Douglas spent his first Christmas at Palmer Home for Children when he was 15, opening presents and spending time with his house parents and the other children in their cottage.
“For the first time ever, I felt love,” he said.
Douglas, now 21, has spent every holiday season since at the Palmer Home with those same house parents — whom he now just calls his parents — partaking in the myriad of traditions throughout the season.
One of his favorite traditions is Open House, when the entire community can come to Palmer Home and learn more about the non-profit Christian organization that has been housing and helping children since 1895.
“I love that … we open the house up to the community to just see what Palmer (Home) is and what it’s about…because the mission and goal is to help kids that are less fortunate, that don’t have the families that they have,” Douglas said.
This year, Open House will be held December 4 from 2-4 p.m.
It’s the first year the event has landed on a Sunday, said marketing director Kellum Kim, who hopes more people will be able to attend on the weekend than in past years when Open House was held on Thursdays.
This year, the children will sell $18 poinsettias that they grew themselves, and both the Suzuki Strings orchestra and Palmer Home’s choir, the Treble Makers, will perform at the open house, Kim said.
“The kids get super excited because it’s really a great opportunity for them to show off their cottages,” she said. “It’s just a fun way to kick off the Christmas season.”
But Palmer Home cottages have their own private traditions too, Douglas said.
While many of the children spend the holidays with foster or sponsor families, others stay with their house parents in the cottages.
On Thanksgiving, his parents invite everyone else on campus to their home for Thanksgiving dinner, which is followed by watching football or playing video games and playing a game of Capture the Flag.
Capture the Flag bookends the holiday season, Douglas said, since the kids play it at both Thanksgiving and New Year’s.
Another New Year’s tradition involves watching the ball drop in New York. When the ball drops, that’s the cue for everyone to run to the main building on campus and ring the dinner bell.
“Kids literally are like clawing, pulling, trying to get to the string to get it,” he said.
“I know one year it was me and my mom, and because she was a cross country person in college, it’s hectic going up against her,” he added. “So the only reason I won is because I was taller. She had to climb up to get it.”
But one of the traditions that Palmer Home kids and staff look forward to most every year is a candle-lighting ceremony outside the main building.
Held each year in December, when all the children are still on campus, each person attending lines up on the sidewalk outside, holding an unlit candle. Drake Bassett, president of Palmer Home, calls out each person’s name in the order they arrived at Palmer Home and lights their candle. When everyone’s candle is lit, they all sing “Silent Night” together.
Last year was Kim’s first year to be involved in the candle-lighting ceremony.
“It was sweet,” she said. “I had my family with me and my little girl. … To know that some of these kids literally have spent every holiday, not just Christmas, with their family here on this campus and for me to have my daughter here and my family alongside me, (it was) just really a… great time of reflection, a lot to be grateful for, a lot to be thankful for — thankful that there is a place like Palmer Home that these boys and girls get to celebrate.”
There are plenty of children at Palmer Home who come and have never gotten to have holidays and have never heard the Christmas story, Kim said. Because Palmer Home is a Christian organization, house parents and staff always stress the birth of Christ around this time of year.
It’s something Douglas’s dad emphasizes every Christmas morning — that and the appreciation of donors and sponsors who provide gifts for the children every year, Douglas said.
But even without the presents, Douglas said, the important thing is that children at Palmer Home know they’re loved.
“Even if we didn’t get any gifts, (my parents) would still, no matter what, love us and care for us and treat us the same way,” he said. “That’s what most families miss. They miss the true meaning behind what you’re supposed to be giving your kids during that Christmas morning.”
Last year, Douglas spent Christmas morning with a middle-school-aged boy named Alex. It was Alex’s first Christmas at Palmer Home, and he was more excited even than the smaller children unwrapping presents under the tree. Douglas doesn’t know Alex’s background but thinks Alex may have gotten the same feeling Douglas did during his first Christmas there.
“Maybe it was the same love,” Douglas said. “Or maybe it was just being able to just have that Christmas feeling or just being able to have that thought of, ‘Oh yeah, someone does care for me. Somebody does want me. I do care, my life does count.'”
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You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 42 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
