Stories That Spark: Community, Cocoa, and Connection

The square was glowing, the cocoa was free, and our neighbors brought the magic. We set up on Bentonville’s town square to ask one question, what holiday memory still lights you up, and the answers turned into a living tapestry of cookies, carols, midnight meals, first ice skates, and quiet acts of generosity. You’ll hear a childhood tradition of sleeping under a bare tree just to watch the lights, a perfected gingerbread recipe that anchors a family, and a caroling ritual that turns doorsteps into stages. There’s a story of a 12-day giving adventure for a family in need, reminding us that generosity can be playful and profound.

The stories travel too: Colombia’s New Year fireworks and street champagne, Honduras’s midnight feast after placing baby Jesus in the Nativity, and the wonder of bringing those traditions into an Arkansas winter. We meet new couples making firsts, grandparents passing down readings from the Bible and The Night Before Christmas, and friends turning thrifted ornaments into unexpectedly beautiful wreaths. Each memory shows how rituals, big or small, become the glue that holds communities together.

We share simple prompts to spark storytelling at your own table and practical ways to turn moments into traditions: invite a neighbor to carol, record a voice memo of a family reading, pair a recipe with the story behind it. If you’re craving connection this season, these voices offer a gentle blueprint. 

Press play, feel the warmth, and then pass the mic at home. If the stories moved you, subscribe, share the episode with someone who needs a little light, and leave a review telling us the tradition you’ll keep or start this year.

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Website: fourbarspodcast.com
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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_16 (00:00):
Hey friends, it's Ken, and welcome back to Four
Bars Podcast.

SPEAKER_18 (00:03):
And it's Patty Leith, uh, your co-host for Four
Bars.
We have a great episode for youtoday.

SPEAKER_16 (00:09):
Yes, indeed.
This week we did something alittle different and just a
little bit magical.
We stepped right into the heartof our community.
Here in Bentonville, our townsquare, where the lights were
twinkling, the cocoa wasflowing, and the people were
from all over, and they sharedpriceless holiday stories across
the square.
It's beautiful.

(00:29):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So we asked folks to tell ustheir favorite memories and
traditions from the years, past,present, and also, you know,
just like things that were like,wow, and what we noticed is our
community showed up and theywere there and they were
sharing.

SPEAKER_18 (00:46):
Some great stories.
Some great stories.
This is, by the way, one of thebest ways to build community.
It's storytelling, right?
Ask questions and get others totell their story and get
comfortable telling yours.
And some of the most fun, mostinteresting stories are about
our holiday traditions.

SPEAKER_16 (01:03):
We had family, we had friends, uh new neighbors of
across our neighborhood, and youknow, they stopped by and they
just dropped off a little pieceof their heart in the
microphones, and we're gonna besharing that with you today.
So we're really excited aboutthat.
So, first off, why?
And what the reason why we didthis is because stories matter.
Uh they remind us of who we are,who we were, what we want to be.

(01:23):
They they bring value to us andthey connect us in ways that are
meaningful, even during thetimes that sometimes feel
hectic, like the holiday season,which really should be the time
where it really is a story andslowing down and enjoying each
other.
Um so we take this opportunityto share that with you.
So we're gonna ask you to take alisten, take a look, and let's

(01:44):
see what these voices have toshare about the season.
All right.
Welcome to the Four BarsPodcast.
I'm Ken Leith.

SPEAKER_18 (01:50):
And I'm Patty Leith.
We are your host for somecompelling dialogue, encouraging
our listeners to strengthentheir connections and build
strong communities, lifting eachother up and connecting in ways
that matter.
We named the podcast Four Barsas a reference to how hard we
work to find a four barsconnection on our devices.

SPEAKER_16 (02:07):
And we wondered what could happen with relationships
if we worked as hard atconnecting.
Let's find out.

SPEAKER_18 (02:13):
Well, Ken, we've been down here on the square a
few nights now, and what we'reabout to share with you is just
magical.
It's been so heartwarming totalk to people, get to know
them, and learn a story abouttheir holiday memories.
Um, thank you to all of you whoparticipated.
And I also want to let a few ofyou know if you're tuning in and

(02:33):
you don't see your segment, um,we did have one evening uh some
audio quality issues.
And so not all of the segmentsuh were we able to include.
We're very sorry about that.
But if you reach out to usbecause you filmed a segment,
let us know and we'll find someway to work you into a future
podcast.
There isn't a single story thatwe heard that we didn't want to

(02:55):
include.
So um take a listen to somereally awesome, magical holiday
memories here on the BentonvilleSquare.
Okay, and tell me your name,Amy.
Amy, and what's your last name?
Hughes.
Hughes, it's really nice to meetyou.
I'm Patty.
Nice to meet you.
Amy, we're here just talkingabout favorite holiday memories.
Tell us some of yours.

