Traditions are my family’s lifeblood, especially during the holiday season.
My husband and I both come from big extended families (mine Polish, his Italian) so it’s no surprise that over the years we’ve assimilated some of these amazing—not to mention delectable—traditions into our own little clan: pierogi, Christmas cookies/babka, breads, ginormous Italian feasts, including the feast of seven fishes on Christmas Eve. But we’ve also created or discovered many of our own personal traditions surrounding the holiday season, timeless moments we’ve cherished over and over these past nine years (and counting!). And this year I’ve got a whole bunch of new ideas that I’m excited to share with my family, and with all of you. Ideas born out of sadness that we would be spending the entirety of this season alone (without our extended families). I’m thrilled to report that may not be the case after all—depending on how things pan out over the next few weeks—but either way I’m determined to give my children a happy, festive, and fun-filled Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s.
I had originally planned to include our old and new traditions in one long post, but then I started feeling like Buddy the Elf … “And then, I traveled through the seven levels of the candy cane forest” … So, I decided to publish our story in two parts, beginning with our oldies but (always) goodies:
1) Merry, Merry Christmas Movie List: I wrote about this one two weeks ago and we’ve already checked several off our list. My kids have really jumped on the bandwagon (or shall I say sleigh!) with this one, begging to watch all their favorites. It really warms my heart to see them embracing these experiences that mean so much to me. My adoration for this time of year is definitely rubbing off on them!
2) Storybook Christmas Tree: My husband and I started this tradition during our first holiday together in 2011. Every time we visit a new place (near or far) we buy an ornament to commemorate our trip. And then every Christmas we hang them on our tree and reminisce about all the special times we’ve shared as a family. As you can imagine, our tree is covered with ornaments from all sorts of places: Disney World, Italy (Rome, Venice, and Positano), Storybook Land, Cape May, Mystic Seaport, and many others. It’s one of our most-favorite traditions! My daughter even chose to “show and tell” this idea at school last week and then wrote a story about her favorite ornament (the super-cool conductor hat we got at our first-ever Polar Express train ride).
3) Christmas Cookie Day: Every December, I spend one Saturday or Sunday baking up oodles and oodles of cookies—the same ones my mom used to make for the holidays when I was a kid. My kids like cutouts the best, frosting (in Christmas colors, of course) and decorating them with seasonal sprinkles, and, of course, gobbling them up. My husband helps too, claiming the critical r
ole of “taste-tester” before plating them up for others (he’s only allowed to have the broken or deformed cookies, though). 😂 Every year I buy new festive tins or trays and gift-wrap them with love for delivery to family and friends; they’re always a huge hit!
4) Pierogi Workshop Weekend: We devote an entire weekend in December to whipping up these heavenly nuggets—a tradition passed down from my Babu and Dziadziu (that’s Polish for grandmother and grandfather). It’s a labor of love, for sure, but one worth every minute simply for the memories it conjures up! Growing up, we had pierogi every Christmas Eve—the only day of the year we got to eat them!—at Babu & Dziadziu’s house. My Babu always made the same flavors: potato & cheese (cheddar), plain cheese (using farmer’s cheese—kind of a cross between ricotta and cottage cheese), blueberry, sauerkraut, and, later, sweet po
tato. They were the centerpiece of our table, and one my family looked forward to all year long.
Those were the best times, man! It’s sad how we youngsters take our precious childhood days for granted. Now that I’m all grown up, I’d give literally anything to go back to those beautifully simple days. But at least we can still carry those memories within our hearts by passing down all these amazing traditions, which I intend to keep going for as long as I’m able–with a few tweaks here and there. I’m personally not a fan of the blueberry or sweet potato, so we pretty much stick to the potato, plain cheese, and sauerkraut (not that my kids eat pierogi, mind you—fingers crossed that changes in a few years!). We’ve also kicked them up a notch, though, by creating our own concoctions, including last year’s trial of potato, cheese, and bacon sauteed with onion, which was di-vine! This year I’m thinking we’ll try one with spinach and cheese; I’ll keep you posted.
