COWETANS CELEBRATE THE HOLIDAYS WITH FAMILY TRADITIONS

Written by JENNIFER LONDON | Photographed by SARA MOORE

As a melting pot of community and culture, Coweta County serves as home to an ever increasing variety of ways to celebrate the upcoming holidays. Whether it’s Thanksgiving or Christmas, families here hold fast to old traditions – and don’t hesitate to give new ones a try. This holiday season, we visit seven Coweta families to see how they’ll be spending the holidays with their loved ones.

The Tucker Family
SANTA ON THE SQUARE

The Tucker family – consisting of Katie, husband Jesse, and their two children Molly and Corey – has been the first in line to see Santa on the Square in Newnan for almost 20 years.

“My nephew is going to be 20 this year, and we started when he turned one,” says Katie, Coweta County-born and raised.

Initially, the group consisted of Katie and her sister and a few friends. Now their family and friends have expanded to around 20 people.

“Pretty much every year we’ve been first,” she says with a laugh. “I don’t want to give away what time we get there. We are early to life. We are early to everything.”

Daughter Molly says she enjoys going because she gets to spend time with her family while walking to Heirloom Donuts and getting hot chocolate while they wait. Her little brother Corey comes ready to give Santa his wishlist.

In recent years, downtown activities have been added to keep kids busy while they wait for Santa. Along with carnival games, actual reindeer make an appearance in a corral for children to see and photograph.

Santa’s grand entrance is on a fire engine, circling the square and parking by the downtown Christmas tree, where a countdown leads to the tree lighting. Children can give their written letters to Santa (if they prefer that to speaking directly to the jolly elf) and have their photo taken with Santa, who always hands out candy canes.

“It’s just a good small-town feel,” says Katie. “It’s so peaceful and fun.” 

The Bailey Family
CHRISTMAS LIGHTS & HOLIDAY JAMMIES

Renee Bailey and her children Cierra, 21, and Zach, 18 moved from Colorado to Newnan in 2014.

“Since we moved to Georgia, it’s always just kind of been our immediate family on Christmas Eve,” says Renee. “Since my parents moved here four years ago, we have included them in our tradition because we’re the only family they have out here.”

Her daughter is a newlywed and her husband will also be getting matching jammies this Christmas.

Renee says their holiday traditions began with the birth of her children to make the season extra special.

“We celebrate Christmas on Christmas Day, but our tradition starts on Christmas Eve,” she says. “We always go to Christmas Eve service at the church and after the service we come home and open gifts of new Christmas pajamas. They’re all matching Christmas pajamas.”

After donning their new jammies, the family makes hot cocoa and grabs baked cookies.

“Then we pile up in the car, put on some Christmas music, and drive around to look at Christmas lights,” says Renee. “We come home, start a fire in the fireplace, and we always watch some kind of Christmas movie.”

“Elf” is one of their favorites.

Another special tradition carried on since her children were born is buying them a keepsake ornament each year.

“The ornament for the year is something significant that has happened in their life,” says Renee. “It represents something in their life so that they can look back on it and remember.”

The McSpadden Family
20 YEARS OF CINNAMON AMISH FRIENDSHIP BREAD

“Out of all the holidays, Christmas was the one my mom made the most special,” says Angie Readd-McSpadden.

The Newnan native and her husband Cole moved to North Carolina after college and eventually moved back to Newnan in 2010. They live here with their son Joey and daughter Genny. A favorite of their holiday traditions is preparing Cinnamon Amish Friendship Bread to share with family and friends.

“I used to bake it when I was in high school,” says Angie. “When I got back home to Newnan, Mom had a starter of friendship bread at the house. I’ve kept the tradition alive since then… I keep a bunch in the freezer on reserve so if I ever need to, I can pull it out and make bread, like when somebody’s moved into the neighborhood or I need to get a thank you out to someone.”

To make the bread, Angie and her children mix ingredients in a plastic or glass bowl and use a wooden spoon to hand mix the dough. Angie recalls times past when dough was saved in plastic containers; if the lid wasn’t burped when applied, it eventually popped off the container.

“But with the invention of Ziploc bags, the process of manually stirring the bread is gone, since it is easier to just mush the bag,” she says. “The bags can be dated and frozen more conveniently.”

Like their mom before them, Joey and Genny know the smell of the house to be cinnamon at Christmastime. The family bakes plenty of friendship bread each year and gives loaves away as Christmas gifts.

“The gift is the love that goes into the bread,” says Angie. “It’s all of our love and energy going into every loaf of bread.”

The Dotson Family
WAITING FOR THE THANKSGIVING FEAST

Navy Veteran Grant Dotson and Army Veteran Aida, along with daughter Klea, have lived in Newnan for the last five years. Preparing the Thanksgiving meal has been their family tradition since they married in 2012.

Wife Aida explains: “I came to America [from Albania] in 2012 to join the American Army. That was my first time being exposed to holidays. I think his was a hidden skill until he learned that his wife didn’t know how to cook, when he couldn’t eat his wife’s meals.“

Grant does the cooking and the prep work solo.

“I like to do all the grocery shopping because I know the brands I like to get,” he says. “It’s just kind of Grandma’s traditions, growing up in the South, growing up in the Ozarks of Northwest Arkansas.”

Aida says he chases everyone out of the kitchen. She does offer to help, saying, “Do you need help? Nope! Ok, I’m out, bye! I’ll be here at 3 o’clock.”

