Christmas time means family, presents, and plenty of great food. Unlike other holidays, such as Thanksgiving, many families have their own Christmas food traditions. Everyone loves making cookies, but oftentimes Christmas dinner is one of the best of the year. Let’s see what LHS has to say about their Christmas dinner traditions. 

Lakeview Senior Caly Lantz loves Christmas dinner.

“My family usually does turkey in addition to ham, which is awesome because I hate ham.” Lantz, like so many people, loves Christmas dinner because it is so versatile.

Lantz said that, “My family usually brings all kinds of different stuff. My favorite thing is raspberry pull aparts which are way better than cookies. I just love how we always experiment with different foods.”

In addition, the Lantz household has great side-dishes, “We have mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes and all kinds of stuff that isn’t exactly normal.” One thing Lantz failed to realize is that the beauty of Christmas dinner is that there is no “normal.”

Lakeview Senior Michael Horn also had lots to say about his Christmas dinners,  “I love Christmas dinner, it is way better than Thanksgiving because families actually cook what they like to eat and not just food that is traditional.”

Horn expressed his love for Christmas food because his family constantly switches it up, “My family doesn’t have a set thing for Christmas dinner. One year we might have ham, one year we might have steak, one year it might have both. It really just depends on what we are feeling that year.”

Horn doesn’t just love the main course, he loves dessert too, “To me, Christmas cookies are a little overrated. I prefer pretzel jello dessert. I love pretzel jello dessert.” Horn, like Lantz, loves the versatility of Christmas dinner and the lack of structure. 

Senior Cole Travaglino is someone who does not like Christmas dinner, “Christmas dinner stinks. We always go to my grandma’s house on Christmas and she makes the weirdest foods like bread pudding, what even is bread pudding.”

Unlike his fellow seniors, Travaglino thinks there is no versatility in Christmas dinner, “My family does the same old traditions every year at the dinner table. We always have a ham and other foods the adults really like, but the kids usually just snack on cookies all night.”

When asked if he had a favorite Christmas dessert beside cookies, Travaglino said, “Definitely not bread pudding. Bread pudding is nasty.”

Senior Amber Givens-Morrow is another who loves Christmas dinner, “The food is like a gift. I like Christmas dinner the most because there are more dessert options.”

Givens-Morrow is another who loves desserts that aren’t cookies, “I love peppermint pie. My Grandma makes it just like a Chick-Fil-A milkshake. I look forward to the pie more than anything else. I have three slices every year.”

When asked about her favorite main dish, Givens-Morrow was excited to tell me all about it, “My favorite dish is the ham with the ring pineapples. That is why Christmas dinner is so awesome: you can kind of make foods up and it’s accepted because there are no real rules to Christmas dinner.”

As Christmas time approaches it is important to remember that the food we eat is a gift, and that we have so much to be thankful for. The beauty of Christmas is that each family can make their own traditions and are not bound to a certain set of rules.