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www.iowalivingmagazines.com/westdesmoines50266 West Des Moines Living DECEMBER | 2008

LivingWest Des Moinesdecember 08

50266

magazine

PRSRT STDECRWSS

U.S. POSTAGEPAID

JOHNSTON, IAPERMIT NO. 5

MEET MRS. BROCKBERG

CHINA GARDEN

ASHWORTH

WEST DES MOINES FAMILIES CELEBRATE THE JOYOUS SEASON

HolidayTraditions

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Holiday traditions come in as many variousforms as there are families to enjoy them.Some are religious, some are just for fun, some

have been around for generations and some have justbegun.

The wonder of holiday traditions is the heartfeltlove that goes into creating and maintaining them.Thebeauty is sharing them with friends and family.Two WestDes Moines families share their holiday traditions andthe importance of those traditions in their holiday sea-son.

Trees of all kindsLights twinkle softly against the lace dresses of angelsand beads draped around the Christmas tree.Well, notthe tree — a tree — just one of six in the Lovasz homefor the holiday season. Polly and Don Lovasz have builta tradition of decorating sev-eral themed treesthroughout their home,starting with their fami-ly tree from their firstChristmas together.

“We always buildon the family tree,which is our favorite,”Polly says.“It’s got a lot of historyin it.”

The tree holds ornaments from when the couplewere first married, their children’s ornaments fromgrade school and special ornaments from friends andfamily.There is a set of Sesame Street ornaments fromthe boys’ childhood, and the tree even has special orna-ments that are handmade from photos of the pasthouses the family has lived in.

The tree is a collection of family memories.A slight-ly chewed up note rests between the branches.

“This reminds us of the year my parents showed upwith two hours notice with a puppy. The note said,‘Merry Christmas. Can I stay here?,’” Don says laughing.

Polly and Don have come by their penchant for tra-dition naturally.

“I sensed from Don that, in his upbringing,Christmas was a really special time,” Polly says. “In myfamily it was also really special time. I grew up with 13siblings. My mom always — even though we didn’t havea lot — she always seemed to make Christmas really,really special. I really wanted to, I guess subconsciously,add to that.”

The tradition of having more than one special treetook hold one year while living in St. Louis, when Pollyfell in love with a tree decorated in angels in a depart-ment store.

By Heather Shoning

Don Lovasz, Polly Lovasz and Jon Lovasz with one of many themed Christmas trees in their home.

HolidayHoliday A LOOK AT SOME UNIQUEWEST DES MOINESCELEBRATIONS THIS SEASON

TraditionsTraditions

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“I just fell in love with it so Don asked the department store owner if, afterChristmas, we could buy the whole tree as is. So we did,” she says.“That start-ed the second themed tree.”

After the multiple tree tradition took root, Polly shared with Don’s moth-er what they were doing with the trees.

“She said that she remembered Don every Christmas as a child just sittingand staring at the tree,” Polly says. He would tell her it was so beautiful. Theother kids liked it, but Don would just sit and look at it.”

The next tree to come along was the Patriot tree. Polly and Don’s sons,Tim, Jon, and Matt, played a lot of sports throughout high school in St. Louis.Their team was the Patriots.

“Their uniforms were always in red, white and blue,” Polly says. “In theteenage years, a lot of their friends spent time over. So in the basement we cre-ated the Patriot sports tree.”

The tree is decorated in red, white and blue lights with flag ornaments.Polly made ornaments from their individual sports pictures with the boyswearing their Patriots uniforms. The tree reflects their years playing football,basketball and baseball.

Polly’s most recent creation is a safari tree just completed this year. Shebegan collecting the animal ornaments for the tree about three years ago, butdidn’t know exactly what she was going to do with them until she spotted moredecorations that coordinated and ribbon to tie it all together.

Polly created a fruit tree for the master bedroom. It’s a very simple goldenmetal tree with no lights. Polly loves the simplistic aesthetic that matches herbedding and brings a little of the holiday spirit into their room.

A miniature Lennox tree lights up the bar in the kitchen. It is a tree thatPolly sent off with her boys when they went away to college so they could havea bit of Christmas cheer in their dorms.

• Go ice skating, see a movie together or volun-teer at a soup kitchen.

• Secret stocking stuffing. Secretly slip trinketsinto other family member’s stockings throughout themonth of December.

