Today I’m excited to join a few friends for a little post about Hometown Christmas Traditions! The best part of the holidays, aren’t the gifts, but the rituals we do every year. Here in my small town of Los Gatos, in Northern California, we have some holiday traditions and my family also has a few.
Growing up in Northern Cal, our Christmas’s were pretty simple. The things that stand out in my mind the most are cutting down our Christmas trees in the Santa Cruz Mountains, baking sugar cookies with our mom from the Betty Crocker ‘Cooky’ book, and making lots of snowflakes to tape to the front windows of our house.
On Christmas Eve we would go to my grandparent’s mid-century home in Willow Glen where grandma would have a big flocked tree and vintage lights that bubbled. She always had Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, and Frank Sinatra on her record player and we ate a light buffet from her cranberry glass dishes which I now have. All those songs bring me back to those years.. adults having pretty cocktails in coupe glasses, my mother dressed in some holiday frock!
My grandparents dressed up for a holiday party (you can see the flocked tree on the right), and mom and I at home, December 1966. My brother was born Jan 1 , 1967, so she was pregnant..
We have made a lot of traditions of our own now with our two boys. Though they are out of the house now, my sons still want to do our holiday things and it makes me so happy!
A picture of Griffin and Jackson at Christmas when they were small..
We are lucky to have a Christmas Parade in our town of Los Gatos that takes place the first Saturday of December, the day after the town tree lighting. The whole town turns out for our parade, which is quite large- the biggest holiday parade west of the Rockies. People line the sidewalks and stay warm in blankets, umbrellas or wear sandals- depending on the weather that year. Many nearby towns and their families participate.
We are also have a large county park that borders our town. Vasona hosts the Fantasy of Lights each year, and families queue up to drive through a huge light strewn park with holiday music. It begins the parade weekend with a walk through night with food trucks and continues until December 30th as a 1.5 mile drive through. My kids loved it and used to hang out of the car’s sun roof with Santa hats on.
Los Gatos also has holiday carriage rides through town and often at the tree lighting and on weekends, you can get a photo with Santa which my boys did many times!
Now that Grif is away at school, and Jackson lives up the peninsula, we try and squeeze a lot more into a shorter time frame..
Little traditions we love
We always make time one night to drive through San Jose’s Willow Glen neighborhood to see the lights, and get hot chocolate. Each street seems to have a theme and there are now people that sell hot chocolate and even a Santa you can visit on someone’s front yard. On the weekends it gets even more crazy with groups doing a holiday bike ride with bikes decorated with lights. If it’s a balmy night, you can walk through it all, which can be a blast too.
We also take a day and get up to San Francisco for lunch at The Rotunda atop Neiman’s to have their popovers and see their tree. Then we always go see the animals to adopt in Macy’s windows, and Gump’s historic beautiful department store with its fun toys and treasures. Last year we hit the city the same weekend as SantaCon and it was hilarious and made it even more festive with people everywhere dressed as Santas.
We will spend at least one day making Ethel’s sugar cookies. My mom always made Russian Tea Cakes, her favorite. I love seeing her notes in the book.
We always make little care packages for friends and neighbors and have wrapped them in different ways over the years.
We have a tradition where we do Christmas Eve with my dad. We do fondue and play games. That night my dad gives me a pan of his famous cinnamon rolls and I give him a lasagna, both to eat on Christmas day.
On Christmas day we all stay home in our jammies. That is how my parents started it, and we have kept it the same. My dad insists he likes the down time and we both have breakfast and dinner ready for the oven, so no cooking on the 25th!
Thanks for letting share a little about my hometown and out Christmas traditions! Please stop by my pals and see what fun they have to share..
I’d love to hear about your hometowns and also your own holiday traditions below!
Thanks for stopping by,
Kim
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Kim this was just lovely learning about your family traditions. Some very similar to ours. I love the idea of doing Lasagna Christmas day. I cannot believe your dad makes homemade cinnamon rolls. He is amazing! Los Gatos sounds like such a fun place to be for Christmas. We always took our kids to SF to see the lights when they were young as well. FAO Schwartz was always a favorite. Thanks for joining us. You always bring so much to the “plate”
Cindy, I feel lucky to live in a small town! SF is so fun. I miss FAO Schwartz! Love doing this with you all! xx
This is making me miss the festivities in SF. Such a fun time of year. I love your precious family traditions…bet your sons will carry them on.
Merry Christmas…I miss you.
Mary Ann, I so miss you! I know SF really is fun at the holidays. We are lucky to be so close. Hope you have a beautiful Florida Christmas! xo
Christmas Day IS VERY SLOW HERE TOO………..
I LIKE TO ENJOY THE MORNING WITH MY STOCKING AND COFFEE!
WE DO THE BIG FEAST Christmas Eve AND OPEN THEN.
