We all have many traditions at the holidays! When it comes to baking and putting up the lights, we keep with the staple items and add more each year. When I was in LA for the Mary Poppins Returns red carpet premiere, I also visited ABC Studios for the ABC/Freeform television shows on the 25 Days of Christmas! I got to interview Carter Oosterhouse from The Great Christmas Light Fight , and Sherry Yard baker host of The Great American Baking Show, two people who sing my tune!
My friends and I thought we would share our favorite traditions with you and maybe you’ll be able to add some to your own holiday!
The Great Christmas Light Fight
Carter Oosterhouse returns to celebrate the holidays, this time with co-host interior designer Taniya Nayak, as families showcase their wildest and most spectacular Christmas displays. In each one-hour episode, four families from all around the country decorate their homes to the extreme in the hopes of winning the coveted Light Fight trophy and a $50,000 prize, with a total of $300,000 given away for the season on The Great Christmas Light Fight on ABC.
When it comes to lights, we grab the grandkids and head to Hubbard park in Meriden, CT. We start with hot chocolate and drive through the park looking at all the lights in shapes of animals. We make a stop to get out and walk along a lighted bridge to the “little house”, where if you look through the windows, you’ll see many scenes of animated Christmas Elves, Bears, and even Santa and Mrs. Claus. 
My own tradition is to light up my tree. I have over 1500 lights on it and I’m very particular where they sit on each branch. It takes me hours to get the lights perfectly on the tree. This year I went with white lights instead of my usually colored and I’m pretty happy with it. You can see it here. 
My Bestie, Zippy from Champagne Living tells us that “I love the light display at the Port St Lucie Christmas House. It’s located in my former neighborhood in Tradition. Jim and Jerome have been decorating for the past 11 years, upping their game year after year. Because their home is such an attraction, they now offer tours of the home (in & out). The house is SO festive, that it was featured on last weeks “Great American Light Fight.” While THEY may not have won the big prize, The Boys & Girls Club of Port St Lucie and Dogs & Cats Forever (our local no-kill shelter) is reaping the rewards of the toy drive and raffle they are running this year.
My favorite light display is a neighborhood light display on Sooy Lane in Absecon. My family and I have been checking out this local New Jersey Christmas light display for years. It’s just not Christmas without it. The family’s over-the-top display of lights started in 2006 and has grown every year. It spans not only the front year, but also the entire house, the side yard and part of an adjacent forest. They don’t charge anything for visitors but do accept donations for the Greater Atlantic Cancer Fund. Once they turn the lights on December 1, it’s a nonstop stream of cars driving by nightly until the lights go off on January 1. It’s definitely a site to see.” Jennifer Auer Jersey Family Fun
We love our South Florida tradition of visiting the iconic Santa’s Enchanted Forest! It brings together a fabulous holiday light extravaganza that pairs up nicely with fun, rides, food and much more. It has been around for 36 years and started out as a family lighting a dark and isolated road by the highway! Great family fun that gets us festive and ready to go drive by neighbors with hunting for impressive light displays!” Taty Padrilla Cool Moms Cool Tips
What are YOUR light traditions?
One of the best baking competitions on TV returns with new host, Emma Bunton (Spice Girls), Anthony “Spice” Adams, veteran judge Paul Hollywood (“The Great British Bake Off”) and new judge, three-time James Beard Award-winning pastry chef Sherry Yard, when Season 4 of “The Great American Baking Show: Holiday Edition” premieres with slices of cake, and sweet and savory pastries, Thursday at 8|7c on ABC.
We have lots of traditions when it comes to Christmas baking but the top two are COOKIES! and my creme brulee. My mom is the leader with the cookies and I help with decorating and eating of course, I can’t make a cookie to save my life. My creme brulee is my staple dessert that everyone asks for. 
“My favorite holiday treat isn’t really based on a recipe. In fact, any sugar cookie recipe will do. It’s what I do with my sugar cookies at Christmastime that I love. I decorate them with chocolate. I stock up on those chocolate wafers in red, white, and green. Using special candy-making bottles I’ll squeeze out the melted chocolate onto the cookies. Red and white for stockings and Santa. I’ll use melted green chocolate for Christmas trees and other colors for the ornaments. It’s a tradition I started when I was younger before I even had kids. I would get frustrated that icing would smear and be hard to work with. I discovered that once set melted chocolate would harden. I could make and store as many cookies as I wanted without worrying about the design getting ruined. It was my light bulb moment and I’ve been making my Christmas cookies this way ever since.” Jennifer AuerJersey Family Fun
“Pandebonos (Colombian cheese bread) are the highlight of festivities and holidays alike at our home (and back home)There is nothing like a good, just baked, hot Pandebono. These cheesebreads are definitely a crowd pleaser! With the holidays upon us, will we be bringing up memories, and also teaching our kids our food culture traditions as we bond in the kitchen!” – Taty PadrillaCool Moms Cool Tips
Zippy shares that while most people think of latkes and dreidels for Chanukah, we mark the festival of lights in our home with an even MORE traditional treat – DONUTS! Because Chanukah marks the reclaiming of the Temple and the miracle of the oil lasting 8 days to keep the lamp lit, fried foods are the traditional foods, and Sufganiyot (jelly filled donuts) are our family’s favorites.
What are your baking traditions?
