Christmas Traditions
- Aubrey Johnson
- Dec 25, 2023
- 5 min read
My family has had a few Christmas traditions through the years. After we moved from CA to OK, it became a “tradition” to get stuck in airports for hours waiting for someone to call our name on the non-rev list when flying back to CA to visit family. (Yes, my dad worked for an airline. No, he wasn’t a pilot. No, flying wasn’t always free, and we couldn’t fly whenever we wanted.) We would (most of the time) make it on the day we flew out and enjoy time with family we saw once or twice a year. My extended family opened gifts on Christmas Eve, and we had gifts from Santa to look forward to in the morning. My grandpa would get matching gifts for my two girl cousins and me, and we all had fun running up and down the stairs in their house and later their townhome. Sometimes we attended midnight Mass (really, 11:00 pm) at my grandparents’ Episcopal church on Christmas Eve. I enjoyed the small, old-fashioned building, the traditional service, and the singing of “Silent Night” by candlelight at the end. After a while, it seemed like I was the only one who wanted to stay up late enough for the service so that tradition ended before we stopped visiting at Christmas. When I went to college we started new traditions in OK and didn’t travel out-of-state for the holidays anymore. For a few years (seldom was it consecutive), my dad treated us by making cioppino, an Italian fish stew, for Christmas Eve. When we didn’t have that, we would get Chinese take-out. After dinner, we would open gifts and watch a Christmas movie or TV special. But, my senior year of college a new tradition began as we started celebrating with my best friend’s family.
I have known my best friend Kaylinn for 23 years. And for at least 15 of those years, we have been celebrating Christmas together with a Mexican Fiesta. Until the past few years, our families would get together on Christmas Eve. Now, as families have grown, we celebrate on Christmas Eve Eve. We eat Mexican food (neither of us is Mexican, it’s just a favorite of hers), enjoy sweets - I’d make dessert (or it was sometimes a joint effort), and play games (first pool or air hockey until the tables were sold, and now card games like Sequence or Apples to Apples). Staples of the fiesta were usually her mom’s chicken enchiladas, and my mom would bring tamales and green sauce. One year, I made a corn and black bean salad, and now forgetting to make it or deciding to not make it is considered a travesty that cannot happen. Then there is always rice, beans, chips, salsa, and queso.
In terms of dessert, I’ve made an "American-style" Panettone with dried cranberries, cherries, blueberries, pineapple, lemon zest, vanilla, and almond extract. (This was when I was baking my way through the original Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.)
In 2018, I made a gingerbread cake roll with eggnog filling and was quite pleased with my airy sponge.
Then there were two croquembouches. One I made with my parents who helped me stick the cream puffs together while I finished getting ready at the last minute. The other was made at the request of my friend’s husband, and she, her sister-in-law, and I made it in her mom’s kitchen. Once you make the pâte à choux, the most important thing is getting the caramel to the right temperature so everything hardens as you form your cream puff cone.
Another year, we leaned hard into the “fiesta” theme and made a tres leches cake, which was a sweet and rich way to end an already filling meal. This year, in keeping with the recipes from The Harvest Baker, I made an Apple Pecan Pound Cake with Maple Syrup Glaze. Except for the panettone, which, as a bread, was not the best dessert choice, everything was well-enjoyed.
Some years, the party was larger than others as a family friend and his family joined us, or my family took part. I enjoyed having my parents with us, playing games alongside Kaylinn's family. Everyone would complain when my parents got all the questions in trivia games correct, and the rest of us were annoyed with Kaylinn when she always won Uno or Sequence, sure that she cheated somehow. Sometimes, we ended the night the night after games by going down the street to their church and squeezing into an already-fill pew. Her family held hands during the prayers, and her brother, who became closer than my own through the years, would try to squeeze my fingers too hard. His friend, who attended some years when he was home on leave, would enjoy blowing out our candles at the end vs letting us do it ourselves. Party attendees fluctuated through the years, but that’s typical for any family. This year, Kaylinn’s four-year-old niece ran around with the dogs while her three-month-old was passed around and looked mesmerized by the lights and action.
Other years have been quieter, and we missed those not with us. Christmas 2020 was strange since I stayed in Montana and “zoomed” with her family to open presents and catch up over a computer screen. Instead of spending all day in my mom’s kitchen and then the evening with my friend’s family enjoying a beautiful dessert, I spent the day in my MT family’s kitchen while they skied the slopes in Bozeman. I made a Pear Cranberry Pie with a herringbone lattice while watching a Christmas movie on Netflix.
(This later reminded me of Ken’s Maple-Glazed All-Pear Pie I made for Pi Day this year. Find the recipe here.) It was strange to have a house to myself on a day when I was used to being surrounded by family and friends. The next day, the house was full of their family with dogs and kids running around and lots of people talking, laughing, and eating. But for a while on Christmas Eve, I enjoyed the quiet kitchen and watching snow fall outside while simultaneously lamenting that I was alone.
Regardless of how traditions have changed, there are some consistencies. I always want to be with family or family-like friends. I always want there to be good food; the cuisine region doesn’t matter. And I always want to remember the reason for the celebration. The time on Christmas Eve I enjoy the most is the end of a church service when the lights go down, and the candlelight starts moving through the congregation as one person tilts their candle to light their own from a neighbor’s. The crowd sings “Silent Night” while enjoying the peace and stillness of the song, the moment, and the meaning. Regardless of what the rest of the holiday, or year, or next year does or does not hold for us, it’s nice to be grateful for hope, love, and a baby.
Whether you choose to put out cookies for Santa, binge-watch A Christmas Story (TBS, anyone?), spend all day baking, play games with friends, or celebrate in your own way, I hope your Christmas is full of comfort and joy. Merry Christmas!
In addition to eating Mexican food and playing games, Kaylinn and I made it a tradition to take fun pictures together. Enjoy some of our favorites below!
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