Matt Gentry | The Roanoke Times

Blacksburg's Christmas tree on Virginia Tech's Henderson Lawn can be seen up and down Main Street. The tree was lit earlier this month.

For Bill Roth, the holidays are about college football bowl games.

He's been the "Voice of the Hokies" on Virginia Tech's ISP Sports Network for 22 years. In each of the past 17 years, the Hokies have played in a bowl game.

It can be hard to make holiday plans -- bowl bids aren't announced until early December -- but that doesn't take the fun out of it, Roth said.

"This is what these kids strive for," he said. "The Hokies become a second family."

Many of the Hokies' coaches and staff bring their families to the game, so the preparation and the travel have become a sort of holiday tradition.

"There are kids who were toddlers when we started this bowl streak, and they're graduating from high school now," Roth said. "They've been with us each year and we've been able to watch them grow up."

Santa even makes an appearance, bringing gifts on Christmas whenever the team and its extended family may be, he said.

"The best way to have a great holiday is to win a bowl game," he said.

Here are other holiday traditions for some New River Valley folks:

A new place to meet

Since moving from College Park, Md., to Blacksburg in September, Ruth Waalkes, executive director of Virginia Tech's Center for the Arts, is trying to start new holiday traditions.

Before she moved here, Waalkes and her husband, Jeffrey Cole, would visit family in Michigan.

But this year, they plan to stay put and have family come to them. They have visitors coming from Winchester, Maryland and New York.

"Blacksburg is becoming a gathering point for family," Waalkes said. "We're looking for things to do with family here."

Being in a new place has also given the couple a renewed sense of Christmas spirit. They started their decorating earlier and have attended holiday events in Blacksburg.

"We've just been in the holiday mood this year," she said.

The more the merrier

Growing up with six siblings, seven cousins, an aunt and uncle across the street and a grandmother "within yelling distance," Montgomery County School Board member and Christiansburg native Penny Franklin is used to having a lot of people around at Christmas.

Franklin's family would open presents at home, then go across and then down the street to open more presents.

"And there was lots of food in every house, so we'd open presents and munch, then go to another house and open more presents and eat more," she said.

That's a tradition she's continued each year, gathering as many family members as can make it -- which now includes children and grandchildren.

"There are things that have to be a part of Christmas, but that's not different than a whole lot of other families, I think," she said.

Franklin will bake her late grandmother's banana bread, German chocolate cake and watch home movies from her childhood -- all things that have become part of the large family's traditions, she said.

"I'm really, really looking forward to it," she said. "It's a lot of effort, but it pays off."

Leave the stress behind

The holidays are a time to catch up with family for Christiansburg police Chief Mark Sisson.

"It's important to stay close to family," he said. "You get so caught up in your own life and your kids that you can lose track of other people."

Sisson's family gathers on Christmas Eve at a dairy farm in Shawsville. But anyone hoping to see the chief milking a cow will be disappointed.

"It's more of the traditional homestead," he said. "All of the family goes back and meets up there."

It's also a time to step away from the stresses of police work, Sisson said.

"For me, personally, I think it's important to sit the job to the side and leave it here to focus on family," Sisson said.

"When I'm at work, I'm focusing on work 100 percent, but when I'm at home, I try to focus on being at home 100 percent."

Last-minute shopping

For Christmas, the Parker family will travel.

Bobby Parker, regional Virginia Department of Health spokesman, and his son, Ben Parker, 13, said they will travel to visit family in New York, and do a little last-minute shopping.

At least the adults will, Ben said.

A friend of his grandfather's sells collectibles and pottery, and the adults shop while the children play in an old one-room cabin in the woods behind the store.

"The kids like to bang around in the woods while mom and dad shop for pottery," Bobby Parker said.

Parker said the family also hopes to start a new tradition this year: taking the train into New York City to see Central Park and other sights.