Twelve tales of Christmas

Every holiday is a snowflake. Every Christmas experience is unique. We know this because, when we asked for celebrities to share their favorite holiday traditions and memories, no one’s story was quite the same.

Here are 12 heartwarming tales of Christmas from people of note who have ties to North Texas.

Anne Lockhart

1 “What we do in my family every Christmas is watch TV. The original 1938 version of A Christmas Carol, the MGM film, co-stars my grandfather Gene Lockhart, as Bob Cratchit. Also, my grandmother Kathleen Lockhart is Mrs. Cratchit and my mother, June Lockhart, at the age of 12, is Belinda Cratchit.

There weren’t any home videos back in 1938, but we get to watch our entire family every Christmas on television. And I cry like a baby every time my grandmother comes in with that flaming plum pudding.

Later, for 10 straight years on stage in Los Angeles, I did A Christmas Carol with my children. I played Mrs. Cratchit. My daughter and son played my Cratchit children. So if you’re doing the math, that’s four generations of the Lockhart family playing the Cratchits.

There’s one other film we watch every Christmas and that’s the original Miracle on 34th Street. My grandfather is the judge in that. It’s as if Hollywood made our Christmas family home videos.”

— Lockhart is an actress and voice artist best known as Lt. Sheba in the original Battlestar Galactica. She has lived in Fort Worth for the past eight years.

Gaby Natale

2 “My family Christmas memories are very different from here in the United States, because in Argentina, Christmas in December is summer. So a Christmas celebration is maybe a barbecue or a pool party with friends and family. It’s eating gelato or a salad.

But my fondest Christmas memory is of my father dressing up as Santa. He really got into character. Even though it was so hot in Argentina in the summer, he would get into the Santa costume and beard and change his voice and ask, “How have you behaved? Have you been a good student?”

And every year was like a Mission: Impossible operation, because he had to hide all the gifts and hide the costume and then at some point in the night, playing it cool, like nothing was going on, he would slip away and change so Santa could arrive.

One year, when I was really young, I realized it was him. And the person who was the most heartbroken about it was him! But he loved being Santa so much that he kept doing it for my brother and then for nieces and nephews and grandkids.”

— Natale is the host and producer of SuperLatina, a nationally syndicated Spanish-language talk and lifestyle show on Vme-TV. The show is produced in Fort Worth.

Lori Wilde

3 “When I was 12 years old, we lived on a farm outside of Stephenville and my father worked the city desk at the Star-Telegram on the 6 p.m.-to-2 a.m. shift. Every day, he would make that 72-mile, one-way drive to work so he could raise his five children in the country.

That year, he had to work on Christmas Eve, leaving my mother and I to get things ready for Christmas. I got up at dawn, but Daddy wasn’t there. My mother had never gone to bed and she was pacing the floor, anxious about where my father was. The younger children woke up, but still no sign of my father.

My mother decided to go look for him and drive the route he took to and from work every day. But just as she pulled from the driveway, my father appeared carrying presents wrapped in a blanket over his shoulder. He looked exhausted and disheveled and there was a hole in the sole of his shoe, but he’d made it home safely with the packages my mother had hidden in the trunk.

After his car broke down, he’d walked 10 miles in the pitch dark winter cold to get home to us. It was one of my best Christmas memories.”

— Wilde, author of more than 75 novels, is best known for her “Twilight, Texas” series. Her latest book is Christmas at Twilight.

Karen Borta

4 “I grew up in the Interlochen area of Arlington. We moved into that neighborhood in 1977, which was just about the time they started doing Christmas lights there in a big way.

It was a huge, grand display. It got to the point that people would come from all over and wait in line for hours in their cars — some would come in tour buses — just to see the Christmas displays and the lights reflecting off the canals. Everybody loved it, almost everybody.

It became very frustrating for the residents in the early years, because we would have to wait in line in the same traffic. We were like, ‘I don’t care about the lights. I just want to get home.’ And it became a real drag, expecting Christmas.

