As we approach Christmas, Good News Wants to Know…what is one small tradition you’ve added to your holiday season that brings you unexpected joy?
Outside of the young ones, the adults in our family dropped gifts to each other and instead donate to each other’s favorite nonprofits. It is joyful NOT to receive socks or ugly sweaters or anything and focus on giving.
Robert Taylor, CEO, Burdette Beckmann Inc. (BBI) and Chairman, Habitat for Humanity of Broward
My family chat just started, so we have added a great competitive UNO competition after Thanksgiving Dinner. It brings the best and the worst in our family but most of all it brings us together. Just wanted to say that it’s a new HOLIDAY tradition that we are doing.
Antonio Villasuso, President, The Caring Place
Four of our grandchildren are grandsons. We started the Hess truck tradition when they were each born, and it continues each Christmas with the new truck. Now up to year 14, it brings unexpected joy.
William “Bill” C. Davell, Director, Tripp Scott
For many generations, Denison mothers have a great tradition of telling their kids they don’t want ANYTHING for Christmas. Which of course inspires initial relief, then eventually tons of angst when the kids, and the husband, realize that mom didn’t mean that at all. This results in a December 24th scramble to Target to rummage through what’s left on the shelves of the $8 coffee mug aisle.
Bob Denison, President, Denison Yachting
Working with dried herbs and fresh fruit to make homemade Christmas garland. It is therapeutic, aromatic and joy filled.
Char Talmadge, Executive Director, Rescue Upstream
We love to ride bikes or our golf cart around the neighborhood looking at Christmas lights each night. My wife also makes monkey bread for Christmas morning, and it brings a lot of JOY to everyone – HA! Christ the Savior is born!
Chris Lane, President, First Priority of South Florida
Forman’s all are foodies, and back in the days of “conspicuous consumption” at the old Pier 66 restaurant where they made Caesar Salad and Bananas Foster table side, my brother, Austin, watched the server closely, wrote down the recipe and confirmed it with the server and now makes it. It’s the best! Similarly, my daughter Alyssa loves to cook as well as bake, so each Christmas, if at no other time, when we all are together, she makes “Uncle Austin’s Caesar Salad” and sticky toffee pudding. It’s great eating and family time!
H. Collins Forman, Jr., Esquire
One small holiday tradition for us that brings us joy is getting together with whomever is present (we are very geographically dispersed) and building gingerbread houses. It’s a friendly competition with lots of smiles, laughs and great conversation.
Craig Huston, Summit Achievers
A small tradition that I’ve included for years is to take FAU Muslim and Hindu students to Christmas pageants and to host them for dinner in my home. The Fort Lauderdale Baptist extravaganza was always my go-to (the church even extended a tremendous discount for me) but they discontinued this wonderful ministry, so now I try to find other options with live nativities or other presentations. Getting to explain God’s amazing plan to these prebelievers helps me stay focused on the reason for the season.
Deborah Cusick, FAU Volunteer, Intervarsity Christian Fellowship
Two things that are a part of our Christmas season: encouraging our teammates at Banyan Air Service to participate in Operation Christmas Child – packing shoeboxes that will be delivered to children around the world, and gathering gifts for an organization called 4KIDS of South Florida that brings hope, finds homes, and provides healing for kids.
Don Campion, President, Banyan Air Service, and Team Lead, Egbe Medical Mission
The Wallick Family breaks out our 1938 American La France fire truck, loads everyone on the back of the truck and purchases the Christmas Tree together.
Gregg Wallick, Wallick Family Office
After a traditional Christmas Eve dinner with family, we stay up late. Each of us shares a favorite moment or memory of past Christmas times as well as the things we are thankful for. All the things God has done for us!! Thank You Jesus!!
Helen Wayner P.A., Century 21 Hansen Realty
One of my favorite traditions I have rediscovered as an “adult” is decorating gingerbread houses. To me this is what signals Christmas is coming and helps me complete one of my holiday decor centerpieces. Perhaps it is the memories, perhaps it is the fun with family or friends or perhaps it is the candy!! I think in the end it is the magical combination.
Jennifer O’Flannery Anderson, Ph.D., President/CEO, Community Foundation of Broward
For years my father would get an Amaryllis bulb before the holidays and when Christmas came, he’d have a stunning bright red, trumpet-shaped Amaryllis flower in a pot. It added a spark to my parents’ holiday décor. After my mom and dad moved to heaven, I started getting an Amaryllis flower for my own home. It adds beauty and color and brings back precious memories of Christmas “back home” in Maryland.
Karen Granger, Vice President, 4KIDS Palm Beach
This time of year, it’s easy to be swept up in the big moments, decorations, dinners and deadlines. But I’ve found that sometimes, it’s the small traditions that carry the most meaning. Each Christmas season, I take one morning, just one, and sit quietly with a cup of coffee, my Bible open to Luke 2, and I read the story of Jesus’ birth… slowly. No sermon prep, no studying. Just listening. Just being. And in that quiet moment, I remember what it’s all really about: Our Savior, wrapped in humility, entering a broken world with perfect peace. It’s simple. It’s small. But every year, it centers me, lifts me, and fills me with a joy I didn’t expect. So, if the season feels heavy, let me encourage you, make space for one small tradition that invites peace. You might just find joy waiting there.
