Gwen Akers
The Ashland Beacon
Please enjoy this article from The Ashland Beacon's 2023 Holiday Memories magazine.
Be on the lookout for the 2024 Holiday Memories magazine coming soon to a stand near you!
All is quiet in Russell, Kentucky when the sun rises over the frosted hills. The landscape is icy and desolate with the sticks of recently bare trees – lit by the warmth of the Queen’s household. For some, the Christmas season is about hot chocolate and Christmas lights, or the crinkle of wrapping paper pulled from presents under the tree, but for the Queenfamily, Christmas is about each other. Christmas is about seeing the faith, the good in everything and everyone, and in remembering all the blessings that this year has broughtto their table.
Chris and Kelly Queen were each born and raised in Westwood, built from ties that run deep from playing in the church nursery, and then moving on to graduate high school side-by-side. Thirty-two years later, the Queen family settled in their new home in Russell, ready to take a leap into the next chapter of their lives. Kelly began her journey as an elementary school teacher at Charles Russell Elementary, and now she is an entrepreneur, spreading her light and love to the community with her dress shop, The Queen’s Cottage Formals & Bridals.
Everything about her sits in her soul; it sits in the way she gives young men and women the confidence to be who they are, just as her family had done for her. She is settled here now with her husband of 20 years and her three daughters: 25-year-old Courtney, Kristen- Brooke, age 20, and 18-year-old Kendall. Each carry the love and traditions of their parents into their own lives. “My parents are very traditional; I think they’ve instilled all that in me,” expressed Kelly, as her strong ties to tradition and sense of place has defined her, and now she hopes to pass that on to her children.
Kelly’s Christmas heritage runs deep, but is also open to new additions and traditions that mark the holiday season as well as the growing and changing of the family. Even now, she can remember how it felt stepping out on her own, having her own home and her own Christmas while keeping the sentiments of her younger years. Her addition to these family staples begins on the night of Halloween when each family member receives an email with the name of his or her Secret Santa. The name of the game is Hallmark Ornaments, and each person must select an ornament for their given name. In the hope of bringing a very personal feel to the season, additionally, they must write a letter to that person, stating why they purchased this ornament for them. On Thanksgiving Day, ornaments are given and a special tree is decorated just with the ornaments from this year. Kelly noted that she keeps all the letters as well, in order to one day bind them into a book of their own.
While this was her spin on Christmas, she has never forgotten the Christmas tidings from her childhood. “When we first got married, my nanny and my Mamaw were still living, and my nanny just recently passed away around five years ago,” remembered Kelly. We’d go to my dad’s mom’s first on Christmas Eve, and then we would go to my nanny’s, my mom’s mom, after that. Since Chris and I got married, we just kept that going.”
Now, Christmas is split between Kelly and Chris’ families. Although some details have changed with the passing of family members, the Queen children grew up being close with their great-grandparents and have done everything they can to continue the tradition of visiting and celebrating with family.
Gathered together, everyone sitting around the same table eating and talking to each other – smiles as warm as the hearth behind them. This was the Christmas that Kelly grew up with, and when she married Chris, she knew she wanted to keep these traditions going, while also preserving Chris’ traditions as well. “When I was growing up, my grandmother lived right next door to me, and we always did Christmas Eve at her house,” explained Chris. “She would always cook, ‘course she cooked all the time. Every Sunday after church, she would cook for the whole family. She’d get up… and you could see the lights on at her house at four in the morning. So, she would cook every Sunday, and every Christmas Eve,” shared Chris.
For a while, the newlyweds ate at Kelly’s nanny’s house until her passing, continuing the Christmas dinner of Kelly’s childhood. At this party, the family would eat nothing other than Kelly’s mother’s famous Christmas Lasagna, since Thanksgiving is for turkey, Christmas must be for lasagna. Now, Kelly and Chris’ house has become the Christmas home base, but in recent years their family has begun to expand too.
Courtney Queen-Gillum, the eldest Queen daughter, married in July of 2022, and said that her Christmas has only grown since she got married. “We still get to do everything we each normally used to do; it’s just a little bit crazier now the day of Christmas,” expressed Courtney. “One of the main things I think about is getting to spend time with our family, and I love having the traditions that we do every year... just makes it special. I have so many memories.”
Their faith, however, is what truly holds the Queen family together. After settling in Russell to work on Queen’s Formals, and having Courtney married, Kelly’s father Will was diagnosed with cancer. Treatment and travel to and from appointments quickly consumed the year 2022, and Kelly knew that there was only one way to lift the family’s spirits when it was time for him to return home to a memorable and traditional Christmas. It was Kelly and her family who pulled the decoration boxes from the attic, decking her parents’ house in glimmer and brightness just as it always had. Even if her dad could not decorate, Kelly would not see her father coming home to a dark, undecorated house.
Kelly said the smile on his face was indescribable with joy when he turned into the driveway; it was lit up by the red and green lights placed by his daughter, son-in-law, and
granddaughters. That same weekend they planned to return to their church; the same church Kelly and Chris had met and the one where Kelly’s mom still works. Fairview Baptist was their home away from home. Now, it was her father’s time to return as well. To walk through the gates of the church whose Christmas Communion he had attended every year since. “It was just perfect timing because I pulled into the church, and I thought ‘That is Dad!’ He was barely walking into the door. I rushed out, and I went into the basement of the church because that’s where the Sunday school classes were,” explained Kelly, who managed to capture a picture of him walking back into his church home.
Once more, the sheer joy of her family was indescribably beautiful, like fresh snow all over again. This joy has stayed with the Queen family, etched into their souls and their smiles whether it was taking the young girls to Central Park to look at the Christmas lights, Kelly cruising down Skyline Drive in the backseat of her parents’ car to the Weatherholt’s holiday display, or even now, handing a Hallmark ornament to her daughter. Christmas has always been a highlight of faith and family–the time they remember just how much they love one another.
Now, they move forward into the Christmas of 2023, Kelly’s father’s first Christmas since being cancer-free. As we all settle for our own Christmas celebrations this year, let us remember the kindness, joy, and tradition that the season is all about, and the warmth of both our family and God during this season.