DO I SPY THE MOZZARELLA IN A BALL WRAPPED IN PLASTIC!!!
NO NO NO!
BUY THE ONE IN WATER OR THE ONE WITH LITTLE BALLS……………..EASIER TO DOT THE LASGNA.
I KNOW WE GREW UP WITH THAT MOZZARELLA IN THE BALL !!
I HAVE BEEN TRAINED NO PARMESAN IN A GREEN CAN AND NO MOZZARELLA IN A PLASTIC WRAP!
SOUNDS LIKE YOU HAVE THE MONTH PLANNED OUT!
BIG HUG,
XO
No this was a fresh mozzarella from the local Lunardis.It looks like the ball type. Haven’t had the green can park since we were kids, but surprised to fid it’s still sold! I am with you love the morning and stockings.. WE make the boys wait until after cinnamon rolls to open presents..though they can open stockings right away.. We try and prolong the morning! xoxo
Kim,
Growing up and living in Los Gatos and Saratoga most of my life, our traditions were much like yours. Driving around Willow Glen to see the lights and decorated homes, Christmas in the Park in downtown San Jose, with a stop at the Fairmont Hotel for a glass of bubbly.
We now live at the coast and do enjoy the lighted boat parade in Santa Cruz.
Merry Christmas 🎄
Nancy I didn’t mention Christmas in the Park – I forgot! It’s so fun and we would often hear a concert at the cathedral before and then go to the Fairmont for a drink and see the gingerbread houses! Thanks I will add it! The boat parade sounds so fun! Merry Christmas!
Hi Kim,
So lovely to read thank you and the photos are just wonderful! I loved hearing about all your traditions; the parade and pajamas on Christmas Day perfect! Life in Los Gatos sounds just right 🙂 Our traditions are mince pie making night where everybody has a job on the assembly line making little sugary mince pies (the English sweet version of mince which is chopped fruit and brandy cooked before hand) with the Beatles playing and many a cocktail to go with it. And my grown up kids putting the angel on the tree, with my son putting his sister on his shoulders and her reaching up….it always looks precarious and yet it always goes down well. This year my son is away on a airbase being in the AF and so my future son in law sat on my husband’s shoulders and did it. Hysterical ! love this time of year. Happy Christmas Kim and family xo
Francesca, How fun doing the mince pie lineup! I love that and the Beatles and cocktails..Aw how sweet your kids do the angel. Aw thinking of your son. You sound like you have a fun family! Enjoy Christmas and thank you for the kind notes and reading the blog! xo
This was such a fun post to read. I wish we had more traditions at our house because that seems like what everyone actually remembers the most about Christmas. Hope you and doing great and get to sneak up to Tahoe and play in all that snow!
xxoo Kelley
Hi Kelley! Fun doing this with you ladies and I wish I could get to your beautiful store.. Hopefully soon! Tahoe is on the plan if the weather cooperates! I wish you a lovely Christmas. Maybe you can start some new traditions also! xo
Kim-my grandmother, mother (and now I) made teat exact Russian Teacakes cookie recipe. Such a small world. My grandmother used to roll her confectioner-sugar coated cookies into red or green colored sugar so I have continued that tradition.
Love hearing about your sweet traditions! What a happy post!
Carol that is so neat you all make them too! I think a lot of us grew up with that book. Looks like they reprinted it as it was! I saw it at a store today! What a fun idea to roll them in colored sugar. I have to try that! Kind of fun to share and hear everyone’s traditions also!
LOVELY POST! I love seeing your traditions, especially since I may not do much this year. My greatest excitement was seeing that someone else has the Betty Crocker Cooky Book. mine is as stained as yours with little buttery fingers, although mine is 20 years older than yours! Hugs.
Thanks Sheila- Merle!
I hope you’re feeling better. Yes that Cooky book is the best and ours is held together, but I could never part with it as my mom’s notes are all over it.. Hugs to you too!
Kim, your celebrations are endless in December. Seeing the photos of your family are so special. The picture with Santa is a keeper. Seeing your grandmother was a treat, is she the grandma that taught you so much and had lots of pink decorated in her home? She looks pretty fancy in this photo. Santa Cruz and Los Gatos hold such memories to hold close to your heart.
There is so many wonderful memories you shared I did not miss anything down to the sugar cookies. The bake off traditions always stick with with you. Of course San Francisco is the icing on the cake.
The family history runs deep and your legacies of Christmas will last a life time for you and your boys.
Katherine, it does feel like we try and squeeze a lot in! Yes this is the grandma, my dad’s mother actually, who was the fancy one and who had a pink tree! This was one of her fancier moments. I think you may have read the post I wrote about her life?