Ken Kerringan, Pastor, Calvary Chapel Pompano Beach
This is our first holiday season with our new baby! Experiencing the holidays through his eyes has been a joy-filled experience!
Kevin Granato, MSW, Vice President of Engagement, 4KIDS
One small Christmas tradition I love is going for a long walk on the beach (hopefully wearing a sweatshirt because it’s not hot) and trying to wrap my head around my Savior’s willingness to leave His Father and heaven to come to Earth as a baby — willing to be ridiculed, beaten and crucified for me. Wow. I’m so grateful He defeated death, rose on the third day, and will come again!
Laura C. Bishop, Executive Vice President of Development, Palm Beach Atlantic University
Last year I saw a Kindness Calendar on social media — every day in December I tried to do something small like write a thank-you note or help a neighbor, as a way to live out God’s love. What totally surprised me was how much joy it brought — even the tiniest gestures made me feel closer to others and more grounded in my faith. By the end of the month, I realized the biggest gift wasn’t what I gave others, but how much God used it to grow compassion and purpose in me.
Dr. Mary Drabik, President, South Florida Bible College & Theological Seminary
It is a more recent tradition, going back six or seven years now, but my two adult daughters and I will engage in some form of Christmas painting. We might do Nutcracker figures, tree ornaments, small Christmas themed dioramas, or whatever new thing Michael’s comes up with. It is fun, creative and very competitive! A sweet way to connect over the Holidays. Merry Christmas!
Mike McDermott, Seniors and Probate Specialist, The Keyes Company
Christmas morning we start our celebration with the reading of the Christmas Story Luke 2:1-20 aloud. I never tire of it, and it brings a peace and joy from the start of the day and reminder of our Savior and his birth. It is then followed by gift giving, special meals, games and sweet time of fellowship with the family. A very special day enjoyed by all!
Oksana Horton, Creative Director, Torch and Trumpet Theatre Company
Each year we wait on God to lead us to assist others in some way and that has become the tradition. Whether it is giving toys to children that would otherwise go without, backpacks filled with practical and fun items for the homeless, assisting a neighbor who is struggling, and even the shoeboxes through Samaritan’s Purse. The surprise is that each year he gives us a different way of giving and that always brings us joy. One year we were blessed with sending supplies to a Jamaican orphanage and received a letter back asking for a Bible from a staff member. What greater joy than to help lead others to Christ.
Patricia Colangelo, South Florida Bible College & Theological Seminary
This is fun because my wife and I have an old Christmas tradition with our daughters and a musical Christmas snow globe that we now get to see in action through a new set of eyes. Our daughters who have played with this ornament every Christmas morning since they were little, are now 20 and 25 years old, but yet even now, somehow, that musical Christmas snow globe has the ability to, in a nanosecond, take our two amazing, beautiful, grown adult, young ladies, instantly transport them back in time into the same two precious, bright eyed, giggly little girls enjoying the awe and wonder of the spirit of that very first Christmas morning just like when they were little!!
Coach Rick Andreassen, Founder and CEO, SAINTS Homeschool P.E. and SAINTS International Sports Ministry
We’ve begun involving our kids in deciding where to make year-end gifts, as we’re able to do so. It’s humbling and brings a lot of joy to see the world through their eyes and the ways they lead the conversation about how we might give towards helping others.
Dr. Scott Manor, President, Professor of Historical Theology, Knox Theological Seminary
One tradition that our family added that brings unexpected joy is having everyone in the family shop for a new Christmas ornament for our tree every year. The joy comes as we decorate, we get to look back and remember why each of us picked out that ornament and what it means to us. Many remind us of a vacation, movie or something special that was happening at that time. The most important ones that I usually pick out are the ones that reflect the real reason for the season, the birth of Our Savior, Jesus Christ!
Steve Daigle, Pastor, Calvary Chapel Parkland
At Christmas time, giving to charities and ministries was always a tradition. But about six years ago, my wife and I really started participating more actively. Our church, Calvary Chapel Miami, has a very big program with Samaritan’s Purse and the shoeboxes for kids filing over a thousand shoe boxes. The Samaritan’s program provides us such a pleasure to go out get the shoeboxes from Hobby Lobby and fill six shoeboxes – three boys and three girls various ages. Doing it together is such a blessing for us and hopefully a blessing for the kids.
Steve Solomon, Area Director, CBMC South Florida
Christmas is my favorite time of the year. After Thanksgiving, we started a tradition many years ago. We keep a jar where we place words of love, kindness and encouragement every day until Christmas morning. On Christmas, we open the jar and read the notes; 30 days of reminders of why we’re grateful for one another. We also grab some hot cocoa, a blanket, and watch “It’s A Wonderful Life!”
Tewannah Aman, Executive Director, Broward Country Right to Life
“Papa’s Pancakes” on Christmas morning. My grandkids love my pancakes. They’re actually a special recipe that was passed down from my wife Linda’s father. And I will pass on to my grandson. Sometimes it’s the little things that make a lasting impact.
Thomas L. Lukasik, Chief Advocacy Officer, 4KIDS
For more Good News, read the GOOD NEWS December Issue at: https://digital.goodnewsfl.org/2025/december/#1