Say Christmas and you immediately receive hundreds of what that means – and most likely many see Christmas, before feeling it, in stores a few weeks before Thanksgiving. Once you are able to separate yourself from the material connections associated with this holiday, things become a little more personal. Sometimes you are lucky enough to find yourself in the middle of an experience that brings a personal meaning to Christmas to your front door.

On December 21st, Hopkins Brothers Produce came as close to the North Pole as you could imagine.

Although most individuals in the education business (and other forms of employment too) are rushed through the holiday season with the 20th being their last day and then in a mad rush to catch up with “to do’s” outside of school, after the marathon of holiday to do’s IN school, it is next to impossible to slow things down to appreciate them. Hopkins Brothers’ Produce was able to recreate the importance and value of slowing down, taking in the feeling of what a holiday can mean when taken in slow measures. Yes, by 6 PM it was 17 degrees F and yet, the Christmas experience was set and warm to everyone within reach.

The fire pit outside that allowed hot dogs and warmth and conversation welcomed all that passed by. If you looked closed enough, you would see tribute to Punkin Chunkin as well. Thanks to the Little Free Library that Hopkins Brothers Produce established, and a grant through the Little Free Library that allowed books available to young readers this night, all visitors could benefit from what their library offered.

If you were lucky enough to catch the live singing and hot chocolate coffee, you began to feel, despite the cold, the warmth of simple holiday practices that can be enjoyed no matter the weather, and not matter the rush that is placed on us often without welcome, and you found yourself losing yourself into the details of holidays that really mattered. Music, food, hot chocolate, a fire, free and…yes, everyone knows Santa should be involved in the picture. Wow. What a surprise-

Santa has the very best on, as usual, for this particular night. You could see the polar bear trim, the buckles that connected him to the North Pole, and while excited to be trying out a green screen experience, you could tell from his sheer size, Santa in all his glory and magic had certainly come to town through Hopkins Brothers Produce.

As you looked around, you could see the original, Sussex County warmth represented all around you, including the deep history of the Hopkins Brothers Produce history.

In being welcome to offer trying out the green screen behind Santa, and with the patience of Santa and Hopkins Brothers Produce, it worked and then, well some did not. it was a trial and error and not liking that some images did in fact come out and others did not, I was grateful that so much magic was already infused into this whole night and I would learn best steps forward next time that could only add to this evening.

If you just tuned in to the many facets of Christmas that surrounded you this evening, it was pretty amazing to be in the middle of so much tradition and it all emanating from right here in Sussex County. The cold actually was necessary to distance yourself from something trying to imitate holiday celebrations, and there was nothing the whole evening that was seemingly anything but authentic. From the turnips that were available to make soup or roast them, to the real Santa, to carolers under a spotlight, a warm fire that you could go to when the cold started creeping in again, being able to grab a hotdog also by the fire, grabbing a candy cane and a book for the road as an early Christmas gift, you realized…

…that the holiday is about a variety of things, not just one thing, combined together to bring a feeling of what you are grateful for. It is rewarding that we live in a state like Delaware here farms, families, and friends take the time to bring out the details that make you feel the Christmas holiday, rather than feel obligated to fall into the ranks of shopping and things that seem to be made more of material value and face away, we have the choice to find events that strike deeper into our awareness of what holidays are about and stick with us longer than when a shopping season is over.

In supporting the farms, local businesses, and families that make up Sussex county, we in turn are insuring that histories of bringing holidays to the heart will occur over and over. Thank you Hopkins Brothers Produce for instilling holidays as they were meant to be, personal, home town warmth, and securing genuine, holiday and familial tradition in all of our lives.