With Christmas just around the corner, I have been getting so excited to celebrate the holidays for the first time in my new home. Today for Good to Know, I thought we would take a break from our normal blog content and share a few of our team’s most beloved holiday traditions. Also, there won’t be a Good to Know next week, so I hope that no matter what holiday you celebrate that you have a lovely and safe holiday season, and we’ll see you in the new year!

Marianne - Owner & Designer

I know it’s a super common tradition but it’s something my family did growing up and I carried it on to my children. Every Christmas Eve my girls get to open 2 presents. One of them is pajamas and the other one is either a stuffed animal or book. It’s simple, but meaningful, and it’s one of my favorite traditions that we all look forward to on Christmas Eve.

Marcie - Stylist

Our family loves celebrating Advent, the countdown to Christmas. Though the origination and technical details surrounding Advent are different, the concept is the same. Looking forward to Christmas and the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. With small children in our home, we have enjoyed finding a way to celebrate the season together every day. Our original Advent calendar is a series of small buildings with drawers for each day of December, leading up to the 25th. This Advent calendar has taken on many iterations, but ultimately ended up being a daily candy dispenser. We "open drawers" every night before bed, snuggle on the couch, eat our treat and listen to Christmas music by the tree. Make no mistake, it's not always this picturesque, there is occasional crying, fighting and refusal to go to bed, etc (last night there was a literal brawl and subsequent grounding).

This year I wanted to expand our Advent celebration to activities that help us get into the "spirit" of Christmas, so I bought a second calendar. This one from Gathre is a large banner that hangs on the wall with pockets for each day. I have been printing off a paper scroll with an activity to do together. This has been opened at various points in the day, depending on the thing to do. Activities have ranged from reading Christmas books together, to picking out our tree, watching movies, singing, dance parties, giving, seeing the lights, decorating our tree and just being together. Christmas can be such a busy season, it's actually been nice to have everything slow down and be home based this year. Though 2020 has provided us with much togetherness, this has been a way to make that time together more meaningful and more fun.

And yes, those are our Elves (Ebbe, Ivy and Opal). They don’t bring gifts, cause mischief or bake delicious things. They just move around the house, and only on the days they remember.

Georgia - Designer

One of my favorite Christmas traditions growing up was Christmas Eve dinner at my grandparents' house. My great-grandparents immigrated from East Prussia and while I never knew them, they are the reason we still celebrate the night eating traditional German food.

In addition the German food we ate (and still eat) each Christmas Eve, my Papa G.R. would coordinate a neighborhood luminary display. On the morning of Christmas Eve, dozens of volunteers would show up at my grandparents' home. I still remember, in awe, the crowds of people that would show up year after year and fill white paper sacks with sand and tea lights. When finished, everyone would be given a box of the sand and candle-filled sacks, with instructions to place them along their street and light them when the sun went down. My favorite part of Christmas Eve was after dinner and songs were finished, my family would bundle up and drive the snowy streets in the dark lit only by tiny, flickering candles.

In April of 2017, my Papa passed away. It was sudden and unexpected and the grief was hard to handle. A few nights later, my dad called me and told me he was coming to pick my siblings and I up to take us over to Papa's house. He wouldn't tell us why, but we knew as soon as we rounded a corner--a circle of luminaries lined the cul-de-sac where my grandparents house was, courtesy of then neighbors who had lived next door to my Papa for over 50 years. My family walked in circles with the luminaries lining the sidewalk, hand in hand and quietly grieving our loss while celebrating the way my grandpa had brought light in tiny paper sacks to his friends and neighbors. To this day, I can't see a luminary display without tearing up at the memory of this small but significant kindness. We still set up luminaries outside my parents' home each Christmas Eve to remember all those years spent with my grandparents.

German Red Cabbage Recipe

5 lb. red cabbage (thinly sliced)

2 large granny smith apples (finely shredded)

3 Tbsp. salt

1 Tbsp. allspice

2 cups water

3/4 cup vinegar

2 cups sugar

Add all of the ingredients to a big pot and slowly simmer for about 3 hours until tender.

Sara - Operations

One of our favorite traditions is getting a new nutcracker every year (and I’m a nutcracker snob, so we only do German brands). My kids love seeing what new nutcracker we get each year.

We also have a tradition of getting a new ornament each Christmas to represent our year. This year we are getting a little house that lights up to symbolize our home and how much time we spent in it together this year

Emily - Media

If you had told me 10 years ago that I would become something of a baker in my 20’s, I would have laughed at you. Before I was diagnosed with Celiac’s in 2012, I never baked and didn’t have any interest in it at all. Now, making sugar cookies is my favorite holiday tradition. I love to take over the kitchen for an afternoon and make way too many cookies. Although no one in my family is a professional decorator (see the collection of Baby Yoda’s below), we are professional sugar cookie eaters. I swear by this recipe from King Arthur, and if you’re doing gluten-free baking this holiday I would definitely try it out!