Christmas Village, Ornaments, Baking Among Family's Many Holiday Tradition

For a Pacific Junction family, Christmas truly is the most wonderful time of the year.

Christmas is a season of celebration and a time to carry on decades-old family traditions for the Ron and Faith Doerr family.

“Our family is a Christmas family,” said Cindy Doerr, Ron and Faith’s daughter. “We have a lot of traditions we enjoy doing together every year.”

The Doerrs’ traditions include getting together with siblings, aunts, uncles and cousins for a day of holiday baking and putting a puzzle together as a family on Christmas Day, but one of their most treasured holiday rituals is displaying and enjoying Faith’s Christmas Village. The village, now more than 60 units, takes up most of the parlor in Ron and Faith’s home.

“There’s a lot. We don’t have them all put up this year,” Cindy Doerr said. “We just ran out of space.”

Faith Doerr hasn’t had to buy any of the village pieces herself.

“They’ve been gifts through the years from my kids and my husband,” she said. “It just grew every year – it’s still growing.”

The village has an assortment of shops, Victorian-style homes, a hot air balloon, wildlife, snow-covered landscaping, a playground and even a bowling alley. The playground was the piece that started the village. Cindy gave it to her mother as a gift in 1998.

Cindy’s gift to her mother came with a note that read – “Next year, when you get these out, I hope you feel the Christmas spirit and accept God with a ‘child-like’ faith! Merry Christmas!

The playground is one of Faith’s favorite pieces in the village, along with an illuminated castle.

“We have a castle from Disney World, which is kind of special because we all went there,” Faith said. “We just have everything. I love them all.”

Each piece of the village comes with a special memory.

“They all do because I mark the boxes of each one – of the year I got it and who it was from,” Faith said. “It’s just fun to open the boxes and remember that Christmas.”
Everyone in the family pitches in to help set up the village, including Cindy’s brother Andrew.

“My brother, Andrew, likes to help her with the electrical cords,” Cindy said. “He will climb around under the tables and help her tie cords. When the village is completed, all the lights can be turned on with a remote. Some of the animated and musical pieces have to be turned on manually, but all the lights come on with just the push of a button.  But it takes a lot of work to get it to that point!”

Faith isn’t the only Christmas collector in the Doerr family. Cindy has been collecting ornaments since she was a child.

“Several friends gave them to me in elementary school and I think that’s kind of what started my fascination with ornaments,” Cindy said. “Everything I have was either picked up on a vacation as a remembrance or given to me by friends. Kind of like Mom, that’s the most fun, I think, pulling them out every year because everything is labeled with the year and who gave it to me. It just brings back so many great memories.”

Many of the ornaments have sentimental value, Cindy said.

“My best friend since the fifth grade passed away several years ago. You just feel closer when you open up an ornament she gave me,” she said. “There are some from people who are still a part of my life, friends from elementary school, and some that I haven’t seen in years. I just love that feeling of unwrapping the ornaments and it brings back a memory of that person or that time.”

Cindy has so many ornaments that she can’t display them all every year. This year, her Christmas tree is decorated with her dog ornament collection. As for her favorite ornament, it’s from Avon.

“It’s these two little teddy bears sitting in a wagon. One of my friends, Erica, gave that to me I believe back in 6th grade,” she said.

The Doerrs have many other Christmas traditions. Cindy has a Santa photo taken every year with her dog Rayne and other canine companions she’s had in the past.

“She (Rayne) has an Advent calendar she opens every day and gets toys or treats. I take her to see Santa every year. She loves people. She loves Santa,” Cindy said. “I’ve cross-stitched stockings for one of the dogs that I’ve had. She has hers hanging up on the fireplace next to mine and that will get filled at Christmas.”

Cindy also decorates an evergreen tree near her family’s home with fruit and nuts every year as a memorial tribute to one of her former canine companions.

The Doerrs’ baking day with extended family took place earlier this month in Creston. The gathering has been a tradition for about 50 years.

“That’s something we all look forward to every year. That’s one of our favorite traditions,” Cindy said.

For many years, Ron and Faith Doerr displayed a nativity at the back of their property, along Highway 34.

“So many people told them how much they enjoyed seeing the nativity lit up at night. It was a lot of work, but it was a work of heart for Dad,” Cindy said.  “He built the stable. He was the one who had to dig out the figures, clean them up, replace bulbs, set them up, add weights to keep them from blowing around, etc. But he loved it.  He loved sharing the true meaning of Christmas with others.”

The nativity display duties were recently passed down to Cindy.

“Dad decided he was ready to pass on the nativity. He passed it on to me,” Cindy said. “He and I put it up at my house in Pacific Junction this year.  I hope some of the people who enjoyed seeing it along the highway will eventually find it at my house.  I feel a bit like the torch has been passed, and it’s my job now to carry on the tradition. It makes me smile every time I come home and see the nativity lit up.”

On Christmas Eve, the Doerrs plan to attend a candlelight service at Trinity Lutheran Church in Glenwood and then return home for their traditional Christmas Eve soup supper and an evening together watching a holiday movie. They’ll be together again on Christmas Day, getting that puzzle started – and hopefully completed.

“Every Christmas, we put together a Christmas puzzle as a family,” Cindy noted. “We try to finish it, but if we don’t, we leave it with Dad. He mounts them.”

“Mom uses the puzzles as the backdrops to her village.”

Cindy and Faith agreed, it’s the traditions and time together with family that make the Christmas season so special.

“It really is our favorite time of the year,” Faith said.