Staff Picks: Our Favorite Winter Holiday Traditions
Photo by Ian Schneider on Unsplash As we wrap up the roller coaster of a year that was 2024 and barrel through the holiday season, AHA staff share some of their favorite year-end traditions that help them mark the season and bring joy into their lives—and stomachs.
Desserts are essential for my family during the holidays. From babka and chocolate cake at Chanukah, to various cookies and pies (including elderberry when my grandparents were alive) at Christmas, and also banana nut bread and brownies on New Year’s Day. We don’t always have time to bake together, so I appreciate whenever I can join in molding dough, decorating gingerbread cookies, packing to-go containers for guests, and eating leftover batter (it helps with clean up). We usually get a box of goodies from friends in Germany, marzipan and M&Ms from family, and gelt and candy canes in our stockings. It’s all pretty sweet.
—Emily Newman, Senior Education Coordinator
My family has a new holiday tradition that I really enjoy. A few years ago, my father and his wife moved to Santa Fe. That city has a lovely tradition of the Canyon Road Farolito Walk on Christmas Eve. Farolitos, also known as luminaries (paper bags filled with sand and tea lights that line sidewalks and buildings), are ubiquitous in Santa Fe around the holidays. And Canyon Road is an avenue lined with world-class art galleries. On Christmas Eve, as soon as it gets dark, the farolitos are lit, the galleries are festooned in holiday lights, bonfires are start burning in gardens and parking lots, carolers perform, and the residents and tourists of Santa Fe stroll from gallery to gallery admiring the art, and the lights, and the song. It’s a new-to-me tradition that has become one of my favorite holiday rituals.
—Nicole Carr, Deputy Director
It started when my childhood neighbor came home from study abroad in Sweden. To honor her return, my mother cooked for days, amassing an incredible amount of dishes for a true julbord—also known as the traditional Scandinavian Christmas feast or smörgåsbord. There were hot dishes, cold meats and cheeses, breads, spreads, varieties of fish, mulled wine, and the most elaborate calligraphy menu my grandfather spent hours making. And, of course, the singing of Sankta Lucia with my neighbor dressed in a traditional gown and wearing a crown of candles.
This celebration started a tradition spanning years of festive Christmas Eves with our neighbors. Each year, we picked a different country, cooked traditional dishes, and performed the various rituals surrounding the holiday season. One of my funniest memories was when we celebrated Russia by serving kutia (a ceremonial grain dish originating in Ukraine and Poland). Before we ate the last bite, my brother and I were instructed to throw our final spoonful to the ceiling—not something parents would condone every day. If our spoonful stuck, our family would have good luck in the coming year. The more that stayed, the luckier we would be. Well, it stuck and stayed—and we forgot over the years that it was there. We discovered the rice still on the ceiling when my parents were preparing to sell that home. Indeed, it brought us all a good laugh.
At my children’s request, I continue this tradition every Christmas. So far, we have celebrated Korea, Cuba, France, Switzerland, Denmark, Morocco, and China. This year, we will return to the roots of this tradition in welcoming my son home from his study abroad in Florence, Italy. I plan on serving various Italian dishes, from arancini to minestra marital, cacao e pepe, and more.
—Kristin Wintermute, Director of Education
In my house, we had two traditions growing up that I’m determined to pass on to my own family: Every Thanksgiving after the plates were cleared, my father would read The Polar Express to mark the beginning of the season. And every year, we’d bake loaves of zucchini bread to take around the neighborhood the week before Christmas.
—Fish Stark, Executive Director
Don’t let my intensely Scandinavian last name fool you – I’m half Italian American on my mother’s side. And in Italian American culture (note: not actual European Italian culture) December 24th means one thing: The Feast of the Seven Fishes. This delicious tradition likely can be traced to a vaguely Catholic prohibition on eating meat during the day before Christmas, but whatever its origins may be, my family has taken this idea and run with it. The idea is to craft a meal in which at least seven different types of fish are served through appetizers and mains. Everything from linguine with clams to fried smelts to calamari, oysters, and shrimp cocktail is fair game. Growing up, my two favorites were baccalà, a dried salted cod dish, and a snail salad – yes, my family counts snails as seafood. The rules are loose!
Even though your kitchen inevitably ends up smelling like a seaport, it’s always been worth it to me to keep this tradition alive and to get creative about ways to incorporate fish into the overall count. Though I don’t have the opportunity to participate every Christmas Eve these days, the memories of my loud family feasting at my grandmother’s dining table always warms my heart.
—Peter Bjork, Managing Editor