Whether you're skating on the Frog Pond, admiring the Christmas lights in the Boston Common or listening to Keith Lockhart conduct the Holiday Pops, the holiday season is in full swing in Boston. As part of our ongoing series, Hear at the Library, we asked people to share their favorite holiday traditions and memories at our studio in the Boston Public Library.
Here's some of what we heard.
Our family grows, our family shrinks, there's new additions, there's new friends every year, but it always comes back to being with family at this time of year, and friends and great food.
-Karen Chicchia, a Winthrop resident, talks about her family tradition of making eggs Benedict for breakfast on Christmas morning.
Growing up in an African-American home, one of the standards is you have to listen to "Silent Night" by the Temptations.
-Quentin Brandèl, a resident of Cambridge, remembers singing with his family during the holiday season.
I read the kids The Polar Express. My husband is usually upstairs somewhere ringing jingle bells...None of the adults hear the bells because it's only if you believe in Christmas.
-Mary Rose and Pete Noble, residents of Dedham, share their tradition of building gingerbread houses out of graham crackers with their grandchildren.
Since we moved to the U.S., we had to restart traditions because we didn't have the family backing everything like we had in Guatemala.
-Angela Schmidt-Ching, a resident of Stow, remembers celebrating Christmas with her family as a child in Guatemala.
Last year, everybody came to my house in New Jersey...we had cookies out, we had milk out, just having some snacks while listening to Christmas music. It's just a nice way to get everyone involved in the Christmas tradition.
-Katrina Atanda, a resident of New Jersey, reminisces on decorating the Christmas tree with her family.
When I was a boy in the seventies, we used to create piñatas for Christmas. We would blow up a balloon, put a bunch of newspaper in a bowl with water and flour...and then we'd take a stick and beat it until all the candy came out.
-KC McCarthy, a resident of Roslindale, shares his childhood memory of making piñatas with his older sisters on Christmas.
The smells are great. It's Virginia, so it's definitely, you know, southern. There's always biscuits, there's always gravy, there's always most of a pig.
-Jason Holmes, a resident of Virginia, remembers Christmas as a day of spending time with family and indulging in Southern cooking.
We all go to behind the Burlington Country Club...We all sled together there in the dark Christmas night after everything else...Sledding is the last thing, the best thing.
-Craig Neli, a resident of Boston, reminisces on his Christmas tradition of going sledding with his family after Christmas dinner.
What captures me is the smell of the cookies that they bake...it smells like fennel seeds. The bread dough, the Panettone, you smell that walking through the town, and that just brings me back to my childhood.
-Delia Roffo, a resident of East Boston, distinctly remembers the aromas of freshly baked bread and cookies in her childhood home of Italy during the holiday season.
We dance...we love to dance.
-Darly, a resident of East Boston, shares her favorite Colombian Christmas traditions of dancing and sharing food with her family.
