Macon Magazine

D E C E M B E R / J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 0 | MACONMAGAZINE.COM 8 3 STEVE KRUGER PRESIDENT OF L.E. SCHWARTZ & SON INC. "We have a longstanding tradition and memory involving our family and business at L.E. Schwartz & Son that goes back, as best we can tell, to 1918 when my great-grandfather and a group of men started getting together on Christmas Eve mornings for eggnog. At first it was held at a downtown bakery, where Oliver's restaurant is now, but later moved to our warehouse. "Because the eggnog was made from scratch with moonshine involved, spouses put up a fuss because their husbands weren't able to function fully on Christmas Eve. That led to changing the celebration to the second Saturday in December, always for employees and a variety of friends and customers. It's a great time to see people, reconnect and catch up from year to year and enjoy the company of a really diverse crowd of folks. It's a generational thing with parents, sons, daughters and grandchildren. We've had as many as four generations at one event! "I started attending when I was 10 – not drinking, mind you – and I've only missed one in the last 53 years. They did stop briefly during World War II and when my grandfather died, but other than that they've been continuous each year since 1952. I'm proud of it and the many ways we're involved with friends and our whole community." FAITH MADISON CO-DIRECTOR OF THE MADISON STUDIO OF DANCE EDUCATION "Many of my favorite holiday traditions here in Macon have often been wrapped up in the Madison Studio of Dance Education. As the daughter of the owner and founder, we grew up learning traditional holiday dances and performing them for our parents, grandparents and friends. The process of learning these dances together as a team, and to have 30 plus years of MSDE dancers all know the same dances, it's a special thing to share with so many! "Now, as the co-director of this studio, it's so fulfilling to teach my students what my mom passed on to me. While so many of my favorite holiday memories include my family, and are very personal to me, it's such a treat to share a tradition and memory with members of the community that has been passed on from generation to generation." G. PILAR WILDER LOWDEN FOUNDER HAYIYA DANCE THEATRE AND ADJUNCT PROFESSOR AT WESLEYAN COLLEGE "This picture brings back a truly favorite memory. It's of watching these beautiful little girls dance to "My Favorite Things" and "Around the Christmas Tree" at Hayiya Dance Theatre's annual preview and Christmas party in 2014. It's at the historic Douglass Theatre and to think their little feet were literally dancing in the steps taken by greats like Bessie Smith, Cab Calloway, James Brown and Otis Redding on the Douglass stage is kind of overwhelming. "All at once, these little dancers were making history and shining a bright light on our future. But if you'd have asked them, they were just having a bunch of fun at Christmas, and that's such a wonderful thing!"

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