I’ve always enjoyed Christmas, which my family celebrates, along with its traditions. We have some traditions that I’ve continued over the years. And as often happens, some traditions have changed over time or for various reasons. For example, my Christmas holidays and traditions changed after I lost my mom and dad to serious illnesses several years ago.
Through the years, I’ve found ways of keeping memories alive of the holidays I spent with my parents by continuing some traditions, such as baking, hosting gatherings, decorating and spending time with family and friends.
And I’ve had the opportunity to share these traditions with family, friends, international exchange students and my mentee.
Baking Cookies
Each year as Christmas nears, I have at least one cookie baking day. I love to bake, and I enjoyed baking with my mom when I was younger too. A friend, exchange student or my mentee often bake cookies with me. Later, I usually deliver cookies to friends.
A few of my favorite cookies to make are peanut butter kisses, snickerdoodles and krumkake. Krumkake is a Norwegian cookie I made with my mom when I was younger. It’s made on a special iron that looks a bit like a waffle iron, and then it’s rolled into a cone shape and set to cool.
I enjoyed making cookies with my exchange students, and I learned about some of their holiday treats too. When I hosted my German exchange student, Janika, she was excited to find lots of German Christmas cookies at Aldi, and we bought many to bring home.
Decorating the Christmas Tree and the House
Growing up, we decorated the Christmas tree soon after Thanksgiving. We had boxes full of ornaments we’d kept and added to through the years, such as ornaments my grandma had made or that we got as gifts or found on travels. Now many of those ornaments have places on my Christmas tree.
When I hosted my exchange students, they helped me decorate the Christmas tree. I learned that their European families usually don’t decorate their trees at home until shortly before Christmas. While I usually had an artificial tree, I got a live tree when I hosted my Polish student, Marysia. Her family had a tree farm in Poland and had a live tree in their home over the holidays, and she wanted one in the U.S. So we went to a tree stand and found one to sit in front of my living room window over the holidays that year.
Each year I also string white or colorful lights outside my house, as I think the strings of sparkling lights brighten the long, dark winter nights and can be enjoyed by others in the neighborhood too.
Spending Time with Family and Friends
It’s fun to have some Christmas traditions, but the most important one to me is spending time with family and friends. When my family has visited my house, I’ve often made turkey and Swedish rice pudding—another tradition.
When I hosted Janika, we made one of her traditional German foods for our family Christmas dinner. She made German spaetzle, an egg noodle dish, with me. We thought it was great, and I understood why she said the spaetzle sold in the store wasn’t as good as homemade spaetzle after that.
I also often visit long-time friends and experience some of their traditions too, such as having a
raclette meal. A raclette meal is a Swiss meal made using small grills on the table. It features cheese, meat, such as steak or shrimp, potatoes and vegetables.
While it’s important to remember some past traditions, it’s also enriching to learn about others’ traditions and to add to or change traditions over time too.
Alison Rentschler is a writer and editor living in Rochester, Minnesota, with her two dogs. She is looking forward to baking cookies this holiday season.
