Some holiday traditions are passed down from generation to generation. Although they may sometimes change slightly, the purpose always remains the same. Regardless of whether a tradition began with great-grandparents who brought traditions from their homelands, or at other milestones in your own life, traditions help us remember and celebrate the people and relationships that are, or were, most important in our lives.

Elise Paradis, a lifelong resident of the Lewiston area, celebrated her 101st birthday this year. Elise was born on a farm, the seventh of 13 children. Every year “we cut down the tree right on our own land,” she said. Her family didn’t have electricity, and the Christmas tree was decorated with lit candles.

The Christmas stockings were hung on the railing in the upstairs hall using sock garters and on Christmas morning were full of candy and small gifts. Paradis’ favorite was the fresh orange that she always found at the very bottom. The oldest children always got to explore their stockings first, while the younger ones waited their turns.

Paradis’ favorite memory is of Christmas the year she turned five years old. That year, Paradis got to the Christmas tree first. “Back then, they didn’t wrap the packages,” and the first thing she found was a little cloth dog. “I grabbed it, and it was mine,” she said with a smile. Many years later, Paradis’ mother-in-law received a little cloth dog as a gift at Christmas. Knowing Paradis’ story, her mother-in-law turned and presented the little dog to Paradis. “I kept it for years.”

Laurie Wilson Levine also grew up on a farm. The Wilson family’s big celebration occurred Christmas Eve when their dad would cook a thick, meaty soup they called “Hearty Hodge Podge” and they would open their gifts in new “jammies.” On Christmas morning, her dad took to the woods and returned with fresh game to batter, pan fry, and serve with Redeye gravy, along with homemade biscuits and jam, hot coffee, and fresh eggs.

Wilson Levine recalled angel costumes and Christmas pageants at church. She enjoyed dressing up in the new, red velvet jumpers or skirts that her mother lovingly made every year for Levine and her three sisters, and “caroling” with their church and her 4H club.

The Wilson Christmas always included extended family and sometimes there were as many as 30 children gathered in their big farmhouse. Wilson Levine’s husband, Ike, described the half-hour that it took to open gifts as “a hurricane.” Levine, who grew up in a 20-story apartment building in New York City, a long way from the farm, celebrated Chanukah with his family and recalled the first Christian holiday that he experienced with the Wilson family. After being picked up at the airport and brought in through the kitchen door, he was dressed up as Santa and sent out to meet the family. The following morning his new father-in-law handed him a firearm and took him hunting for breakfast.

Levine always looked forward to the eight-day Chanukah “festival of light” as he knew that there would be family visits to enjoy and a small gift to open every day. He also loved the food that each “Gramma” prepared. Although he enjoyed the matzo balls in chicken soup, potato latkes with apple sauce and sour cream, and the roasted brisket and potatoes, as well as the abundant baked goods and honey candies, his favorite Chanukah treat was when the children were allowed to drink soda mixed with a small splash of Manishewitz wine. “Our faces would get rosy red.” Levine, his sister, and their cousins enjoyed playing “Spin the Dreidel,” a traditional game with candy and cash prizes.

Levine’s favorite memory is of lighting the candles of the Menorah. To this day, as he lights each candle, he remembers the beloved members of his family who have passed on. The Levines, who live in Poland, keep both the Christian and Jewish traditions alive in their celebrations with their own children, though both will admit that the blending of faiths during the holiday season is “sometimes a tricky thing to do.”

In Vermont, Debra Miller’s three children set up a small tree in each of their rooms and on Christmas eve she sneaks a small gift under each tree for them to enjoy in the quiet of the moment that they wake up. Mary and Patsy Borsavage, sisters who grew up in a large family of Polish descent, remember tables filled with Polish ham, spicy kielbasa and butterball cookies rolled in powdered sugar. In the Borsavage family, the youngest children got to open their Christmas stockings first, with Dad filming every moment.

Levine still lights the Menorah every year, and remembers. Wilson-Levine still gives her family new, freshly laundered jammies first so that they can wear them as they open their gifts. Miller’s children still set up their own small trees and look forward to that first gift. And Paradis still remembers the joy that she felt 96 years ago when she picked up “that little cloth dog” and hugged it, and the love she felt many years later, when her mother-in-law gave her a similar “little dog.” Sometimes, it seems, it’s the small gestures and the special traditions that we remember every year that bring us the most joy during the holidays.

4 c. flour

Pinch of salt

2/3 c. milk

1 pkg. yeast

1 tbsp. sugar

1 egg

2/3 c. lukewarm water

Oil for frying

In bowl, place flour, salt, and sugar. Beat egg. Add milk and set aside. Dissolve yeast in lukewarm water. Set aside to begin rising. Add egg and milk mixture to flour, then yeast mixture until dough forms. Heat oil in saucepan. Drop spoonfuls of dough into hot oil. When done, sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar. (Pictured at left.)

– Courtesy of Cook.com.