I hope you are right and the traditions stick with us! xo
This post was absolutely wonderful!! You made everything you described come alive and I so appreciate your sharing such cherished Christmas memories over the years❤️
Happy Holidays Kim🎄
Linda thanks so much for saying that. Happiest holidays to you too! xo
Love this post, so many festive things to do and see! And I don’t know about you, but when I find a recipe with my mother’s handwriting on it (or better yet, an entire recipe in her handwriting), it still brings tears to my eyes. And she’s been gone 24 years. She died way too young. Cancer is a beast. Keep on making memories!
Lisa, thanks so much..I feel the same as you about my mom’s handwriting! I treasure all of it. I’m so sorry about your mom. This February it will be 8 years since we lost my mom and this time of year, is especially hard. I feel for you! Hugs.
Kim, I love all this!! The pictures of your grandparents and your mom are classic and precious. My mother also made Russian tea cakes. Her other specialty was rum balls—yum with a buzz! My dad would pitch in with something called Boston brown bread, baked in cans. How I miss all that!😭
And you with your young sons—I swear you (and Max) haven’t changed a bit since!!
Sarah, So funny so many of our moms made those Russian tea cakes and wow rum balls. Gosh I have heard of that brown bread before. Your parents sound like they made it fun. Aw you are so nice. Crazy how fast those small kid years go by.
Kim, I love everything about this. Your town really knows how to do Christmas right. I didn’t know about the parade. Wow. And the light display sounds like something else. Growing up one of my favorite traditions was driving around with my grandparents looking at the beautiful Christmas lights. That and all the cookies she had from baking and exchanging with friends. I think she made your mom’s favorite Russian Tea Cakes too. I could eat a dozen of them with no problem. Your family has very fun, chill Christmas traditions … love the lasagna and cinnamon roll exchange. I’d like to be on the cinnamon roll end of the deal. Not that your lasagna isn’t amazing! Your boys are the cutest by the way. This was so good. xo
Kim- a short term, but loyal reader here! I have been MIA because I needed a break from the internet and our lives have been very busy! We moved in August to a slight fixer upper and I actually had a baby in November which I never posted about on Instagram because of prior losses. Of course I do pop in to see what you’ve posted here from time to time and it’s a great way to enjoy a Saturday morning coffee! I love seeing these extra posts and I love this one about traditions. We are pretty old school in our own family traditions and while I consider myself a modern woman, I sometimes feel like the only way to fit in with other moms and women my age is to reject any notion of classic motherhood and womanhood and family life. I find it harder and harder to navigate or to find people to relate to. Might be easier to use a recipe from the Cooky Book for holiday cookies and say we got them at Kroger! Lol! I don’t care if people think I’m silly, I love the holidays and all the invisible labor while unjustly almost solely on the shoulders of women… well, I’m fine with it. I hate that since I am a woman it makes me look like a bore and a sellout. My husband likes this stuff too and gets unending praise for his ability to make cookies or sew a stocking! What the heck is life even about if you buy everything premade or easy to clean up by being disposable and shirk decorating and party planning and basically could care less about practical skills that have served humans for centuries??? Of course there’s something to be said for different phases of life and making life easy so other things can be accomplished- no denying that, but I guess it’s just nice to see a space where it is valued. That parade looks like great fun. I am floored that we moved to a smaller town with a great sense of community and some very fun holiday traditions and nice decor around town. Feels much more homey to me. I am wishing you a very happy and healthy holiday season and hoping for a very good 2024. Best, Nicole
Nicole, Hope you are doing well. Thanks so much for your sweet note and taking the time to comment! You sound like you had a lot going on. Congrats on the new baby too. I have to be honest, I had a hard time connecting with women when my kids were small. It took me years to find women like myself..I tried for a while to fit in with a mom’s group and it never worked as I just didn’t feel like they were my people..Eventually, I found people like me and it was so good and needed! Hopefully you’ll find those who are more like you too!
Isn’t it funny how things change for women? Some really love all the homey stuff and cooking and others just don’t care at all. I do love a lot about it, but that said, I don’t appreciate it being considered women’s domain and welcome men doing this too. I’m so glad my husband is good with all that..I just couldn’t deal with a husband who expected all that and well I probably would not be married still. I just want us all to do what we want to do!
On another note, so nice you have found a small town with community. There will be people like you there! Hang in there and here’s to a great new year and happy holidays in your new place!
You’re in a stage of life with a lot of new and transitions.I have been there too. It all gets easier. Big hugs. xoxo
Kim! All of your holiday traditions sound so lovey! Making sugar cookies from the “cookie book” and taping paper snowflakes on the window.
I don’t know about willow glen, but love to hear about visiting your grandmother in her midcentury home eating your buffet lunch on dishes that you now have!
Beautiful traditions, both old and new!!
Xx
Annie making the snowflakes and cookies stay in my memory! Willow Glen is such a beautiful area. If you visit I will take you there and to the Rose Garden neighborhood, which you would love! xx