But once they figured out a placard system for our cars so we could get around traffic, it was fun again. We got to share Christmas with all these thousands of people who would come by to look at our lights and that was very special. So it didn’t start out great, but it became a wonderful memory for us.”

— Borta, a native North Texan, co-anchors the KTVT/Channel 11 News at 5, 6 and 10 p.m.

Cynthia Izaguirre

5 “I’m from Dallas and every Christmas a big treat for us was when my mom would load us up in her station wagon and take us to Highland Park to drive around and look at all the Christmas lights. That turned into a tradition for us for many, many years.

We would just drive around Highland Park, soaking it all up. We would even get out of the car and get up in people’s lawns and take pictures. It occurs to me now that we were probably technically trespassing. But these people were all so wonderful about it and we would just marvel at the displays.

Now it’s a new tradition that my husband and I have started with our children. We’re hoping to put it in full swing this year. So we’ll be out at Highland Park this year and maybe some other places taking our kids to see the Christmas lights. But we won’t be getting out of the car and walking on people’s lawns!”

— Izaguirre, a native North Texan, is co-anchor of WFAA’s News 8 telecasts at 5 and 10 p.m.

Lauren Przybyl

6 “During the Cabbage Patch Kids craze of the 1980s, when North Texas parents were camping outside stores to get them and some parents were fighting over them, Santa brought me a doll that was made to look like a Cabbage Patch Kid.

To me, it looked nothing like one. I remember being disappointed and I didn’t play with it much. I was a spoiled brat! Once the Christmas craziness died down and Cabbage Patch Kids were easier to find, I received several on special occasions. Those, I played with.

I recently came across a bag full of my old dolls. I found myself passing over the Cabbage Patch Kids dolls looking for that ‘fake’ doll. As a mom now, I know we want everything for our children — even when we can’t provide them with what they truly want.

The fact that my mom tried her best melts my heart today. That ‘fake’ Christmas Cabbage Patch Kids doll is now my favorite!”

— Przybyl, a native North Texan, co-anchors KDFW’s Fox 4 Good Day telecasts from 4:30 to 9 a.m.

Newy Scruggs

7 “My best Christmas memory was in high school. I was working part time at McDonald’s and I was saving my money to buy mother a Gucci watch. All my life, she put my sister and myself first and gave us some great Christmas moments. I can’t think of a time we didn’t have a great Christmas. The tree, the decorated house, the cookies, the gifts — everything was always amazing.

My junior year, I wanted to make sure I got my mom a gift she wanted. She had been looking at this watch for a long time. So I worked extra hours and Christmas morning I gave that Gucci watch to her. The smile on her face — I’ll never forget it, because she got a gift on her wish list.

She spent her life always spending on others. I was thrilled to return the favor.”

— Scruggs, sports director at KXAS/NBC5, anchors sports reports at 6 and 10 p.m. weeknights and hosts Out of Bounds at 10:30 p.m. Sundays.

Eddie Gossage

8 “I wanted a motorcycle so bad when I was 13. But my folks were like, ‘I don’t know. Motorcycles are dangerous.’ So Christmas morning comes and the gifts are opened, but no motorcycle and I’m crushed. Then my dad says, ‘Hold on, there’s something else,’ and parked outside is the motorcycle.

I rode that thing every day. Come home from school, ride it. All weekend long, ride it. It didn’t matter if it was 10 degrees out. I loved that motorcycle.

Well, along around May, my brother went riding on it and had an accident and broke his leg. And my parents said, ‘See, we told you it was dangerous.’ I was like, ‘Well, he did it. Not me. I ride it every day. Maybe he needs to stay off of it.’ It took awhile, but I finally convinced them.

But I had a flat tire from the accident, so my dad changed the tire and decided to take it for a ride to make sure the brakes and everything were fine. He rode to the end of the street, put his foot down, caught it in a pothole and broke his ankle. The next day, the motorcycle was sold.

