Holiday Traditions: Poinsettias, Ornaments, an Elf and Perhaps Some Grief
It's the week before Christmas, Vonda is drinking gingerbread coffee, and this episode is deliberately light on business strategy — a warm ramble through holiday traditions past and present, from carols around Grandma's piano to why there's a pickle ornament in so many American trees. But don't mistake cozy for shallow: tucked inside is real floral history, a marketing lesson or two, and some of the most honest talk about holiday grief the podcast has done.
Two childhood Christmases
Lori grew up with every aunt, uncle, cousin, and grandma in the same town: Christmas Eve with her mother's huge musical family — Grandma on piano, every carol sung, and six-year-old Lori making the song agenda, with her dad and uncle (a couple of cocktails in, and unable to carry a tune) forever assigned "five golden rings." Her uncle and dad built her wooden toys — a baby doll high chair and crib she still has in her attic. And when little Lori found her gifts wrapped in the local newspaper, her quick-thinking mother spun a flawless story: Santa ran out of paper and woke her up to borrow some. Vonda's Iowa Christmases centered on the candlelight "Silent Night" at Christmas Eve service and stockings in which her mother wrapped every single item, down to the pack of gum — a tradition that lives on with her kids and grandkids today.
How the poinsettia became America's Christmas flower
The episode's floral history lesson: poinsettias are native to Central America and were brought to the U.S. — and given their name — by Joel Roberts Poinsett, the country's first ambassador to Mexico and a botanist, around 1820. But it took Paul Ecke Sr. to develop a poinsettia that could grow indoors in pots, selling them at roadside stands in Hollywood, and his son Paul Ecke Jr. to turn the family's North San Diego County ranch into the nation's largest poinsettia producer, making it the top-selling potted plant in the U.S. The Society of American Florists' Paul Ecke Jr. Award still honors professionalism in business, industry, and community. The hosts also reminisce about grave blankets — still a real tradition in parts of the Midwest, complete with broom, stakes, and hammer in the snow. Lori's grandmother considered them so important that when she died, she had prepaid her grandson's grave blanket for the next ten years.
Pickles, elves, and ugly sweaters
The Christmas pickle, it turns out, was likely a marketing gimmick from the late 1800s — a retailer stuck with imported German pickle-shaped ornaments invented a tradition where the first child to spot it wins the first gift or a year of good fortune. (Respect, say the hosts, from one marketer to another.) Elf on the Shelf only dates to a 2005 book, with more than 13 million elves adopted since — both hosts are relieved their kids aged out before the nightly staging pressure began. And Lori, a former middle school teacher, once wired an ugly Christmas sweater with actual working lights and a battery pack, flipping off the classroom lights to blink for her students during the most academically pointless week of the year. The ornament conversation turns tender, though: both hosts keep trees full of story-ornaments — Vonda's from friends and in memory of her mom, dad, and Gordon Brantley; Lori's including a Christopher Radko American-flag heart given just after 9/11. Vonda's advice is worth stealing: photograph each meaningful ornament and write its story down, because someday you'll forget.
When the holidays hurt
The hosts end mindful that for many people, the season from Thanksgiving on is heavy — loss, financial strain, fractured family relationships. Lori shares wisdom from her friend Mindy Corporon, the grief author and speaker she's had on the podcast before: grief is often hardest in the days leading up to an anniversary or holiday, and the day itself can be gentler because the pre-grieving is done. Knowing that pattern helps you manage your own expectations — and recognize that heightened anxiety can be grief wearing a disguise. There's no expiration date: "as long as you loved, you're gonna grieve." Give yourself grace, and consider journaling when the waves hit so next year you'll see them coming. Lori's final story doubles as a gift idea: the year she didn't know what to get her mother, she typed a four-page poem called "Christmas Memories" — and until the day her mom died, she called it the best gift she ever received.
Key takeaways
- Traditions are powerful marketing — the poinsettia empire and the Christmas pickle both started with someone selling a story.
- Ask longtime customers about standing holiday orders like grave blankets; for some families they're sacred.
- Document the stories behind your meaningful ornaments before they're lost.
- Grief often peaks before the holiday itself — name it, journal it, and give yourself grace.
- A written memory — a letter or poem to a parent or loved one — can be the best gift you'll ever give, and there's still time to make one.