Home > Holiday Memories, Traditions, Dedications and Recipes

Holiday Memories, Traditions,
Dedications & Recipes

This time of year we like to reflect on and share our favorite holiday memories as we plan for the new year. We also have a few special holiday recipes for you to try out on your family and friends.

Have a holiday memory, tradition, dedication or recipe you would like to share with us? Click here to send it to Delilah.

Happy New Years from Delilah and the show staff!

Cinnamon Clove- Applesauce Ornaments

• 1 cup ground cinnamon
• ½ cup applesauce
• 1 Tbl. ground cloves
• ¼ cup Elmer's Glue
• Assorted candy sprinkles, or decorative glitter

Mix together and roll out. Add water if necessary to hold together. Use your favorite Christmas cookie cutters, or donut cutter (to make a wreath). Use your child's hand to keep track of the years. Use ricer to make hair for gingerbread people. Press on colored sugars, or candy dots, or whatever works for your cookie-cutter shape. Make hole for hanging. Dry for a day or so, or bake at 200° until firm. At this point, you can frost, or add glue and glitter too. Add a ribbon or rickrack to hang it.

You can pack these and they will smell from year to year.

Submitted by Donna

Dear Delilah,

I don't know if you are still taking Christmas stories, but I was listening on the drive home tonight and it brought back a very special memory for me. A few years ago, while helping some young people (9 to 13 year olds) shop for families that they had raised money to purchase gifts and food for at Christmas, I had the most wonderful experience. I was sitting at a table inside a fast food place in the department store with about 10 or so super-charged kids listening to them try and decide what the perfect gift for each child on their list would be. In the midst of this, apparently, two older ladies came over and asked what we were doing. The kids, of course, excitedly shared their enthusiasm. The ladies left and sat down to their meal -- a few minutes later as they were leaving the ladies (angels) came by and dropped off a large sum of money with us -- telling us to put it to good use!! Amazingly, this filled the gap in our funds -- the kids were already looking beyond our budget. I called our church where we had gotten the names of the families to let them know that we had some unexpected funds. The lady on the phone gasped and told me that the name of a family with three kids (with a particularly sad story) had just come across her desk and she had no idea where she was going to look at this late date to help them!! The kids were so over the top excited over this turn of events, it was like one of those super corny scenes in a holiday movie. I don't know how much those kids remember of that day, but, for me, it is one of my most treasured holiday memories.

Laurie

Dear Delilah,

Hi, my name is Jonathan and I am in the United States Marines. My unit is stationed in Iraq right now and this is our fourth tour missing Christmas. In my unit we voted on what we would like to dedicate to our families. And the song we dedicate is "Angels We Have Heard On High" to our families in Virginia and North Carolina. We listen to you every night, well, early morning for us. Your choices relax us and our families in the states listen to your show. We miss our families so much. Half of the guys here have never seen their newborns and some of them got married before they deployed.

Jonathan

Dear Delilah,

Let me tell you about the 64 year tradition in our family. The year I was born my grandfather had a Christmas tree stand built by a little old electrician in St. Louis. I was the first grandchild on either side and was due on the 25th. My mother's birthday was the 26th. I didn't make my appearance until the 30th. This box is a mechanical marvel. The tree goes around; there is a music box (although they could not find Christmas music), and there are four different hand-painted scenes which we think are scenes from Germany, the electrician's native land. When I was six weeks old, my father went into the Army until the war was over and my mother and I moved from Memphis to St. Louis to live with my grandparents. My mother said the tree was still up, bedraggled and practically bare, but still there. My grandparents put that tree stand up every year until I was about 10, when they couldn't do it anymore, and brought it to us in Atlanta. My father took over the care and maintenance of the box until he died three years ago at the age of 87. I can remember how he would cuss when he couldn't get the tree trunk to fit the socket and would have to keep trimming. He sure was happy when he found an artificial tree to fit the box. Just my sister and I are left now, and I have to have help with it, but that box still goes up. I wouldn't know it was Christmas or my birthday without it. Oh, we don't know how old the music box is, we think late 1800s. It plays "My Grandfather's Clock," "Listen to the Mocking Bird," O Columbia, The Gem of the Ocean" and some songs we can't even identify, about a dozen, I think.

Love your show.