While hubby is cooking, the rest of the family patiently – or not so patiently – must wait.

“Another rule is that he starves us to death,” says Aida with a laugh. “We are not allowed to have snacks. A drink is fine, but we are not allowed to go to the fridge, get snacks, or eat anything until
3 o’clock.”

Her husband stresses: “Breakfast is from 7:15 to 7:30, that’s all you get and you can’t eat until 3.”

Along with traditional turkey, dressing, casseroles and homemade apple pies, he incorporates variety to the menu, like sweet and spicy deviled eggs. To honor Aida’s Albanian heritage, they always have feta cheese and roasted red peppers. Grant’s in-laws are always excited to join them for the meal.

But as for cranberries? Grant says, “I don’t even buy them.”

The Baker Family
COOKING THE TRINI WAY

Kathy Baker moved from Atlanta to Newnan in 2010 to be with Alan, a combat veteran of 32 years. They had met and fell in love when she was a reservist.

Says Alan of wife Kathy: “Let’s put it this way, she’s like the air you breathe. You can’t do without it, and I can’t do without her.”

Since October 2022, the lovebirds have owned and operated Baker Bag Company in downtown Newnan while also managing a busy family of 11.

“I’m from the Caribbean, from Trinidad, so I have a very diverse background,” says Kathy. “I cook what we call Trini food. So for Christmas, yes, I do have a turkey, but I cook it the Caribbean way.”

She makes a special potato salad in the Caribbean style with chunky potatoes, hard boiled eggs, corn, plantains and sweet and savory spices. She also enjoys making Venezuelan pasteles, jasmine rice and pulao with brown rice, pigeon peas, coconut milk and meat. Traditionally, rum cake is featured for dessert.

They serve ginger beer and sorrel (hibiscus flower) drinks. Trinidad’s own Angostura bitters are added to fresh lime juice for a refreshing and “good for you” drink, according to Kathy.

The Bakers open up their home to friends and family for the holidays.

“During that time it’s very touchy for folks who don’t have their families still here with them, so we reach out and say, hey, come and be a part of ours,” says Alan. “We seem to do that quite a bit. We should be good stewards to other people.” 

The Duvelsaint Family
SHARING WITH NEIGHBORS

PIerre and AnneMarie Duvelsaint moved from Orlando, Fla., to Newnan in 2021. They have three children, Natalie, 10, Pierre Jr., 9, and Anneliese, 7. Neighbors Thanksgiving in their cul-de-sac is their newest tradition.

“Food brings everybody together,” says Pierre, executive chef for Levy Restaurants at the Amway Center and Camping World Stadium in Atlanta. He and AnneMarie cherish the connectedness with neighbors they consider friends, and Pierre has always loved throwing a party.

Their first year in the neighborhood, next door neighbors Jon and Leann Adcock had no Thanksgiving plans, so the Duvelsaints invited them over.

“That’s how it started – with one,” says Pierre. “It kind of sparked a thing that I love these past two years.”

AnneMarie adds: “Now everybody’s like, alright, Annie and PJ’s for Thanksgiving. We’re ready for it!” “I’m Haitian, and it’s my favorite cuisine ever, so any chance I get to kind of show that off, I try to make one, two, three dishes that people can try outside of the norm,” says Duvelsaint. “We do all the traditionals.”

He sets up a large grazing table of appetizers, seafood and more, with dinner being served by 6:30.

“My favorite meal ever is black mushroom rice,” says the chef. “The mushroom itself is only grown in Haiti in the mountains.” He prepares Haitian stewed chicken, pickled cabbage, fried plantains, stewed and fried fish, stew made with eggplant, okra, oxtails and crab.

For dessert, son Pierre makes the banana pudding with dad’s help while the coffee bar is set up with Bailey’s, Kahlúa and Espresso.

“Consider what you could do a little differently this year to spice it up a little bit,” the older Pierre encourages.

The Wisely Family
CHRISTMAS EVE SERVICE, MUSIC & FOOTBALL

Lindsey and Mike Wisely moved in 2018 from Decatur to Newnan where they live with their children Sammy Jo, 9; Malachi, 6; and Rip, 1. Lindsey’s parents, Candi and Gary Martin, live with them.

Each holiday season, Grandma Candi chooses a day to make Christmas cookies with the grandkids. And decorating the house for the holidays takes at least a week, according to Lindsey, who says the Wisely and Martin men are in charge of hanging lights and displays. Last Christmas, the family’s classic farmhouse home was featured in the Newnan Tour of Homes.

“We have always done Christmases very big,” says Candi. “I would say, though, that at the center of our Christmases has been music.”

Their family is a musical family, according to Lindsey.

“We all sing,” she says. “Every year, somebody’s leading a Christmas concert somewhere or organizing a Christmas concert.”

Grandma described another tradition: “We always attend a Christmas Eve service and afterwards, we have soup.”

Their Christmas usually brings together about 30 family members with Grandma hanging stockings for each. She has room to do that with the four decorated fireplaces in their home. The family picks a day to dive into the stockings together.

Christmas morning, they make an egg casserole and, later, all of the kids go outside to play baseball, basketball, football or pickleball. The outdoors play takes place in their yard or at a nearby park. Along with football, cookies and stuffed stockings, Lindsey says her family remembers the deeper side of the holidays as well.

“I wouldn’t celebrate Christmas without the understanding and the significance of the birth of Jesus Christ and what that represents – hope for humanity,” she says. NCM