Up Front

We are big on Christmas this year.

BY Pat Bradford

Pat Bradford dressed for the holidays on Greenfield Lake’s picturesque bridge. Photo by Allison Potter
Pat Bradford dressed for the holidays on Greenfield Lake’s picturesque bridge. Photo by Allison Potter

Feeling everyone, including ourselves, needed as much holiday cheer as possible, we’ve packed in a lot of it.

There’s plenty to fill up on, from a decked-out French Country house at Landfall in our Home of Distinction feature to holiday recipes by Eliza Schuett.

We also have not one but two holiday blasts from the past. There’s the once world’s largest living community Christmas tree, a Wilmington tradition at Hilton Park for 87 years. Imagine this — in 1959 as many as 150,000 people from 42 states and 11 countries came to the lighting ceremony. We also have Fred Newber’s reflections of the historic lighting up of our area over the holidays from the Cape Fear River to Banks Channel.

We also have suggestions — from music to movies to gift giving and acts of kindness — to help everyone find the Christmas spirit. Speaking of Spirit, we have the story of a filmmaker who captured God stories at a revival in a tent that went up in Wilmington in September.

The Wilmington Ballet is celebrating Christmas with the Nutcracker, one of my all-time favorites. What childhood memories that surface.

My memories continue with my photo this month. This is my 22nd December issue! I had so much fun dressing up for it, complete with one of my mother’s furs from the 1940s. 

Frank Potter styled my high fashion hair, complete with big bling. In fact, it was Frank who suggested that for this our 22nd-anniversary issue it was time to go big or go home. 

Even if art is not your thing, be sure to catch our art feature. There’s a sentence about the art of Angela Rowe, who paints the memories of food, that resonated with me: “Each of us holds memories with food.” 

There’s also a look back at fishing at Greenfield Lake. 

All right, let’s do it up BIG to close out this year. Light up your yard, house and dock, and invite the neighbors and friends over to celebrate. 

Blessings and honor and glory and power be unto the One who we owe it all to.

Our cover this month didn’t start out to be in honor of my beloved sister, Diana Dempsey (1937 – 2021), who worked as part of our magazine staff for about a year pre-recession. But she passed from this world into heaven on the morning of the evening in November that we shot this glorious cover. As we laughed and laughed launching then corralling these lanterns in the calm water off Motts Channel, in the dark, I couldn’t help but remark how much she would’ve loved it. I dedicate this issue to her.

Pat Bradford

Senior Editor/Publisher


Pat’s hair styled by Frank Potter, makeup styled by Regan Daughtry, and bling pieces all from Bangz Hair Salon.







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