years of researching Christmas lore and history.

Readers of my column have likely noticed that, for more than 20 years, I have shared his information at this time of year after Beckmann presented his latest findings to the Tri-Cities Exchange Club members.

He passed away in early 2024, but all of his interesting tidbits about Christmas food, music and traditions still resonate.

This year, I will share his thoughts on an age-old question.

Who is Santa Claus?

When New York Sun editor Francis P. Church responded to a letter to editor from Virginia O’Hanlon in 1897 in which she questioned the existence of Santa Claus, he made it clear that Santa Claus will live in the hearts and minds of children for “a thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.”

But who is Santa, and when did he begin to be so closely aligned with the Christmas season?

Beckmann said the story begins in 300 A.D. when a boy named Nicholas was born to wealthy parents in Turkey. Upon his parents’ passing, he took all of their money and distributed it to the needy in his hometown.

He ultimately became Archbishop of Myra in his mid-20s, and as his life went on before his passing in 343 A.D., stories began to spread that he could heal the sick and save lives, much of it fueled through his devotion to Jesus and Christianity.

To commemorate his death each year, children would put food out for Nicholas and straw for his donkey. The next morning, Beckmann noted, children would find those items replaced with sweets and toys.

As the legend of St. Nicholas grew throughout Europe, he became known in America as the elf Sinterklass. English kids couldn’t pronounce that name, so it became “Santy Claus.”

When Clement Clarke Moore penned the “Night Before Christmas” in 1822, he described Santa as a jolly old elf who flew around in his sleigh with eight tiny reindeer.

He didn’t really describe what Santa looked like in the poem, but American department stores did, though in different types of suits. In 1863, Thomas Nast, a political cartoonist, was asked to illustrate Moore’s poem.

As such, Santa became the elflike figure in a red suit, showing his most important traits of being kind, gentle and jolly.

Santa became portly in 1931, when his image became part of Coca-Cola marketing campaigns.

“The grandfatherly look of a cheery man with a rosy complexion took hold,” Beckmann said. “And, of course, in this case he had a bottle of Coca-Cola in his hand.”

A ‘White’ delight

In other holiday news, we were hoping to make it to the Paramount Theatre in Aurora last night to see the production of “White Christmas,” after having to cancel on our original date last month.

My wife had never seen the popular 1954 movie that ultimately triggered this delightful story to become a theatrical favorite. So, we were looking forward to introducing her to what is essentially a perfect post-World War II saga that also takes into account that the nation was well along in its Baby Boomer phase — and stories full of music and dancing were embraced with open arms.

Barbara Vitello’s review of the play in the Daily Herald last month indicated that anyone who sees “White Christmas” is in for a treat.

The musical is on the Paramount stage through Jan. 11.

Christmas with a soprano

It would be accurate to say that Margaret Jane Wray provided my first dose of listening to an opera singer during a holiday concert in the late 1980s at the Norris Cultural Arts Center in St. Charles.

Wray had to feel comfortable there, having graduated from then-St. Charles High School in 1981. Locals knew this lady had talent, but she soared to unprecedented heights as an elite soprano, spending time traveling around the world to showcase her gift.

In seeing that Wray passed away Dec. 2 in Hudson, Wisconsin, at age 62, my first thought went back to that concert in St. Charles.

While it is sad to hear of her passing, I am confident I feel like many others when it comes Margaret Jane Wray.

I feel fortunate to have heard her sing. Her style may not have been for everyone, but there is no denying a world-class voice when you hear it.

St. Charles residents were lucky to have heard it and to be able to call it their own.

It is fitting that the Fox Valley Opera is presenting a “Holiday Revelry” show at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 20, at the Baker Community Center in St. Charles.

Opera is still alive and well around here.

10 years of socks

The Snopko brothers of St. Charles were at it again this holiday season, reaching their 10th year of collecting socks and underwear to distribute to various shelters and charities serving families in need.

In 2016, Wyatt and Porter Snopko created the Snopko Socks program to collect the clothing items that are always in need. The boys were Richmond Elementary School students when they first came up with the idea and launched the program.

Today, Wyatt is a freshman at the University of Illinois and Porter is a senior at St. Charles East High School.

Donations can be dropped off in red bins at St. Charles East High School, and at 612 Fellows St., at MisFits Jiu Jitsu at 3820 Ohio Ave. (Suite 10), and Dr. Kelly’s office at 11 S. Sixth St., all in St. Charles.

Tough traveling

We’ve already had to deal with winter-storm road conditions, maybe just a few weeks or so earlier than we’d like. But you never like this sort of thing during the holiday season.

Still, we had good practice for tough traveling conditions the past six months, being reminded that road construction season lasts a lot longer than just the summer. This year’s version in the Tri-Cities area surely presented challenges.

We all have stories about how road work slowed us down, but certain trips were particularly rugged. It took me nearly an hour to complete a local round trip. That’s about the time it used to take me to drive to Chicago Stadium from my home in Naperville in the late 1960s.

Any time I have to take a trip from the west side of Geneva to the east side of St. Charles to reach certain appointments on time, I have to give myself plenty of time.

In one instance, the quickest way, on paper, was to take East Side Drive in Geneva north to Main Street in St. Charles. But even after getting notices from the city, I forgot about the lane closures along State Street in Geneva at that time and discovered upon reaching East Side Drive I could not turn left.

It ended up being a Kirk Road trip, which is never too much fun, especially at rush hour. Yes, I was making my way around during rush hour, even though I retired from full-time work more than four years ago and swore never to drive during rush hour again. So, of course, Kirk was backed up and slow.

I ran into more construction on East Main Street in St. Charles and had a hard time getting into the parking lot of my destination.

Coming back to Geneva, I feared Kirk Road and Fabyan Parkway during rush hour, so I took Kautz Road (yes, kind of dumb) to Roosevelt Road and headed toward downtown Geneva, forgetting yet again about the East State Street work. I had to double back to Kirk Road anyway.

The Grateful Dead described it well. It was a long, strange trip.

• dheun@sbcglobal.net