Issue link: http://maconmagazine.uberflip.com/i/1233225
8 2 MACONMAGAZINE.COM | D E C E M B E R / J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 0 HOLIDAY MEMORIES BY MICHAEL W. PANNELL THE WINTER HOLIDAY SEASON is a unique time of year to enjoy and to create lasting memories made with family, friends, neighbors, business associates or the whole community. We asked Maconites to share their fondest memories and traditions. Here's to more memorable celebrations this holiday season. JIM CRISP FOUNDING ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF THEATRE MACON "Many of my Macon holiday memories connect directly to productions at Theatre Macon. Our Christmas productions, and especially the different versions of "A Christmas Carol" we did, not only remind me of fond memories here but of ones back home when I was a kid in Ohio – the snow, the lights, being with family. "For me, those shows connected the sense of home here with the powerful longing most of us have for home as we knew it as a kid. I love the street corner picture from the first night of "A Christmas Carol" we did about 30 years ago. We were in the location we had across the street from where Theatre Macon is now and there wasn't room for everybody backstage so all the kids in the play had to dress a couple of doors away. It was cold and weirdly foggy with an atmosphere of mystery. It felt very Christmasy moving the kids back and forth – the perfect atmosphere for telling Dicken's Christmas ghost story." BRYAN NICHOLS, CREATOR OF THE MAIN STREET CHRISTMAS LIGHT EXTRAVAGANZA "The Main Street Christmas Light Extravaganza has been the big thing for me the last several Christmases, but I realized last year while so many people were making memories and taking tons of family photos, I hadn't taken any with my family. Thankfully, Macon photographer Maryann Bates was around and helped me fix that. "I've always hoped the Extravaganza would be full of memories and good times for people and families, and it seems that's happening. Part of the inspiration for it was hearing so many older people talk about how they missed coming downtown like they did years ago when it was really decorated. Some could tell me about every strand of lights and all the colors. I'm glad they can come back now and it's a new, happy tradition for them. "Young families and all sorts of people tell me it's already a tradition for them, and I hope that coming to Macon from all over Middle Georgia and beyond to see the lights becomes a tradition for a lot more people. Seeing people enjoy downtown, the lights, the restaurants and the shops and taking the time to make lots of great memories with family and friends makes me very, very glad."