To call Inside Edition correspondent Megan Alexander a Christmas enthusiast would be an understatement. But her passion for the holiday season goes beyond the glitter and lights. It finds its foundation in Jesus's birth and selfless acts of giving, two elements she is keen to share in her latest projects: season two of the UPtv series Small Town Christmas (airing Sundays at 9pm E/8C) and the new children's book The Magic of a Small Town Christmas.
During a Christopher Closeup interview, Megan recalled that her love for Christmas stemmed from her childhood when her family would decorate every room in the house, play carols and hymns that touched her heart, and attend Christmas Eve religious services. Once she got married and became a mom herself, she grew excited to pass on her love of the holidays to her three children, while also teaching them the meaning behind it all. Parties and driving around different neighborhoods to admire Christmas lights are therefore coupled with volunteering at church and buying food to pass out to the homeless on Christmas Eve day.
During the COVID shutdown, Megan reflected on one of her favorite traditions: visiting small towns to see the unique ways they celebrate the holidays. She developed a TV show about that topic and UPtv picked it up, leading to Small Town Christmas. Each episode highlights one town's people and traditions, with this year's shows visiting Ellijay, Georgia; Pigeon Forge, Tennessee; North Pole, Alaska; and Frostburg, Maryland.
In describing her approach to the show, Megan said, "I always think, 'Can I watch this with my kids? Would I be proud to recommend this to friends and family?' . . . But then it's also, how can I glorify the Lord in my work? In each town . . I always say, 'What's our faith element?' . . . [This year], in North Pole, Alaska, we are going to visit St. Nicholas Catholic Church . . . and be taking a peek at some of their community events and what they do."
Megan's new children's book, The Magic of a Small Town Christmas, grew out of her experiences on the TV series and wanting to share them with kids and families. She created the fictional town of Heartbeat Falls to celebrate traditions, such as visiting the local Christmas tree farm, neighbors sharing a meal, and families baking sugar cookies together.
One thing Megan's family recently did together was travel to Rome to visit various sites from Christian history, including the Vatican, the Sistine Chapel, the Coliseum, and Circus Maximus. Seeing Michelangelo's work was like "the Bible come to life" for her kids.
Though she is not Catholic herself, Megan embodies a spirit of ecumenism, thanks partly to her grandmother. She explained, "My grandmother was Catholic and brought us to Mass. It was very important to her, and she was a big inspiration for me. She used to keep prayer books, underline Scriptures in her Bible, and have a St. Joseph statue in her garden. . . . I appreciate very much the reverence that the Catholic Church has for God and for Jesus, and the respect is front and center. For me, sometimes life can get busy. . . . Then, you walk in a Catholic church, and it's like, 'Take a deep breath. Let's focus on exactly what matters.' You see the cross at the altar, you see a crucifix, and it's a recentering for me. So, yes, I'm incredibly grateful to the Catholic Church and found a lot of neat ones to put on this show, Small Town Christmas, that make Christmas very special."
This essay is a recent "Light One Candle"
column, written by Tony Rossi, of The Christophers; it is one of a series of
weekly columns that deal with a variety of topics and current
events.)
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