This is the 10th Christmas for BG Independent News. As in those past 10 years, we attempt to take a break from the daily grind of spreading the news important to our community. In its place we are celebrating this past decade with select holiday-themed stories for your enjoyment. The stories range from our first Christmas to this year and cover topics as varied as music, food, family, and a visit with St. Nick. In this time of giving, those inclined to support our efforts can click to see how to contribute.
Merry Christmas from the team at BG Independent.
A visit with St. Nick
In 2022, our digital contributor Dustin Galish sat down with Father Christmas to discuss his journey of becoming a beloved icon and what it means to bring joy to children all over the world.
Beyond the angelic hosts: A personal Christmas soundtrack
For the first Christmas, founder David Dupont, now mostly retired in Kennebunk, Maine, offered an overview of some of his favorite holiday sounds.
At heart, Christmas offers the promise of light in a dark time. Unless you acknowledge the darkness, no good can come of it. The most iconic text of the season, “A Christmas Carol,” the story that birthed a million Christmas villages, starts with a death.
So those looking for unrelenting holiday cheer and sanctimonious uplift should look elsewhere. I believe that, as well as shepherds, we should have a junkie or two. Sometimes, babes lie in tenements as well as stables. And along with those pastures, we should remember that Christmas comes to trenches. Peace on Earth, some 2,000 years on, is still an aspiration. The music of the season needs diversity as well. So let’s have some Tibetan throat singers along with the boys choirs, banjos and steel guitar as well as harps and, on a personal note, a little trombone is always in order. With all those Latin exultations, let’s mix in some Yiddish. That babe in the manger was a little Jewish boy, which is why a week after Christmas we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Circumcision.
Now, what follows is by no means a comprehensive list of what I listen to. There’s a whole other side of more traditional music led by Benjamin Britten’s “Ceremony of Carols.” That music is more social. This list is personal. These, for me, are songs that embrace all these complications of the season, which is why it is a wonderful time of the year.
Finnish coffee table staple has become our family’s holiday tradition
The next year, Dupont turned closer to home to write the story of his wife, Linda Brown’s tradition of making dozens of loaves of this beloved cardamom-flavored Finnish bread. Nne years later she still bakes pulla in Maine. Bottomline: Don’t skimp on the cardamom.
Before I ever met my wife, Linda, I had tasted her Finnish sweet bread. At least, I was supposed to.
She’d gone to the home of a mutual friend to bake the bread known as pulla. It was Christmas time, and that friend, Barbara, then my girlfriend, gave me a loaf as a gift. Two days later, she spotted that loaf still sitting on the shelf in my truck. I was right and properly scolded. A Christmas memory. I’m sure, though, that the bread still tasted wonderful toasted.
That was the Christmas of 1973. Now it’s the Christmas of 2017, and Linda is still baking pulla. Lots of it. This year 32 loaves for family and friends near and far. For that matter, Barbara, still a close friend, bakes it as well, serving to her fellow cast members in the Christmas Revels held in Hanover, New Hampshire.
DePue Brothers help hometown celebrate the holidays
A bittersweet entry: Alex DePue died in a car crash in Mexico in January 2022. This was a much happier time for The Fiddler and his family. He would propose to the singer and actress Aria Noelle Curzon on this visit home.
Bowling Green loves its DePue Brothers.
The four string virtuosos have been entertaining northwest Ohio audiences since they were knee high to a string bass, and just in time for Christmas they are back in town to present their Holiday Spectacular. Because tickets sold out so quickly for the evening show, they offered a matinee on Friday also in Kobacker Hall.
They played on their hometown status with a stentorian announcement at the beginning of the concert announcing they had come “all the way from Bowling Green.” A typical bit of DePue humor with a lot of truth in it.
Wallace Jr., Alex, Jason, and Zach DePue (listed in descending order of age — we’ll let them sort out how they should be ranked in terms of looks) have come a long way from Bowling Green. They’ve graced stages around the world with orchestras, small ensembles, country acts, and as soloists. This concert was part of a short tour.
‘Gramma Reads’ videos a Christmas gift that keeps giving all year
Jan McLaughlin talked with Savilla Banister about her annual tradition of recording videos of her reading favorite stories to her grandchildren. We’re certain Santa would approve.
Christmas gifts from one Bowling Green grandma allow her to read stories to her grandchildren, no matter how far away they may be.
For 13 years now, Savilla Banister has been sending her grandchildren the treasured gift of videos with her reading stories to them.
When she started, it was a fairly simple operation with just three grandchildren. But now there are 16 grandchildren waiting for their “Gramma Reads” video each Christmas.
“Two of our kids don’t have kids yet, so we have a chance for more grandchildren,” Banister said with a smile.
The families are spread out from Washington to Ohio, so the story videos bring them closer in spirit.
“I don’t get to see them as often,” but they get to see their grandma reading to them anytime they want.
Santa doesn’t let COVID stop him from checking on Christmas lists
No look back over the past decade would be complete without some mention of COVID. As disruptive as the pandemic was, Santa Claus still came through.
‘Twas the week before Christmas and all through Needle Hall, children waited to see Santa behind the plastic wall. Masks were worn by everyone with care, in hopes that all would avoid COVID there.
Like much of 2020, Santa’s visit to Bowling Green children on Saturday was different this year. No one sat on Santa’s lap or whispered in his ear. But St. Nick was there, listening very carefully to hear the wishes from the other side of the precautionary plastic.
In the family since 1880, Alexander’s Christmas Tree Farm has seen generations in search of perfect tree
Kaylin Pickett, one of BG Independent’s new contributors, traveled out Route 6 to visit a venerable fixture of the local holiday scene, Alexander’s Christmas Tree Farm.
Families have been decorating their houses with evergreen and fir trees for centuries to celebrate the winter solstice, and this tradition carried over to the Christian holiday, Christmas. They brave the cold of winter to find and cut down the perfect tree to bring home and decorate with ornaments, tinsel and lights.
Even now, when it is so much easier to go to the store and buy a fake tree, many families still enjoy the tradition of bringing home a real tree to decorate. Alexander’s Christmas Tree Farm has been helping to keep this tradition alive for over 50 years.
The Alexander family has owned the land since the 1880s, when Mark Alexander’s grandfather purchased the land. For a short time, part of the property was sold to a railroad, but was bought back by Alexander’s father, Tom Alexander, after he returned from WWII in the 1940s.
At first, the pine trees were planted to be sold as lumber before they were invaded by insects – that’s when a state forester suggested that they could be used for Christmas trees.