• Cookie party. Invite friends and family to bake(or buy) a big batch of cookies. Get them all togetherto share their loot and everyone goes home with anassortment of goodies to serve at home.

• Count down the days. Remember when youmade the red and green construction paper chain ingrade school to count down the days until Christmas?Get out the paper and scissors!

• Have a family dance party. Crank up theChristmas tunes and dance the night away with the kids.Show off your greatest “moon walk” and teach the kidsa thing or two while shaking it to “Jingle Bell Rock.”

❄ ❄

❄Five traditions toadopt this season

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While Polly has been busy with trees, Donhas carved out another tradition for them toenjoy.A family friend gave the couple a piece ofthe Department 56 Dickens’ Village.The familyhad already made a tradition of seeing “AChristmas Carol” each year.

“We decided since we go see the Dickensstory every year, then we’ll keep adding to thevillage,” Don says.“It’s great just for reminiscing

and storytelling.” He says the boys can talk about each house

and a story that goes with it. The miniaturehouses bring back fond memories of childhoodfor Don.

“The village tradition probably extends alittle bit from my grandparents,” Don says.“They handmade little houses and figures. Itwould take them up to two weeks to put up a

tree. Every little icicle was hung one at a time.It was always something to marvel at.”

When Polly and Don’s children were little,they started a special stocking tradition, too.On Dec. 1 the stockings went up, and the boysknew if they were good the elves would comeand put something in their stockings.The itemswere always something small, but to the boys itwas just about the fact that the elves had come.Over the years the family has kept up the tra-dition, still putting a little something in thestockings a couple of times throughout themonth.

Polly and Don say they are simply tradition-alists when it comes to the holidays.They enjoyknowing the same thing is going to happen eachyear, and the boys expect it. And they knowyear after year they will fill their home with fes-tive trees that remind them of years past and filltheir hearts with Christmas joy.

A global ChristmasWhile one family celebrates with a handful ofrelatives at home, another will be taking in thejoy of the season with dozens from around theglobe.

The Craven family turned a routine holidaygathering into a multi-national event. Every

The Dickens’Village has grown since a family friend gave the Lovasz family a piece from the collection years ago.

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Christmas Eve, Craven familymembers from around the globedescend on the West Des MoinesMarriott hotel for a Christmascelebration of epic proportions.

Tracy (Craven) Tellner is thesecond youngest in a family of ninechildren.They all have families andspent many years gathering at theirparents’ home in Des Moines.When Joe and Jean Craven movedto Waukee to a smaller home, thewhole family wouldn’t fit for theholiday anymore.

So, in 1997, the Craven familytook over the then-new Marriott.

“My father, Joe, is very particu-lar about this event,” Tracy says.

Joe handles the arrangementseach year. It took a couple foryears for the hotel staff to get itjust right, but now, each year thefamily gets a banquet room with adecorated tree in one corner anda lowered banquet table in thecenter for all of the small children.The hotel even provides the kidswith coloring book and activities.

Craven families come from

Massachusetts, Texas, New York,Florida, Canada and France. Fifty ormore family members from threegenerations of Cravens get togeth-er for this grand celebration.

Each year the group enjoysentertainment by various “acts.”The children sing or do other per-formances.This year,Tracy’s daugh-ter, Meghan, is wishing for a fully-choreographed dance by hercousins.

The family has a gift exchangeeach year, with the young childrenpassing the gifts out to their recip-ients. Joe has made a tradition ofbuying gifts for all of the guestswho are not family members so noone is without a gift during theexchange.

In years past, the family wouldhave a sit-down dinner service, butmore recently the hotel beganserving a buffet-style holiday dinner.

“It works well. There is tonsof food to choose from, so every-one can find something they like,”Tracy says.

The Craven Christmas is

very important to everyone inthe family. For many of them it isthe only time throughout theyear that they see one another.They make the most of it byextending the party the nextmorning for an early brunch atthe hotel. Many families thatcome will stay for a week. Thegroup sometimes takes over thepool area at the hotel.

“My son, Jack, is already ask-ing about the party. The kids getreally excited for it,” Tracey says.“It’s just magical knowing thateveryone’s going to be thereevery year.”

Whatever your traditionsmight be, or wherever they maylead you, have a peaceful and safeholiday season from your friendsat West Des Moines Living. WL

The Craven family Christmas gathering is a get-together of epic proportions.