Memories of Fun and Laughter
With the Prater Family Christmas Cards
By Lora Parsons
The Ashland Beacon
Some folks claim that Christmas cards are a thing of the past. However, Donny and Marci Prater have turned the Christmas card world upside down with their take on this tradition. At first glance, their cards may look like nothing but silly family fun, but a little closer dig reveals them to be consistent with how the Praters have chosen to live life. Their tradition began with at-home photographs using Marci’s Snapfish skills in 2007, when Will, their oldest son, was two years old. More recently, they’ve wrangled professional photographers, Barry and Vickie Powell of Powell Photography, to help capture the fun for their Christmas well-wishes. Their cards began with a very formal-looking Santa Claus (Donny in disguise) holding their sons, Will and their other son, Rylan, but as the years progressed, their creations took on a different spirit.
Each year, the fun begins with deciding on a theme that is kept top-secret from everyone except the Powells who have to know in order to gather props and location ideas. Costumes get purchased after the annual end-of-season Halloween sales begin, while discussions about poses and props fill the air inside the Prater home. The playful harassment of eager friends and family pops into other conversations from time to time.
The Praters have a standing appointment with the Powells for the Wednesday evening before Thanksgiving. Timed just perfectly, the mailing happens so that cards are received as close as possible to Christmas Eve, when the social media reveal also occurs. The preparation is early, and the build-up as much fun as the reveal itself, even if the character-claiming sometimes gets a little heated between brothers. What’s made this Christmas card so special is that it allows the Praters to connect with one another and with their extended family, many of which don’t live in this area. Marci said, “This is a chance for us to share our immediate family with our extended family,” and it’s a way for everyone to see their fun-loving take on life.
But, as with most families, the fun isn’t the only side that exists. Life has certainly thrown its fair share of curveballs at this family over the years. In the midst of dealing with the normal growing up that kids go through, loved ones’ health issues, job changes, and even death, the Praters have found a way to smile even through their occasional tears. These Christmas cards are an ever-present testament to the strength of their family bond and the power of the human spirit to persevere through difficult times.
One of the difficult phases that all families with children encounter is those early years when it’s all hands-on deck to get through diaper changes, around-the-clock feedings, normal child-hood illnesses, daycare drop-offs, starting school…all the growth that happens for a family when trying to grow babies into adolescents. A professional photography session isn’t most folks’ idea of a good time with two young’uns in tow.
But the Praters decided to go just that route. One of their early photography sessions included fully embracing the rowdiness of raising boys. Their 2011, theme was “Silent Night,” where the boys’ mouths were taped with Christmas-red duct tape, and they were seemingly pulled slapstick-comedy style from the photoshoot with off-stage candy canes. In 2012, they grabbed some electric guitars and a couple of microphones to complete the “Rock On” look, also incorporating a red boa and pop artist outfits. The following year, their bulldog, Cali got in on the action, when “Naughty List” was the theme. Cali ate the list; Will drank Santa’s milk; Rylan ate Santa’s cookies; Marci stole Donny’s wallet; and Donny chose to kiss the dog instead of Marci.
2014 would find the Praters imitating A Christmas Story. Will, dressed as Ralphie, loved this character so much that “Ralphie” stuck as his nickname. Now a sophomore at the University of South Carolina, Marci reported that recently one of the coaching staff said to Will, “You mean your real name’s not Ralphie?” And, though Cali made her debut in 2013, her best-suited role, (having been named after UK’s Coach Calipari, like all Prater dogs), would have been for the 2015 picture, where everyone donned their UK gear for the “Deck the Halls with Balls of Holly” card. The Praters learned to embrace the craziness that was life during these years, and their early Christmas cards illustrate that perfectly.
Those challenges only continued to grow as the boys entered older adolescence and middle school. During this time, the teenage years crept in when, as Marci put it, “Adolescent angst takes over.” For the Praters, this included changing schools for the boys and a job change for Marci. While those ultimately proved good for their family, they still came with their own level of stress and adversity, as all major life changes do. It was also during this time that Donny’s grandmother passed away. Add to that the health issues his mother faced with her heart, breast cancer, and then dementia that has plagued their family since, and a more complete family picture comes into focus than what is seen in the Christmas cards from those years.
Though their family was wrecked with one difficulty after another, the Christmas cards remained. Donny’s favorite emerged from that time, their own spin on National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. He told of “hauling a whole RV with us down to the Powells for the pictures” only to be trekked through Russell, on an unseasonably warm day, dressed in their Griswold get-up, because Barry knew of the perfect RV just down the road. The following year, Barry again worked his magic when they showed up with Rylan, then nine, dressed as Buddy the Elf. Though he was clearly the smallest in stature at the time, a little editing resulted in him being by far the biggest in the picture, making that year’s card his favorite. In 2018, almost in defiance of their Christmas joy being stolen despite the health issues facing their family, they fully embraced characters from How the Grinch Stole Christmas. In another trying phase of life, the Praters found a way to look at their circumstances and still find joy.
And that wouldn’t stop when the boys entered into their high school and college years either. In 2019, incapable of fully understanding how the upcoming pandemic would impact everyone, they chose the Disney classic Toy Story to celebrate the holiday season. The tagline from the film, “You’ve got a friend in me” was written in the sky of that year’s card, just a few short months before family and friends would be separated from one another due to the Covid-19 shutdown. Ironically, friendship was traded for the isolation of Christmas 2020, which the Praters illustrated by choosing Home Alone to be their theme. At a time when the common thread worldwide was fear, at worst, and uncertainty, at best, the Praters put on their happy faces, gritted their teeth through it, and smiled for cards that would brighten the world around them. With their 2021 selection, they illustrated the importance of bravery, intelligence, and heart, perhaps pointing out that it was the combination of those three ideas from The Wizard of Oz that kept us all going through the pandemic. And it was during this time--though their Christmas card pictures would certainly suggest different--that Marci’s mother, the boys’ Nana, passed away.
Will left for college (a huge stressor and adjustment in and of itself) and had just settled into campus life when he had to turn right around to come home for a final goodbye. Due to one professor’s attendance policy, he wasn’t even allowed to stay in town for her funeral. A few weeks before the Wizard of Oz pictures where they’re all skipping arm-in-arm down the Yellow Brick Road, they were struggling to pack up for school, say goodbye to the nuclear family life they’d known, get settled into a new routine, iron out final goodbye details, get home for a funeral, plan a funeral, and deal with unimaginable loss. Smiling through the pain, coping with it through the stability of family traditions, they continued on.
2022’s card hinted at an extra measure of accomplishment and celebration for their family. It casts Donny as Charlie Brown, Will and Rylan as Snoopy and Woodstock, and Marci--who earned her doctorate degree that year--as Lucy, the character known for her “Doctor is in” lemonade Psychology stand. As for this year’s card, Donny said, “It has something to do with a ticket. That’s all we can say. That can go a lot of different ways.” Regardless of what direction the ticket clue goes, one thing is for certain: whatever else life might throw at the Praters, it will be nothing short of a ball that they’ll catch, draw a smile on, and throw right back in a different direction. Their faith sustains them in dark times. Their love for each other and for their extended family propels them forward. And the smile on their faces isn’t a smile of denial at the reality of what they may experience, but rather of dogged determination to overcome it with the power of laughter and love. They’ve found that to be their GOLDEN TICKET…which leads to my guess for this year’s card: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Right or wrong, one thing is sure: when I visit Donny’s social media account on Christmas Eve, I’ll be smiling right along with them, too, regardless of what’s going on in my life. There is always room for laughter!
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