Today is LEON Day – June 25. LEON spelled backwards is NOEL, and marks that it is six months until Christmas. It also happens to be a day that my Grandpa made up, or at least, is the first person I ever heard make mention of it.
We’ve been celebrating LEON Day as a family for a very long time. My first memory was as college freshman, which was in the late 1990s. At first, it was just a call from Grandpa, but it slowly evolved into an extended family gathering, complete with a small, artificial Christmas tree with a Pabst Blue Ribbon can – Grandpa’s favorite beer – as a topper.
Did my Grandpa come up with LEON Day? Doubtful, but who knows. Internet searches ten years ago yielded no other mentions of LEON Day. In fact, for several years I made it an extra credit assignment for my summer school students to find out what LEON Day is, and to discover it’s origins, but no student ever found any mention of it. Now, it’s on the official holiday list, and while my family is big and we’ve shared our LEON Day celebrations far and wide, I don’t believe that we had anything to do with getting LEON day recognized by anyone other than us and our closest friends. And Grandpa certainly wasn’t ever going to confess if he heard it somewhere. My grandpa was full of funny stories and goofy sayings. He told Dad jokes before “Dad jokes” were a thing, but they were delivered with a dry wit that made his grandkids believe almost anything he said. Even as we got older, and knew he was full of nonsense, we went along with whatever he said because his nonsense was harmless and usually led to lots of laughter.
Whether Grandpa imagined this holiday or he heard it somewhere, the idea of celebrating the day that marks halfway until Christmas every year is entirely appropriate for my family. We are a family of Christmas lovers. Grandma and Grandpa made it special for their kids (my dad and his siblings) and their grandkids. My parents always made Christmas special for my sisters and me, and in turn, we’ve passed along that love to our own families.
I have fond memories of taking trips to Chicago around the holidays to see The Nutcracker, look at the windows at the State Street Marshall Field’s (now Macy’s), and eat by the giant tree in the Walnut Room. It didn’t matter where we were living – Chicago suburbs or Ohio or Iowa – we visited Chicago at Christmas as often as possible.
Hubby and I continued the tradition of Christmas in Chicago, which was easy because we lived there when we were first married! But, we also started looking for other special places to visit to celebrate the holidays. Taking a trip somewhere became part of our holiday traditions, and it’s something we have continued with our kiddo.
To celebrate LEON Day, I’m going to share some of my favorite places in the United States to get in the Christmas spirit on the blog this week. I know it’s still six months until Christmas, so if you’re not quite ready for that content, save them for later! But, I hope you’ll at least join me in celebrating this silly, fun, and sentimental day by remembering a special day you’ve had with your family!
HAPPY LEON DAY!
