Christmas Eve serves as 100th family reunion
Children at the annual Nagode family reunion meet Santa Claus on Christmas Eve in 1987.
Jake Martincic (accordion), Frank Kosem (bass), Frank Nagode (drums) and Donna Zalaznik (accordion) play on Christmas Eve at the annual family reunion about the mid-1950s. This year is the family’s 100th anniversary of celebrating on Christmas Eve.
John Kosem, with Gary Kosem on his lap, and Pauline Kosem, holding daughter Donna Kosem, meet Santa on Christmas Eve at a family reunion in the early 1950s.
Wilma Martincic has never missed a family reunion in her 89 years, and this year her family will celebrate its 100th get-together on Christmas Eve.
“It started before I was born,” said the Canonsburg area resident as she recalled days long past spent at houses eating Slovenian food and catching up with family members. “When my grandmother and grandfather came over from Europe, they came over from Slovenia. My grandmother had a boarding house; they would get together on Christmas Eve and have Christmas Eve dinner.”
Martincic’s grandparents, Johan and Johanna Nagode, had two rooms in their house: a kitchen and bedroom. While the adults stayed in the kitchen, all of the children gathered in the bedroom and waited for Santa Claus.
According to John Petach, 87, of Bridgeville, one of the oldest family members, those long-ago Christmas Eve reunions could attract anywhere from 15 to 18 people at a time. This year, they are expecting about 90 family members.
“We lived about a mile away,” Petach recalled. “If there was too much snow, we walked. I remember walking twice to get there. I remember the good food, the ham sandwiches, the potica (a Slovenian dish), the kielbasa sandwiches, the good wine. Not as far as the kids. The adults had their wine.”
But soon the family grew bigger and bigger, and if someone had built a house over the new year, that year’s family reunion would be held in their basement. Martincic said the type of celebration on Christmas Eve depended on how that year went for the family.
“If it was a quiet year, and everything was fine, they made their own orchestra,” she said. “My husband knew how to play the accordion, and my brother always wanted to make something, so he made a bass. That bass was played, and we would sing and dance if we could.”
But if it was a bad year, or if there was a death in the family, the Nagodes would just gather together and sit and talk and have something to eat and drink.
“Sometimes it lasted until two in the morning when they have music, and sometimes it would break up around 10,” Martincic said.
Soon the family reunions got too big for basements, so they moved to Fallen Timber Golf Club because one of the family members owned the place. After it was sold, the family moved on to the SNPJ lodge hall in Midway.
“There were many births, many weddings. It just grew until we had a practically 100-percent attendance,” Martincic continued. “It was a time we knew we could talk.”
Joyce Hezir, formerly of Canonsburg, has fond memories of family reunions on Christmas Eve.
One year, she recalls, it was snowing so heavily that one of her uncles offered to go from house to house to pick up individual family members on his tractor.
“They’ve never missed one year,” she said.
On another Christmas Eve, Hezir said, it was really snowing and someone came in with a pair of boots and put them in a grocery bag by the door. When everyone was gathering presents for the annual White Elephant, someone thought the boots were a gift and put them in with the others.
“Someone of course got the bag and said thanks for the nice pair of boots,” Hezir recalled with a laugh. And later, her Aunt Francie Kosem was frantically looking around for her boots. “I don’t know how Aunt Francie got home that night, but we all enjoyed the story,” she said.
Even though Hezir lives in Virginia now, she and her children and grandchildren never miss a family reunion.
“When I look back now, the true meaning of Christmas is family, togetherness and just love, you know.”