Members of the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group share their Christmas traditions and recommendations. (ID 162827843 © Alexandervolkov | Dreamstime.com)

By battlefordsNOW Staff

Holiday selections

Christmas recommendations from Northwest area JPBG staff

Dec 24, 2020 | 9:00 AM

The COVID-19 pandemic makes 2020 a year many may prefer to forget. While we’re not out of the woods yet, paNOW/battlefordsNOW/meadowlakeNOW/northeastNOW/farnmnewsNOW has chosen to produce our usual series of end-of-year stories with a focus on hope and the future.

Heading into the Christmas break, we polled our team members regarding some of their holiday recommendations. Here are some of their answers. Enjoy!

What is the best Beverage to have during the holidays?

Marty Martinson (Play By Play/Reporter, CJNB/battlefordsNOW): Hot chocolate is the ultimate, classic Christmas beverage!

Angela Brown (Reporter, battlefordsNOW): Hot chocolate.

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Elliott Knopp (Reporter, meadowlakeNOW): Any kind of holiday themed liquor!

Justin Vanny (Regional Sales Representative): Eggnog is a must. I mean, it’s only available over the holidays…

Kelly Bitner (Sales Manager, The Rock/battlefordsNOW/meadowlakeNOW): “Grandpa Jim’s Milkshake – 1 oz Baileys, 1 oz Kahlua, 1 oz Amarula – on ice.

Mike Aimoe (Station Manager, North Battleford/Meadow Lake): Rum and eggnog, because it is something I only have over the holidays.

Larissa Wack (Advertising Consultant, CJNB/meadowlakeNOW/battlefordsNOW): Rum and eggnog.

Curtis Kotchorek (Senior Advertising Consultant, CJNB): Cranberry ginger ale and vodka or eggnog and rum.

Grant Schutte (CJNB Announcer/Advertising Consultant): Green iced tea or scotch.

Kelly Parkinson (Senior Broadcast Technician): I have to say… a nice scotch. From the freezer, no ice.

Josh Ryan (News Director, battlefordsNOW): I’m all about tea, usually something calming, like peppermint. Helps with digesting all that food.

What’s the key ingredient to a Christmas Day Meal?

Aimoe: Turkey.

Brown: Turkey with stuffing.

Wack: Stuffing.

Vanny: If you don’t have a good stuffing, you don’t have anything. Turkey is just a vessel for other delicious things to shine.

Kotchorek: A not-dry turkey.

Schutte: Gravy.

Ryan: As previously mentioned, tea.

Martinson: I am Norwegian, so lefsa is a must for any Christmas feast! Throw some butter and (lots of) sugar on it, and it doesn’t get better than that!

Bitner: Cranberries.

Knopp: Having a holiday movie on while diving into the food face first!

Parkinson: Turkey or ham.

Should presents be opened Christmas Eve or Christmas morning?

Knopp: Christmas morning.

Schutte: Christmas morning.

Wack: Morning, but open new pajamas on Christmas Eve.

Brown: Christmas Eve.

Parkinson: As a kid we always opened presents on Christmas Eve. With our kids they chose one to open Christmas Eve and had to wait for the rest until morning.

Kotchorek: Christmas morning.

Ryan: It’s changed over the years, sometimes one or two on Christmas Eve, but always several on Christmas morning.

Vanny: Never trust someone who opens their presents on Christmas Eve.

Aimoe: Anything past midnight is fair game in my mind.

Martinson: Christmas Eve is what we’ve always done.

Bitner: One on Christmas Eve per person, the rest Christmas Day.

Is there one Christmas Special (ie, Grinch, Home Alone, Charlie Brown, etc) that you have to watch every year and when do you watch it?

Bitner: The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) and A Christmas Story (1983).

Wack: A Christmas Story.

Parkinson: A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965).

Brown: Santa Claus is Coming to Town (1970).

Vanny: A Christmas Story. Something about it, and growing up watching it, always puts it in a special place in the ol’ heart.

Schutte: Any version of the Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol.

Ryan: Die Hard is the correct answer.

Martinson: The Sound of Music is one movie we used to always watch visiting my grandma’s place growing up. Not so much a Christmas movie specifically, but a great tradition nonetheless!

Aimoe: National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.

Knopp: National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000).

Kotchorek: National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation or The Santa Claus (1994).

Do you eat the gingerbread house after the holidays are over?

Vanny: I didn’t know that people actually ate those things.

Ryan: You really shouldn’t.

Brown: No, it’s an art project.

Wack: No, I usually only make it with my niece and it stays at her house.

Knopp: Absolutely. Those people haven’t paid me rent.

Martinson: More like as soon as it’s made, let’s be honest!

Parkinson: We never had a gingerbread house.

Aimoe: Don’t people just eat the ingredients and never actually build a house?

Kotchorek: Never had one.

Schutte: Yuck… butter tarts forever.

What is the greatest Christmas tune of all-time?

Wack: It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas performed by Bing Crosby.

Kotchorek: There’s so many but I’m partial to Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas is You and The Carpenters’ version of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.

Parkinson: Mary’s Boy Child by Boney M.

Ryan: The Christmas Song by Nat King Cole.

Schutte: Snoopy’s Christmas by Snoopy.

Aimoe: Mistress for Xmas by AC/DC.

Vanny: Not a huge Christmas music fan, never have been. Though Chuck Berry’s Run Rudolph Run is just a great song, Christmas or not.

Brown: Carol of the Bells, performed by Libera.

Knopp: Step into Christmas with some Elton John this holiday!

Martinson: Anything from Amy Grant’s Christmas CD is the ultimate. Breath of Heaven, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas and Winter Wonderland — just so many.