SPEAKER_03 (03:15):
Okay, so my favorite holiday memory growing up, we
would put the tree up, andbefore any presents were put
under there, all of us kidswould get our sleeping bag and
our pillow, and we would layunderneath the tree and look up
and get to sleep looking up atthe lights through the tree.
And it was just magical, itreally was.
And Christmas lights are one ofmy favorite things about the
holiday still.

(03:35):
Oh, I love it.
I love it.

SPEAKER_19 (03:38):
Are you all looking forward to the holiday?
Are you?
We make Christmas cookies.
Wow, what color?

SPEAKER_03 (03:46):
Sugar cookie, sugar cookies.
That sounds amazing.

SPEAKER_18 (03:49):
Another holiday tradition.
A holiday tradition.

SPEAKER_03 (03:52):
And decorating, of course, with all the sprinkles.
All right.

SPEAKER_18 (03:55):
Well, thank you so much for doing it.
Check out the podcast andsubscribe, and um, and we'll
you'll be able to see all of ittogether.
Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_05 (04:05):
Hi, I'm Lillian Lunley, and it is perfectly fine
with me.
Hi, I'm Stevie St.
John, it's fine with me as well.
I'm Kennedy Holland and it isA-OK.

SPEAKER_04 (04:13):
And I Jessica Bowser, and it's great.
So, my favorite holiday memoryhappens to be a tradition of
making cookies.
It changes every year, butpersonally, my favorite is
gingerbread cookies.
Somehow I've mastered the recipeand my family loves them.

SPEAKER_05 (04:28):
My favorite holiday memory, all of my family lives
in northwest Arkansas, and so weget to go to my grandparents'
house every every year, and it'salways just so special to spend
time with family, eat good food,and exchange gifts.

SPEAKER_12 (04:40):
I one of my all-time favorite holiday memories has
actually just recently happened.
I'm Miss Arkansas, and over thecourse of the month of December,
I've been able to travel to somany small towns across the
state and be part of theirChristmas celebrations.
Um, it's so sweet to see anentire town shut down to come
together and celebrate in theChristmas spirit, and it's
something I'll remember for therest of my life.

SPEAKER_15 (05:00):
My favorite wizard rep memory is definitely getting
to wake up every morning toshout a good works to OG for and
also needing rapes.

SPEAKER_14 (05:12):
Awesome.
Well, uh, one of my favoriteChristmas memories uh is from
when I was uh a young man,probably 13 or 14 years old.
And uh there was a family thatlived in our area who uh the
father had lost his jobrecently, and our family became
aware of it.
My parents decided to do kind ofa 12 days of Christmas with us,
and so they would load us kidsup in the car every night, 12

(05:35):
days before Christmas, and wejust get one thing the first
night, two things the secondnight, three things the third
night.
My parents are very generouswith the family.

SPEAKER_01 (05:43):
But for us it was just an amazing experience, both
because it was fun.
One of my favorite uh things todo at Christmas time is to go
caroling, whether that's withfriends or family or neighbors
or with church groups, but it'sit's always a joy to uh bring
the light of Christmas and andthe joy of the season to uh

(06:04):
friends and family and andneighbors in the community.
Um love to see people's you knoweyes light up when they answer
or open the door and they seepeople singing Christmas carols
outside, and uh it's just one ofmy favorite things uh during
this this time of year.

SPEAKER_10 (06:18):
Um, so this is our four-month anniversary, we're
boyfriends, um and we arelooking for like a skating rink.
Um, and then we found this uhbeautiful skating rink with uh
trees everywhere.
There's free hot cocoa rightover there.
Um, so it's been a wonderfulexperience uh and a great day,
honestly.

SPEAKER_11 (06:37):
Yeah, actually, this is also my first time experience
this, and then it's like totallymemorable for me.
First time ice skating, yeah, itis so much fun.
So uh I can look for that nextyear, even again.
It's been a wonderful time.

SPEAKER_09 (06:52):
I'm just here with my family, uh a couple boys that
I adopted when they were reallylittle, and they learned how to
ice skate at Joel's trip class.
And so we came with uh uh theirwives and my uh grandson, and uh
we've been part of this for manyyears.
You just love to come here andice skate, walk around this
square and see all the lights,and uh but it's just fun to be

(07:12):
out here.
It's just a good way to getready for the trip.
I just love this place.

SPEAKER_13 (07:17):
Uh sorry.
So every Christmas, my grandpawill read from the Bible and
he'll read the Christmas story,and then he'll also read the
night before Christmas.
And I can remember like everyChristmas that he's ever read it
to us vividly, because out ofeveryone, he always calls on me
to fill in the words, and so Iknow them perfectly by now.
But I'm excited to do it againthis year because it means so

(07:41):
much to me.

SPEAKER_06 (07:42):
My name's Vera, and this is my daughter Stephanie
and my husband Randy, and we dothis, we've lived here for four
years, and we come to the squareevery year to watch the square
get lit up, and then we like toride our bikes, and we usually
have Santa Claus hats on, andpeople are so sweet.
They come and they they tell youMerry Christmas, and they clap
and they get so excited, and thelittle kids love it, so I love

(08:05):
doing it.