Sandra

Dear Delilah,

Thanksgiving has always been a special holiday. I suppose most children love the sounds and smells of the day, while the family gathers and the food is being cooked. As the children in our family grew up and married and babies came along, the holiday began to change around my parents' home. The family was torn by where to eat and which family is to be seen first. There were almost always hurt feelings.

One year my mother had a wonderful idea - our family would celebrate Thanksgiving on Saturday. Everyone could visit with the in-laws and spend as much time with them as they wanted. Then we would travel together on Saturday to my parents' cabin and have an old-fashioned, rustic Thanksgiving meal. It was a wonderful idea and it still works to this day. Every year we grow as children, grandchildren and great grandchildren seem to keep adding up and we always welcome first time visits by boyfriends and girlfriends.

Each separate family belongs to different faiths and my father insists on having each family present their own special prayer of Thanksgiving. There is always a lot of fun, noise, food and sometimes we even get an early snow. I will always remember the love that is found in my parents' home.

Linda

Thanksgiving Leftovers Shepherd's Pie

My mother in law gave me a recipe that's really great. It's kind of like Shepherd's Pie but with stuffing over the top. So you take whatever is left over after Thanksgiving dinner (veggies, turkey, etc.) and you mix it together with gravy and cheese. Plop it all in a baking dish and top with leftover stuffing or you can pour a package of unprepared Stove Top stuffing into the mix and it will set up. I also add an egg in the meat mixture as a binding agent so the mixture doesn't get too soupy. If you have water chestnuts on hand it's fun to add some of those chopped up in the mixture to give it a unique crunch! Depending on how much gravy is left over and how dry the stuffing is you can drizzle gravy on the top. Put it in the oven and bake it until things are bubbling and happy!

Submitted by Dee Dee

Dear Delilah,

A couple of years ago, I received an email from my aunt. She lives in Michigan, while the rest of our family lives in Pittsburgh. She was really down and out about Christmas coming up, knowing that she would be away from her family. She asked me to try to cheer her up for Christmas by sending her emails every so often to keep her in the Christmas spirit. I was so determined to help her enjoy Christmas, instead of just getting through it, that I came up with an idea to create a Christmas email of the day. I just put in a few things, like how many days until Christmas, a different song each day with specific artists and versions so I could share my favorites, and a thing to do each day to stay "un-Scroogey." I did this on a whim to entertain myself and my aunt. I found out at Christmas that my aunt had loved my emails! She had told my other aunt about them and sent her a few, and they made both of them laugh and smile. I couldn't believe it.

Since then, I've added one or two people each year to the list, and increased my different elements in the "Christmas emails of the day." My one aunt even goes so far as to read my emails aloud in her office because so many people get a kick out of them. I never once forgot to send one, or thought of it as a chore. I love that I'm able to spread my Christmas cheer to people I love, and even strangers. It makes me so happy each year to think that maybe one of my emails made their day a little bit brighter, or made Christmas a little bit easier to deal with.

If you could play a song for me, I'd love to hear "All I Want For Christmas Is You" by Mariah Carey. Or if you could even just play an upbeat, happy song for all of those people in the world who need some cheering up around the holidays, I'd really appreciate it. Have a wonderful holiday season Delilah, and thank you for sharing my story.

Courtney

Hi Delilah,

Every Christmas Eve my mom would take all the presents she had hidden in her closet out and wrap them while watching "White Christmas" starring Bing Crosby and drinking champagne. Well a few years ago I couldn't sleep so I asked my mom if I could help her wrap presents. We wrapped presents and I had hot chocolate instead of champagne. For three years now I've helped her wrap the presents (even mine). I don't mind knowing what I'm getting, I'm going to find out the next day, but somehow she still seems to surprise me with something. I love spending time with my mom, she always encourages me to follow my dreams and to do the best I can. It's also a good thing because now I can learn how to carry on traditions her and my dad started.

Katie

Dear Delilah -

One tradition that really meant a lot to us happened when we lived in California (in the Bay Area). My mom used to bake lots and lots of loaves of Julakake (a Swedish Christmas bread). She would wrap the foil pie plate up in colorful cellophane wrap and tie with a bow. Then we would pile all the loaves (often as many as 50 or 60) and go around visiting our friends and wishing them a Merry Christmas. While we were all out doing this, we would also be able to see all of the wonderful light displays that everyone had on their house. My mom's (her name is June) two very favorite songs are "Go Tell It On The Mountain" (her favorite artist for that is Mahalia Jackson) or "Little Drummer Boy."

