T&C’s Favorite Holiday Traditions
T&C has a lot of traditions: Souvlaki GR team lunches, Myzel’s licorice runs, Central Park picnics, Sant Ambroeus’s princess cake. We are, as I write, anticipating the return of one of my favorites, our holiday dinner at Shun Lee Café, complete with T&C family and friends, Grand Marnier prawns, and paper crowns. This is a year when I hope we can, for the first time in a long while, honor our traditions and respect and celebrate those of everyone around us. For me that means Christmas Eve at my brother’s with multitudes of relatives and mountains of lalagithes (a kind of fried breadstick typical of the part of Greece my father is from). And under the tree will be some of my favorite gifts, to give and receive: Mr. Pete’s Greek olive oil, a Lalaounis New Year’s charm, and that red lacquer Elsa Peretti pen. Here, our T&C family shares their own traditions and favorite gifts. We hope you all have a wonderful, fun, and healthy holiday. Everyone! As the cover line says: Celebrate now. We mean it.
Roxanne Adamiyatt, Deputy Digital Lifestyle Director: A movie series binge watch. This year we might do The Godfather. It’s a fun tradition that I’ve come to cherish.
MaryKate Boylan, Senior Fashion Editor: I love to give something useful but special, like a beautifully painted candle.
Emily Burack, News Writer: My family loves skiing on December 25, when the slopes are empty.
Linda Crowley, Research Chief: Christmas Eve mass in an old mission church bordering the bay north of San Francisco.
Tess Donlevie, Designer: Christmas movies with my family!
Sophie Dweck, Associate Shopping Editor: Frying up batches and batches of latkes for family and friends. Yum!
Kristin Fitzpatrick, Design Director: Spending time with my niece, Stella Tate, at my parents’ home in Michigan.
Marley Gifford, Fashion Assistant: We have a German tradition of lighting 12 real candles on our tree every year.
Klara Glowczewska, Executive Travel Editor: A White & Warren cashmere travel shawl. Everyone should have many, in different colors.
Caroline Hallemann, Digital Director: The Christmas season isn’t complete without at least one viewing of It’s a Wonderful Life.
Darrick Harris, Visual Director: We have a bicultural dinner on Christmas Day with quince branches instead of a Christmas tree.
Erin Hobday, Executive Managing Editor: Exchanging books over homemade pierogi (my husband’s grandmother’s recipe) on Christmas Eve.
Leena Kim, Associate Editor: A cheeky Christmas ornament that winks to an inside joke between only us.
Chiun Lee, Deputy Design Director: Walking around NYC enjoying all the lights and window displays.
Fiona Lennon, Deputy Visual Director: A Christmas morning swim at Seapoint beach, Dublin Bay, in Ireland. Utterly bracing!
James Lochart, Copy Chief: Christmas morning blintzes from Zabar’s.
April Long, Beauty Director: I buy my family Fortnum & Mason Christmas Crackers. A paper hat and a bad joke? You can’t go wrong.
Ashleigh Macdonald-Bennett, Deputy Managing Editor: Opening presents with family while drinking champagne with strawberries.
Erik Maza, Executive Style Director: My friend, T&C contributor Alejandra Cicognani gave me an appreciation for the finest Pouilly-Fumé by Baron Patrick de Ladoucette.
Nelida Mortensen, Senior Visual Editor: Christmas Day walk on Karen Blixen’s magical estate, Rungstedlund, in Denmark.
Jenny Newman, Senior Visual Editor: Christmas takes all the good things about winter (eating, being cozy, watching nonsense TV, twinkle lights, pine scent) and commands you to do them all at once.
Ana Osorno, Social Media Editor: My family stays up until midnight on the 24th, and we get to open one present before going to bed.
Dania Lucero Ortiz, Fashion & Accessories Director: I love the personalized packaging of the body oil from IL Buly, Paris.
Adam Rathe, Deputy Features Director: A drive through Dyker Heights to see the marvelous Christmas lights.
Prakash Servai, Fashion Assistant: We gather for Christmas lunch and share.
Danielle Stein Chizzik, Deputy Editor: One holiday gift we always give each of my kids is a sum of money to donate to the charity of their choice.
Michael Stillwell, Senior Designer: An advent calendar, chocolates, sweets, or coffee are always a fun treat for Christmas.
Lauren Tappan, Assistant to the EIC: Reading Christmas stories around our fireplace. Our favorite is Melodye Benson Rosales’s “Twas the Night B’Fore Christmas,” an adaptation of the classic holiday poem.
Norman Vanamee, Articles Director: For a drinker: an unfiltered white wine from the Jura in France. For a cook: a carbon steel frying pan
This story appears in the December 2022/January 2023 issue of Town & Country. SUBSCRIBE NOW
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