5) PNC Bank Arts Center’s Magic of Lights: Before I got married and had kids, I always traveled home to Syracuse for the holidays and one thing we loved to do was “Lights On The Lake.” It’s a two-mile stretch of twinkling holiday displays that you drive through while listening to Christmas carols on a local radio station. A bunch of us would pile into one car and croon along with the music as we meandered through the sparkling stretch along Onondaga Lake (this included the Land of Oz, a twinkling fantasy forest, a fairy tale castle, dancing candy canes, and so much more). And then we’d all go out to dinner afterwards at a diner or pizza place. I adored it so much that I was determined to find something similar near our home, and that’s how I discovered this lovely display by PNC Bank Arts Center. It’s a fun, easy, festive way to rev up our holiday spirit (not that we need it in this house, haha) and my kids love it! Plus, it’s a night that includes pizza; who could say no to that?!
6) 
The Polar Express train ride and lunch at the Whippany Diner: This has been a family favorite since 2016, and my kids were so disappointed to hear it has been cancelled this (stupid) year. After all, is there anything better than riding a train decked out with colorful Christmas lights and decorations; drinking hot, hot, hot, hot chocolate; devouring a sugar cookie; singing Christmas carols with elves; listening to a story of the same name; and getting a surprise visit from Santa Claus?! No way. And in 2019 we added lunch at a nearby diner (deli sandwiches and pie, baby!) to the festivities; it was lovely! Fingers crossed we’ll be back at the North Pole in 2021 …
7) 
Chocolate Houses (hosted by our town’s senior center): My kids love candy and making a mess, both of which go hand in hand at this adorable crafting tradition (except I don’t have to clean this mess!). Plus, it’s so sweet to watch the happiness on the seniors’ faces as they interact with all the kiddos. Sadly, though, this is another goodie not likely to happen this year.
8) Homemade pumpkin cinnamon rolls: These bad boys are a Christmas morning staple. An ooey, gooey, cinnamony, pumpkiny confection slathered with a maple cream cheese icing. I don’t remember when we started this tradition, but boy oh boy am I so glad we did! These are also reminiscent of my childhood, when my mom would serve up Pillsbury cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning breakfast and my siblings and I would “fight” with our dad over the middle roll, LOL. Oh, the good old days. (Have you noticed, by the way, how many of our traditions revolve around food and pigging out?! It’s a wonder we aren’t as big as Jolly Ole Saint Nick, LOL.)
9) Breakfast With Santa: We shared a fancy buffet breakfast with Santa for the first time last year and enjoyed ourselves so much (the food was vast and scrumptious, though Santa was a bit of a grump, not that my kids noticed) that I added it to our holiday lineup for this year. We all know how that turned out, though. This one was particularly special and fun because we went with my sister- and brother-in-law, their two young kids, and our two eldest nieces. Oh, the small things we all take for granted until we’re unable to bask in them again. I’m hopeful that next year we’ll be able to pick up right where we left off—huddled on Santa’s lap.
I just love writing about Christmas traditions. It puts me in the best, most holly jolly of moods! My family relishes our customs so much that even at the first whiff of fall we’re already counting down the days until Christmas. And this year it was even worse—the anticipation to escape into an almost fantasy world filled with twinkling lights, cheery red bows and wreaths, stockings hung by the fireplace, nativity scenes lit up on the mantel, banisters decked out with garland and tinsel. We were so desperate for holiday spirit that as soon as Nov. 1 hit, we were off to the races with decorating, putting up our tree, Christmas caroling, and knocking Christmas favorites off our movie list. But this is only the beginning; we’ve still got so many wonderful plans ahead of us and so many more memories to make.
I mentioned in my Merry, Merry Christmas Movie post that I have a lot of brand spankin’ new holiday chestnuts in store for my babies over the next month-and-a-half, which you can read about in Part 2 of my family’s list of holiday traditions old and new!