16 Authors & Illustrators Share Their Favorite Holiday Traditions
Holidays are full of tradition. Some were started generations ago, and others began more recently. Read on for some of your favorite authors’ holiday traditions!
Ethan Aldridge
In the small town where I grew up, there’s a steep hill next to the small baseball field. My siblings and I have gone sledding on it every year since I can remember, and we only run each other over every once in a while.
Jennifer Lynn Alvarez
Every Christmas since I can remember, we’ve watched the original stop motion movie “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer” while decorating our tree and drinking hot chocolate. I’ve carried on this tradition with my children. The abominable snowman still terrifies me and I don’t understand why anyone would rather be a dentist than a toymaker, but hey, it’s my favorite movie!
John David Anderson
When we were high-school sweethearts, my then-girlfriend-now-wife and I started making Christmas ornaments for each other. It’s a tradition that we’ve kept up with for over twenty-five years. Often the inspiration for these ornaments comes from an event that happened during the year…such as a book getting published (you can spot a few of those in the tree behind me!). Our kids think our tree is terribly gaudy, but it reminds us of the many wonderful years we’ve spent together.
Alyssa Satin Capucilli
Growing up in Brooklyn, NY, our annual holiday tradition always included a family skate at the ice rink in Prospect Park. The best part? The hot chocolate that always followed! While I still love ice skating, my favorite holiday tradition in more recent years includes gathering books throughout the year, many of which are signed by the author and or illustrator, and gifting them to family and friends. Not only do I love contributing to their libraries, but this really helps to satisfy the ‘bookaholic’ in me!
Caroline Carlson
I love learning about the local holiday traditions in each new place I live. Since moving to western Pennsylvania, my family has made a tradition of visiting the winter light garden at Pittsburgh’s Phipps Conservatory each December. My favorite part of the show is the elaborate miniature railroad that has a new design each year!
Alison Friend
I love going to get the tree! Usually as soon as my son, Cal, breaks up up from school. It really marks the beginning of the holiday for us. Every year we try to buy one new ornament for the tree that’s more ridiculously tasteless than the last years. We’re getting quite a collection! Happy Christmas!!!
Robin Preiss Glasser
Every year the Preiss girls (Robin, Erica, Lisa, Jacquie) and Lebowitz cousins (Fran and Ellen) would take a “kicking-cousins-on-the-couch” photo, until we all started having kids and grandchildren (11 more of us). We no longer fit, but my mother’s blue velvet couch is still there!
Laurie Hernandez
Almost every year since I was a kid, my family would take me and my siblings apple picking in the fall! It’s definitely one of my favorite traditions.
Gail Carson Levine
Every year we visit the lights on the former local lord-of-the-manor house here in Brewster, NY. David snapped the photo while Reggie waited in the car. Dig those turrets — straight out of a fantasy novel!
Jane O’Connor
For countless years, top on my list to Santa has always been “a grandchild.” Well, Christmas came a little early in 2018 — on July 3rd to be exact. Here I am with Dovie Leigh O’Connor. I can’t wait to play dress-up and share Fancy Nancy books with her!
Tammi Sauer
I’ve celebrated every Christmas of my life on my family’s farm in Kansas. Here I am in my favorite red sweater with my mom, sister, and brother right before my entire family (age 3 to 73) rushed inside to eat piles of food and open piles of presents.
Drew Scott
Nothing is more wonderful than seeing families come together over the holidays and share the experience have a literary adventure.
Jonathan Scott
It was a Scott family tradition to cozy up by the fire and mom or dad would read a holiday favorite. The best part is that they would use voices and get right into the characters…which always made us laugh.
Annie Silvestro
Growing up, Santa always decorated our tree with red lights and ornaments on Christmas Eve while we were fast asleep. We awoke delighted not only by our presents, but also by our dazzling tree. Here is a photo of my brother and me (age four) experiencing Santa’s magic one Christmas morning. Now that I have kids of my own, I let my boys help decorate our tree earlier in December — though we still let Santa handle all the presents!
Will Taylor
This is me helping with our family holiday cookies for the first time, December 1984. Three and a half decades later I still make these every year, though I eat less raw cookie dough now, and I’ve sadly outgrown that Paddington apron.
Jacqueline West
Singing Christmas carols is a big deal in my family. Lots of us are serious singers: My cousin Jack is a professional opera singer, I’ve got a degree in voice performance, others are choir/church/community theater performers. Sometimes we go caroling door-to-door and really surprise and confuse the neighbors — nobody expects a giant group of live carolers to show up on their front stoop, and they really don’t expect those carolers to sing in elaborate four-part harmony. This is a photo (from Christmas 1984!) of me and my little brother Danny at the piano, getting ready for the big event. I don’t have any good pictures of all of us mid-caroling. I guess we’re all too focused to think about taking pictures just then. :)
Tell us your family holiday traditions in the comments!