SPEAKER_07 (08:05):
Uh last year, me and my girlfriends and I had the
best girlfriends in the world.
This is Tara, Stephanie's overthere, Lacey's down there.
But last year we got togetherand uh we had a Christmas
brunch, and then we were gonnado some crafting, and we were
just gonna be making likeoutrageous, ridiculous uh
wreaths out of ornaments, stuffthat we picked up at Goodwill
just jumped.
But they ended up turning out tobe just beautiful, like like

(08:29):
masterpieces, and so that is avery fond memories of me.

SPEAKER_00 (08:33):
My name is Tara.
Um, I've been living inNorthwest Arkansas for about
eight years now.
Um, Christmas time is just likethis, beautiful and fun.
But one of my favorite memoriesis when two of my girlfriends
decided to take anon-traditional route to the
holidays.
We left for Christmas and NewYear's and went to Columbia,
South America, and we traveledthe country and we ended up l uh

(08:57):
ending up in um Cartagena on NewYear's Eve and celebrated in the
streets with fireworks andchampagne, and everyone was so
friendly, and it was just anamazing memory that'll take
forever with me.

SPEAKER_08 (09:12):
So I have a variety of of wonderful memories, so
it's hard to nail one, but I'llI'll say that uh my first time
to celebrate Christmas inHonduras was pretty amazing.
Uh I I was engaged to her and myfirst time to really get to know
the extended family and just theLatin traditions of, you know,

(09:33):
we had uh we had uh the the mealat midnight and uh after we
after we put baby Jesus in thein the the on the 24th uh and we
put baby Jesus in the uhnativity scene and went and said
hello to all the neighbors andfireworks and uh and then we all
got together as a family and ateat midnight and then Christmas

(09:55):
Day was totally relaxed.
But yeah, it was real sweet.

SPEAKER_02 (10:03):
Oh that's sweet, that's sweet.
I uh I I was going to share uhjust uh I you know I'm from
Honduras, so that's uh um youknow we met there, but uh in
Honduras everything was you knowvery warm every all all
Christmases.
So so coming here to the Statesand living here, uh I I just

(10:29):
enjoy uh you know the the partof the cold weather, I had, you
know, I have to say, but um withthe children, really those are
my favorite memories.
Whenever uh we did Christmascookies at before uh going to uh
before going to bed.
And actually we did go to achurch service at Fellowship

(10:52):
Bible Church, and and uh we haduh you know the there was uh
everybody included, includingthe including the children, and
they uh they had lights.
They had a fun, fun uh Christmascelebration.
And then we went to uh home andmade cookies for Santa.
The next day was just the bestbecause the kids were eager to

(11:15):
get up, and and so that's Ithink that with my children and
Eric and filming those memories,that was one of my favorite
ones.

SPEAKER_17 (11:33):
It's a moment very special.
And the felicity of thoseniggas.
This is the stories.

SPEAKER_18 (11:58):
Thanks so much for listening.
We hope that the stories thatpeople told have inspired you to
have a heart of magic and aspirit of giving this season.

SPEAKER_16 (12:08):
Yes.
I hope you and your families uhhave a blessed holiday.
Enjoy your community, enjoy yourfriends and family, as Patty
said.
But also take the time to sharestories.
Share old stories, make newstories and share those, share
them with people you know orjust people you meet.
It's an incredible connector inlife.
And we just wanted to share thiswith you this year.

(12:30):
We hope you all the best in nextyear.
Happy New Year, happy holidays.

SPEAKER_18 (12:35):
Wow, wasn't that amazing?
So fun to hear everybody'sstories and their take on the
magic of the season.
So here's your call to action.
When you gather around your ownholiday table this season, no
matter how big, how small, orhow chaotic, you share your
stories too.
Especially if it's there's chaosand a little bit of tension.
Stories break the ice.

(12:56):
Ask others for their stories,and you'll be amazed at the
common ground you uncover andthe connections that you can
grow from it.

SPEAKER_16 (13:04):
And by the way, during this holiday season, make
sure you have some really goodfestive gear, like Patty's
earrings.

SPEAKER_18 (13:12):
All right.
Merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah,happy, wonderful holidays.

SPEAKER_16 (13:17):
Merry Christmas, happy holidays.
Thank you, folks.

SPEAKER_18 (13:19):
The Four Bars Podcast has been brought to you
by Edges Inc., a growth advisoryfirm based in Bentonville,
Arkansas.
I founded the company in 2001.

SPEAKER_16 (13:28):
Edges promotes growth people, companies, and
ideas.
Our team collaboration toolcalled Interface Methods is a
basis for teams to work togethermore collaboratively, understand
each other, and acceptdifferences and address
challenges together.

SPEAKER_18 (13:40):
We also started a nonprofit called Unform Your
Bias.
We teach kids and their adultinfluencers how to utilize
storytelling as a means toreduce bias in the world.
We hope you'll check us out,subscribe to our podcast, and
look at our website.