Yuletide Joy

Dr. Pfister and his “elves” enjoy delivering holiday baskets to Medina County dentists as an annual holiday tradition.

Have you found your Happy Place this month?

You know, the place you have been going for many years… maybe you started going there when you were a kid and your parents took you. Funny how at the time it seemed boring and you’d rather have been somewhere else (and especially with somebody else).

But then, as the years go by, we seem to appreciate those events and those places that stimulate the lobes of our brain and flood our body and soul with a euphoric nostalgia that can only be found this time of year.

One of my treasured events for the past 25 years… the first week of December, I dress up as Santa Clause and — with my wife and several staff dressed as elves — we deliver holiday baskets to dentists that we work with in the Medina County area.

This usually takes 6-8 hours and requires a military form of organization several weeks in advance to pull it off successfully. There is a part of me that knows my father is with me in Spirit, because I helped him deliver holiday baskets for his insurance company when I was a child. He passed quickly when I was fifteen. There was no grief counseling back then, so you just lived with the loss.

After I started doing my holiday deliveries… seeing the love and joy in people’s eyes all day… I felt a rekindling, spiritually, with my dad.

I truly, and I mean truly, recommend to anyone having lost a spouse or family member with whom you traditionally did something every holiday season, please continue that tradition! It won’t be exactly the same, and it doesn’t have to be. It’s the thought and spirit of it that counts. It may feel odd at first - and you may feel a little awkward - but don’t worry, just do it for your sake and especially for the kids.

If you say you are too busy to look for a Happy Place this time of year (because of too much shopping, empty shelves, wrapping, being short of cash!), then these are exactly the reasons you need to find a Happy Place for yourself and your family to find solace and the true invigorating love that surrounds us, especially at this time of year.

Now, when I’m referring to a Happy Place, I’m talking about re-visiting a tradition (or creating a new one) that rekindles that sense of wonder that we often know as children.

For me, my Happy Place was carrying on the tradition of holiday basket gift-giving that was imparted on me by my father.

But there are plenty of other ways to embrace that yuletide joy that many of us long for this time of year.

And I’ve got a great list of destinations and activities that can be found locally and might just be your family’s next tradition.

So sit back, grab some eggnog, and let’s rekindle the Christmas Spirit…

Truly one of the premier Christmas spots is Akron’s Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens with its holiday event, Deck the Hall, from 5-8 pm on select nights, November 26th through December 30th. The estate is illuminated with over one million lights; and this year’s theme is Lights, Camera, Action. It will feature family-favorites and classic Christmas movies in twenty-one rooms, with twenty-five trees decorated in festive Hollywood fashion. The tour starts in the reception room (transformed into a movie lobby). Then, movies like A Charlie Brown Christmas, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and Rudolph are individually themed in each room. Hywet’s large dining hall is a perfect Hogwarts setting for a Harry Potter presentation, complete with floating candles. All tickets are pre-sale online. So get your tickets early — they sell out. I couldn’t get in this weekend!

Both the Akron and Cleveland Zoos have themed Wild Light displays this year. Having been to both in the past, they are truly fun for all ages and, when combined with walking around and observing the animals after dark, very memorable. This is a nice and easy-to-do tradition to start. So what are you waiting for? Get online and grab your tickets. I’m very pro-zoo. Pay for a zoo membership and get free and reduced Wild Light tickets.

Closer to home is a drive-through light show at the Berea Fairgrounds off Bagley road. I went last year — not as big or grand as the zoos — but not bad. A great date or family night is a quick dinner at the Berea Depot (old Pufferbelly restaurant), a restored train station that is right on the tracks. Open 11am-11pm except Wednesday, the chicken paprikash is to die for. After dinner, tour the lights (only one mile away).

Even closer to home is this year’s Medina County Fair’s 20th annual Drive-Thru Holiday Lights, with nearly 100 displays and over a mile of twinkling animation, from Winnie the Pooh to Monsters Inc. (and including all the classics). Over eight thousand cars went through last year’s four weekends and weekdays. With one week under their belt, organizers see this year beating last year’s record! Ten dollars a car, bring along popcorn and snacks and even Fido for the beginning of a great local tradition.

Now that I have your attention, I saved the best for last…

And I wrote an entire dedicated blog post about this one last year here.

I’m talking about Medina’s greatest Christmas extravaganza. Yes, it’s America’s largest indoor year-round Christmas entertainment attraction… the one-and-only… Castle Noel!

In 2013, owners Mark and Dana Klaus (yes that’s their real name) created a kind of 4-D experience that will push all of your nostalgic Christmas buttons as it transports you back to your childhood from the moment you step off the sidewalk. Once inside, you are surrounded by millions of dollars of New York City (the mother-ship of Christmas shopping) department store window displays. This year’s stars are the 2020 holiday windows from Saks. Castle Noel’s Polar Bear Club, with adult-themed beverages, will also be open this year and is a must-see.

In a nutshell, Castle Noel is a super creative Christmas-themed interactive park boasting experiences like a Blizzard Vortex, a Santa Squeeze, and a totally cool slide down Santa Mountain. Along with all the Christmas razzle dazzle, this year’s guests will be serenaded by a trio of penguins! Now that is special!

When Mark was asked why he built Castle Noel, he remarked, “I built a tribute to Christmas that I dedicated to my parents.” (His mom was killed on Christmas Eve when he was a child.) “Watching people experiencing joy, as they tour the Castle, makes me feel like Santa Claus!” This year’s guests need to get tickets ahead of time online. And yes, they are selling out fast.

So there you have my quick samplings of local ideas to jump-start your own family traditions this year.

Yes, I’ve been to Frankenmuth, Michigan’s Little Bavaria, and the Festival of Lights at Oglebay, WV. And if driving long distances makes the event a more memorable tradition, then by all means, do it! But, as you can see, we’ve got a lot of great attractions in our own backyard.

Whether you stay local or travel far, my hope is that you’ll not let this holiday season slip by without creating some really cool holiday experiences with your loved ones. And who knows — just as my father’s tradition of holiday basket-giving always stuck with me — one of these experiences might be duplicated for the next 30 years and become your family’s favorite tradition.

To making memories,

Dr. P.