That’s hardly a warm, fuzzy Christmas story. But had it not been that motorcycle and the interest it sparked in mechanical and motorized things, I don’t know that I would be doing what I do today. It changed my life. So it was the greatest Christmas present I ever got.”

— Gossage is the president of Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth.

Melissa D’Arabian

9 “My four daughters and I kick off the Christmas season each year with our annual Mother-Daughter Holiday Tea, a tradition dating back to when I was 5 and my mom invited a few of my kindergarten girlfriends over for cocoa, cookies and caroling.

Over the years, the party grew into a truly special celebration of both the holidays and the women in our lives. This year is my 24th and we’re hosting some 125 women.

My girls all agree that the Mother-Daughter Tea is a highlight of the year.”

— D’Arabian, a former Keller resident, is a Food Network host; her new cookbook, Supermarket Healthy, comes out on Dec. 30.

Bob Schieffer

10 “When my dad was building houses in Fort Worth back in the 1950s, there was an elderly man named Rodriguez who worked for him and every Christmas Eve he would bring my dad a dozen homemade tamales.

We have been eating chili and tamales every Christmas Eve since. Since you can’t get homemade tamales in Washington, D.C., my wife, Pat, orders them now from the Neiman’s catalog.”

— Schieffer, a Fort Worth native, is chief Washington correspondent for CBS News and host of Face the Nation.

Bethany Joy Lenz

11 “My favorite Christmas memory is from when I was 5. I was in the back of my parents’ car and they were going to give me my present. They asked me to close my eyes, and I did, and my mom got out of the car for a moment, and all of a sudden I felt the fur of a soft, warm puppy in my lap.

It was a cocker spaniel, honey blond, with a big red bow around his neck. I named him Shepherd, and he was my best friend for 13 years.

As far as Christmas traditions go, my favorite has to do with making gifts for people. Everybody draws one name of a friend or family member so that, instead of getting gifts for everyone, you’re focused on this one person. You make a gift from scratch and you have a month to do it.

Some of the best gifts that I have given and received — especially received — have happened this way. And it’s so much better than just buying someone an impersonal gift card. When you can really focus on someone and craft something that’s uniquely designed for them and expresses how you feel about them, that’s what Christmas is all about.”

— Lenz, an actress who began her career at Arlington’s Creative Arts Theatre & School, co-starred in One Tree Hill. She recently starred in The Christmas Secret, on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries channel.

Carole Nelson Douglas

12 “The only Christmas gift I remember getting as a child was also the one I didn’t get.

My best friend before first grade was a cheerful, black-haired, freckle-faced girl named Nancy. She lived with her grandmother and deaf-mute parents and two younger siblings. Nancy was always invited along on our family fast-food outings, her way always paid. I understood that Nancy’s parents couldn’t find work and Nancy had a big responsibility for a little kid.

One Christmas I was ecstatic about my gift: a doll … not a baby doll, but a grown-up doll with long hair that could be styled. On Christmas Day, I couldn’t wait to tell Nancy all about it. ‘Don’t make too much of your doll,’ Mother warned. ‘Her family can’t afford big presents.’

When I got there, Nancy was gushing over her new doll, a doll far more expensive, with many more hair tricks and accessories, than mine. I was momentarily confused, experiencing irony for the first time. Then I felt so relieved and glad, because I didn’t want the burden of having the better doll.

Nancy had received the doll she loved and deserved — and mine was plenty good enough for me. Christmas, I saw, as Ebenezer Scrooge had in Dickens’ classic story, is about the gift you get from feeling good for another person.”

— Douglas, a Fort Worth resident since 1984 and author of more than 60 novels, is best known for her “Midnight Louie” mysteries. Her new book is A Wall Street Christmas Carol.

This story was originally published December 10, 2014 at 2:48 PM with the headline "Twelve tales of Christmas."