By Keysha Drexel
Journal Editor
Twenty years ago as Kerry Grinkmeyer and his wife geared up for the holiday season, the Mountain Brook couple felt that something was missing.
As they rushed around to get everything ready the holidays, they couldn’t help but think there was more to the season, Kerry said.
The couple’s 23-year-old son was due home from college, and their daughter was a senior at Mountain Brook High School and about to spend her last Christmas at home before embarking on her own college career.
“Christmas had become this six-week period of preparation for what ended up being a 15-minute event,” Kerry said. “The same excitement wasn’t there. It had become all about the work involved in getting to Christmas.”
So Kerry put on his thinking cap and tried to come up with a way to bring the magic back to his family’s holiday celebrations.
“I knew we needed a new tradition, something that we could all take part in and all look forward to each year,” he said.
Kerry came up with the idea of creating a Christmas morning game for his family.
“I had always devised treasure hunts and that kind of thing for the children when they were younger, and I thought about how I could turn the fun and excitement of those treasure hunts into something we could do on Christmas morning,” he said.
Kerry retired to his basement for a few hours on that fateful day 20 years ago and emerged with all the elements of what would become a beloved holiday tradition in his home and one more and more people will have a chance to embrace now that he has written a book about it.
Kerry is the author of “The Christmas Web,” which hit the bookshelves Nov. 1. The book can be found at several Over the Mountain retailers, including Crestline Pharmacy, Smith’s Variety, Little Professor and The Gingerbread Lady, Kerry said.
The book tells the story of the Christmas tradition Kerry created 20 years ago using wooden rods, yards of yarn and lots of imagination.
The book comes with three painted wooden rods and about 70 yards of brightly colored yarn. Readers will learn that the wooden rods are “magic wands” that, along with the yarn, will lead them to a special gift on Christmas morning.
“Everyone has their own magic wand and their own color of yarn,” Kerry explained. “The night before Christmas, Santa’s elves take the magic wands and wrap the yarn all around your house—under tables, over chairs, across rooms, all over the house. Then, you follow your yarn all over the house to find your special gift from Santa.”
Even though his children were 23 and 19 when the he started the Christmas Web tradition, Kerry said it was something that instantly caught on with his family.
“Oh, they loved it from the very beginning. It brought an element of magic and surprise back to the holidays, and it didn’t matter how old they were, they loved following the yarn and looking for their presents,” he said.
Now, the family tradition has been handed down to his grandchildren, Kerry said.
“They have to play the Christmas Web game no matter where they are at Christmas,” Kerry said. “It has really become the centerpiece of our Christmas.”
And just because their own children are now caught up in the Christmas Web doesn’t mean Kerry’s children are any less enthusiastic about the tradition.
“I think they love it even more now. In the beginning, my wife and I were the ones wrapping the string around everything to lead to the special gift, but soon the kids saw how much fun we were having and they wanted to unspool each other’s magic wands,” he said.
That means sometimes the holiday tradition can take some unexpected—and hilarious–turns, Kerry said.
“One year, the yarn was going through the pool. They wrap it in trees, all around the yard and try to make it as difficult on each other as possible,” Kerry said, laughing.
Now that his children have children of their own, they are establishing their own holiday traditions, Kerry said, but the Christmas Web is something they all still enjoy doing together each year.
“My son and his wife like to spend Christmas at the beach, but it doesn’t matter what is going on, every December we find the time to get together and play the Christmas Web, no matter what,” he said.
What started out with a few two-by-two pieces of pine wood and some yarn in his basement has turned into an annual holiday tradition that involves seven magic wands and almost 500 feet of brightly colored yarn wrapped around every surface of his home on Christmas morning, Kerry said.
“It makes getting a cup of coffee on Christmas morning like an Olympic event,” he said.
Kerry said the trouble of winding all that yarn, unwinding it and following it all over the place is well worth the effort.
“It doesn’t take any more time than putting up the Christmas lights or putting out the decorations, and it is something the whole family gets involved in and something we will always remember doing together,” he said.
Kerry said the crazy idea he came up with in his basement 20 years ago is something he hopes his family will carry with them all their lives.
“It’s part of the memories your children and grandchildren will always have. I hope for it to be a part of my legacy. What we leave behind, that’s what matters. It doesn’t matter what we do, it’s what we leave behind,” he said.
And now that “The Christmas Web” has been published, Kerry said he is hoping his family’s tradition is something other families will incorporate into their holiday celebrations.
“You create this tradition and it’s contagious. Long before the book was published, we had told several friends about it, and they tried it and their families loved it, so I’m hoping more people can use it to bring magic to their families’ holidays,” he said.
Kerry said his background in sales helped him have the patience and know-how to get the book published.
The former financial adviser said he has always had a creative side, but it wasn’t something he could really explore until he retired.
“I’ve recognized a long time ago that I am a creative person, I just happen to be a salesman. I can’t spell worth a damn and my grammar’s not perfect, but the computer sure helps and I knew I had a story to tell,” he said.
Kerry said he knew he had a beloved family tradition but then realized he also had a good product to market.
“I wrote the book in about three days. It was already formed in my head and I knew what I wanted to say, so that part wasn’t difficult,” he said.
The elves in the story all have the same names as Kerry’s grandchildren, and one of the characters goes by Kobie, which was Kerry’s nickname when he was growing up.
“I knew that if I was going to have my grandkids’ names in this book, it better be a good one,” he said.
After writing the book, Kerry set out to find an illustrator to bring his words to life.
“There are a ton of illustrators on the internet, but I wanted someone I could sit down and talk to during the process, and that’s when I found Diane,” he said.
Kerry said he met Diane Whitman at a Cracker Barrel and gave her page eight of his book.
“What she came back with just blew me away,” he said. “Her illustrations were so rich and so detailed, I knew it was going to be a great fit from the first time I saw her ideas.”
After the book was illustrated, Kerry shopped it around to several publishers before deciding to publish the book and have the magic wands manufactured himself.
“I work with a guy named Jackie in China. I’ve never met him, but he’s handled everything on that end beautifully so that we can bring ‘The Christmas Web’ to the market just in time for the holidays this year,” he said.
Kerry said he hopes the book is successful not only at bringing families closer together with a new holiday tradition but that it is also successful in providing the kind of legacy he wants for his family.
“What I really want is for my grandchildren to run this business. The Japanese believe that it is our purpose on earth to provide for the next generation, and I subscribe to that,” he said.
Kerry Grinkmeyer will be signing copies of “The Christmas Web” at several Over the Mountain retailers between now and Christmas.
Nov. 16, 2-4 p.m., Crestline Pharmacy, Mountain Brook
Nov. 17, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Smith’s Variety, Mountain Brook
Nov. 28, noon- 2 p.m., Little Professor, Homewood
Nov. 30, noon-2 p.m., The Gingerbread Lady, Birmingham
Dec. 1, 10 a.m.-noon, Barnes & Noble at Patton Creek, Hoover
Dec. 7, 7-9 p.m., Barnes & Noble at The Summit, Birmingham
Dec. 8, 2-4 p.m., Books-a-Million at Brook Highlands, Birmingham
Dec. 15, 10 a.m.-noon, Barnes & Noble at Patton Creek, Hoover
Dec. 15, 2- 4 p.m., Books-a-Million at Brookwood Mall, Homewood
