The Team at AMT Answers the Question: What’s Your Favorite Holiday?
Fall has arrived!
It’s autumn. The leaves are turning from green to yellow, orange, purple, and red. The skies are bright blue and the air conditioners have finally stopped humming. There is something about the light in autumn that imbues everything with a bit of gold.
Here at AMT, we love autumn and campfires and our inevitable return to wearing hoodies. If you like a change of seasons, Olney is a great place to live. We don’t have any one season too long, and we get to experience the best of all four.
One thing I love about fall is anticipating the holidays coming up. October, November, and December bring with them the best holidays of the year (in my opinion). Once the weather cools down, I start thinking about carving pumpkins and pumpkin pie. I can’t wait for Halloween night when I can light those pumpkins on the front porch and sit outside to meet all the children who come up dressed as witches or Buzz Lightyear.
And Halloween is only the beginning, right? Because Thanksgiving is right around the corner and Christmas and New Year’s not far behind. This year, I thought it would be fun to find out what we like about the holidays and which ones we prefer.
Here’s what I found out.
What’s Your Favorite Holiday?
Donna Martin
That is a toss up! I love Halloween because I get to help my kids create their costumes. Sometimes I can even talk them into dressing up as a whole group! I also love Christmas. We now host my husband’s family, and it’s such a great feeling to have a house full of family and yummy food. Everyone is sitting around telling stories and laughing while the kids all get to run around and play.
Christina Dunn
My birthday is October 28th, so for as long as I can remember I would have elaborate costume birthday parties. I love to create scary faces with makeup and face paint, but unfortunately have less time to do so anymore. One makeup look can take up to 3 hours.
My family always goes all out decorating their houses, and since I’ve been married, I have convinced my husband to go all out as well. It is our goal now to have the best costumes every year at any Halloween event we may attend. It’s serious business. Our daughters love picking out costumes every year too! We let them get whatever costumes they want and make sure they get to go trick-or-treating no matter what.
For me, Halloween is the one holiday where adults still get to play dress up and it isn’t frowned upon. And who doesn’t love being rewarded for spooky or fun costumes with FREE candy?
Erik Jensen
I’m going to have to go with March Madness because I get to watch basketball all day.
After March Madness, I would pick Christmas. I’m not a fan of Christmas music at all, but I do love watching my daughters get up on Christmas morning and seeing their presents. And I enjoy the many get-togethers with my family.
Katrina Marshall
I love Christmas. We try to limit the craziness that can overwhelm the holiday and keep it simple but special so we can enjoy each other’s company. I believe it’s about love, not stuff.
David Abell
My wife is going all out for Halloween with the decorations both inside and out this year. We have a costume party at AMT, so that is always fun. Luckily my kids are satisfied after visiting a few houses in the neighborhood going trick-or-treating.
The last few years we have been going away for Thanksgiving but decided to stay home this year. We got the Lego Home Alone House last year, and it’s still in the box. Our plan is to use Thanksgiving weekend to put it together as a family and leave it up through Christmas and put it back in the box and do it again next year. Hopefully we can start a new fun tradition.
Christmas and NYE should be pretty low-key this year as well. Just planning to enjoy family time.
Autumn Carmody
My favorite holiday is Christmas.
When I think of Christmas I think of all the joy and laughter it brings my family when we are together. I always get this feeling of stillness when it’s Christmas day. I love to look around and see all the smiles and love on everyone’s faces. I always love hearing about everyone’s traditions their families have been doing for years and years. “Let the heavens rejoice and the earth be glad.” Psalm 96:11
Carson Scherer
I like Thanksgiving for the food and the football. I enjoy shooting trap on Thanksgiving as well.
Kaylyn Bergbower
It’s a toss up, but I will go with Halloween! As an adult I’ve indulged in costume contests, bar hopping, and loading my stash with great candy for my friends and their kids.
We missed out on a few things growing up as farm kids, but Halloween was a time my mom always made sure we went trick-or-treating, even if we were still harvesting.
In addition, harvest is a beautiful time of year to enjoy the changing leaves and cozy fall aesthetics. I carve out time to embrace the feeling of abundance that the season brings. Recognizing the lessons of reaping what we’ve sown throughout the year comes to mind as well. The weather begins to cool, folks host hayrides and bonfires, it’s apple harvest, and a time to create sweet treats to celebrate the season. We still gather corn stalks and display pumpkins. Hauling grain and rides in the combine are still a highlight of the season for me as well!
Laine Slover
Out of the fall/winter holidays, my favorite is Thanksgiving. I like that family can come together during that time. Eat some good food, have good conversations, and of course, watch football.
Colby Shawver
Christmas–Food, Family, and Faith.
I love cooking several dishes for several Christmas gatherings. My family is full of good cooks, so there is no shortage of tasty food at the parties. One of my favorite dishes is sweet potato casserole.
I’m grateful that most of my family lives close to us in Illinois. One of our gatherings is in Casey, Illinois, in a school gym. Every year, a huge game of dodgeball breaks out. Most of us are old and out of shape, so several people are pretty sore the next day. We also have a white elephant gift exchange. Most of the gifts are re-gifts that people do not want. Sometimes you luck out and get a good gift. One of my cousins is a chef and gave us a smoked pork belly for his gift.
Mt. Gilead Church usually has a live nativity each year. We transform the church parking lot into Bethlehem. There are camels, sheep, donkeys, chickens, and other animals. There are also flying angels and blacksmiths working in their shops. It looks just like it did 2000 years ago in Bethlehem. Last year, there were cars lined up for two miles down Mt. Gilead Road. They are taking this year off and will have it again next year.
I also enjoy playing in the snow and ice skating with our kids. This year, I am going to build an ice skating rink outside of our house. I am going to be building it out of thick plastic and have a dam built around it from dirt.
John McKinney
Christmas is my favorite because I play Santa, and I look forward to putting smiles on people’s faces.
Joel Carey
It’s hard to beat Halloween on Elliott Street with it’s surreal view of 1000 trick-or-treaters taking over the neighborhood. And all the better that it involves free candy.