The Manchester Enterprise
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Manchester families share holiday memories
By Alana West, Special Writer
PUBLISHED: January 1, 2009
In Manchester, Christmas is celebrated as a time for family, food, friends, worship and fun. Whatever the weather, Christmas shines bright as a season of warmth and plenty.
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"It's a time for family, and the things of the spirit," Nannette Kwiatek of Manchester said. "I think the message of Christmas is peace and hope ... It's a free gift from God."
Village President Pat Vailliencourt said her favorite Christmas memory is one she began as a child and never gave up. Every year for 42 years she has spent Christmas Eve at her parents' home with over 40 guests.
"We have a large family. It's chaotic and wild into the wee hours of the night," she said. "And then, when we come back home to the fresh snow and the luminaries, it is such a warm welcome. It's peaceful after the wild and crazy party."
Christmas is kids and presents and food, and then luminaries in the wonderful village, Vailliencourt said.
Arlene Hanson of Manchester said singing with her family around the Christmas tree in their Oronoco, Minn. home is one of her favorite memories.
"I remember reading, 'Twas the Night Before Christmas', and (The Christmas Story out of the Bible) on Christmas Eve," she said, adding that these traditions have long been a family favorite as well as playing board games and eating snacks of peanut brittle and Christmas cookies.
"My family and I used to go to the midnight Christmas Eve service to sing 'Silent Night' by candlelight. I personally felt completely filled with holy light after singing this peaceful song," she said.
One particular Christmas, Hanson said she remembers her dad giving her mother a new mixer for Christmas after she had made dozens of cookies by hand.
"It became a family joke," she said.
She also remembers giving her mother a bottle of Evening in Paris perfume.
"It was not very big. I bought it at Wheelock's Drugstore in Adrian," she said. "It was a beautiful bottle, but I don't know if it smelled very good."
Skating on the frozen ice in her front yard and building snow igloos are also some of Hanson's fond holiday memories.
Alan Hanson, who grew up in Duluth, Minn., recalls visiting his grandparents' nearby home for a dinner of lutefisk, lefse and pickled pigs feet on Christmas Eve. He said he tried everything, and didn't like it at the time, but now he wishes he could find someone who made it the way his grandma did.
"Now I miss it, and I can't find it here," he said.
He also recalls a wooden cannon that his grandfather, a local boat builder, made for him when he was five years old.
"It had a barrel that would pivot 180 degrees and it shot projectiles ..." he said.
He said he only grew to appreciate the cannon in later years.
"It's gone now. I don't have it anymore. But my grandfather had a ton of grandchildren, and he made that especially for me," Hanson said.
Jan Harris of Manchester said that her favorite Christmas memories from her childhood involve getting together with friends and watching football games.
Harris, who grew up in Texas, said that as she grew older, and she had her own family, her favorite memories were to see her son and daughter's faces light up when they opened their gifts.
"I grew up southern Baptist," said Harris, wife of Sharon United Methodist minister Rev. Peter Harris.
It wasn't until she met her husband that she began going to the Christmas Eve services.
"The first time I went to one was really special," she said. "I really liked that."
As an adult, she likes to think that the season is one to celebrate as a time of gifts, and as a time to grow spiritually.
"God gave us his son. That is the best gift of all," she said. "And it is better to give than receive."
Kelly Jacobs of Manchester recalls the year when she was 10 years old, when her parents decided to give each of their children a character phone.
"They wrapped them up, and on Christmas morning, our packages were ringing. My dad had gone down to the corner to call our number. I got a Mickey Mouse, and my sister got a Snoopy phone. I still have mine."
She said Christmas to her means family, and being together to celebrate Christ's birth.
Ed and Suzanne Schoendorff have a Christmas memory that they believe encompasses the Christmas spirit in Manchester.
One Christmas early in their marriage, Suzanne ordered a rototiller attachment for a lawn trimmer/brush cutter that Ed already owned from Napoleon Lawn & Leisure. Later she discovered that the part would not be delivered in time for Christmas. Ed didn't know that she ordered it, but Suzanne was disappointed anyway.
"We hosted Christmas that year, so there were a lot of people in my little house," recalled Schoendorff. "At about 3 or 4 p.m., someone came up to the back door. It was John Kemner of Napoleon Lawn & Leisure with my package. It had just been delivered. He had rushed over, and even put a bow on it for Suzanne. That showed the true Christmas spirit. I will never forget that. It spoke volumes to me."
Schoendorff. said that Christmas is a reminder that we have another chance of salvation.
"It's hope, life, birth, all in the middle of bleak winter. We all make mistakes, but it is not hopeless. There is a reason to do good in this world."
One of Nannette Kwiatek's favorite memories was a time when she spent a day alone.
"I was the oldest of four children, and I had childcare duties," she said.
Her grandfather built up a fire in the fireplace and gave her an entire afternoon on my own.
"It was a perfect Christmas," she said. "It was spiritual and mystical. It was family and things of the spirit."
Valliencourt said she wants to respect everyone's personal religious beliefs, but she also wants to acknowledge her own.
"For us, it is Christ's birth. It is a time to be thankful," she said. "I am very fortunate to have both parents, and that my daughter and granddaughter help to carry on the tradition to help set up my mom's house for the party. It is the highlight of my mother's year to overfeed us and have everyone over."
While many residents have a favorite Christmas memory that they can share from their past, there are also many who feel isolated from the joy of Christmas because of their loss of a loved one, or other tragedy.
"We need to be sensitive to people who have lost loved ones, or those who have found it economically difficult to celebrate Christmas this year," Rev. Gary Kwiatek said.
A program called Blue Christmas is offered in Saline during the holidays, he said. It brings together those who are grieving to allow them to talk about their grief with others who have also lost loved ones.
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