Wishing for you a safe and happy holiday!

Judith

Chocolate Egg Nog Pie

CRUST:

• 1 ¼ cups graham cracker crumbs
• ¼ cup margarine or butter, melted
• ¼ cup sugar

FILLING:

• 2 cups eggnog
• 6 oz (1 cup) chocolate chips
• 1 tbsp unflavored gelatin
• ¼ cup milk
• 1 cup heavy cream, whipped

Combine crust ingredients. Press over bottom and upsides of an 8" cake pan; set aside. Bring eggnog almost to simmering over low heat, stirring constantly. Add chocolate chips; stir until melted. Soften gelatin in milk; stir into eggnog mixture until thoroughly dissolved. Cool. Fold in whipped cream when mixture begins to thicken. Cover and refrigerate until set. To serve, cut into squares and garnish with additional whipped cream, if desired.

Submitted by Helen

Dear Delilah,

The first time I listened to your show I was 17 years old and sitting under a couple of blankets on my parents bed. It was the last week of the year 2000. A freak ice storm hit us on Christmas Day. Living in the southwest part of Arkansas, none of us were prepared for such a thing.

Our electricity was off for a whole week. We had no food put away for such a thing. All the restaurants were closed. I remember my parents putting a skillet with some thin-sliced ham over some candles to "cook" for our dinner one day. There was no heat either so at night I slept on my parents floor. I'm not really sure this was necessary, but I guess my southern mom was afraid I might freeze to death in my own room. Moms.

We were all getting pretty bored and it was so eerily quiet at night. We found one battery operated radio shaped like a little computer we got my dad for some past birthday or Christmas. It only picked up one station. Which just happened to be the one you were on. And so we huddled around our fuzzy little radio and listened to your love songs and the stories you had to share.

I found out later when the power was back on and order was restored to our world that across town my cousin and his family were doing the exact same thing. Our families had a great deal of fun at that first post-ice dinner talking about the things we had heard on your show.

Chase

Dear Delilah,

October 25 my father passed away; when I went back to school after Halloween, the vice principal asked that I get involved with the Sub-for Santa Drive to help with the grieving. I jumped in with both feet; we gathered food, money, toys, had goodie sales for the next six weeks.

The day came in mid-December; I was asked to help be part of the team to deliver. There was about six of us with Mr. Cook dropping off food, toys, and stuff. As the van unloaded Mr. Cook dropped some of the kids off at their houses. He asked if I could help him with last few stops; then he'd see that I got home. I remember stopping off at an elderly widow's home; and thinking there's still quite a lot in back.

When he dropped me home; I wished him a Merry Christmas and ran in. A few minutes later there was a knock: I sat on the stairs and cried because it was all going to my house. My mother raised eight kids by herself. She had furloughed from Hill AFB just after my father's death. The first day after the new year, I went to his office with a card from my mother, but I wanted to thank all the kids (all three class years) at Sunset Jr. High for the winter of 1970 for the true meaning of Christmas. I was in the 7th grade. I'm 49 now, a mother, Gramma (2 & 5) and retired.

Thanks Delilah - play Carpenters' "I'll be home for Christmas."

Kay

Hi Delilah,

I am from a family of 13 brothers and sisters. My name is Jeffrey and I am 14. Last year for Christmas my family got a Wii. My parents put out a gift for everybody before Christmas that year. I happened to look at one of the tags to a present and it said "To the family from your older brothers." I knew that this was a big gift because my brothers never get their Christmas gifts that early. So I decided to get up in the middle of night and sneak to the wrapped gift. I took a pair of scissors and cut the tape from both ends. And I saw the Wii. The only thing I did not think about is having clear tape to tape it back up. So I tried to make the tape stick. That only worked until the day before Christmas. My older brother had insisted on moving the gift to the other side of the Christmas tree. I happened to be in the room when he found out that some one had opened the present. My older bother ask if I had opened the gift; I told him no. So on Christmas day everybody said no that they did not open the gift. So my older brothers were going to take the gift back and no one knew what the gift was. I blurted out "Why are you taking back the Wii?" And everybody pointed at me a said "You opened the gift." I felt so bad. That is the Christmas that I will never forget. I hope you got some laughs from my story.

Jeffrey

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