Kolleen Gladden ‘21
Photographer
Ah, holiday traditions. We all have them; at least, that’s what those who have them seem to believe. For me, seasonal traditions can be chalked up to “things I didn’t realize weren’t only from movies until I saw them in real life” (a truly lengthy and admittedly bizarre list). I’ll never forget visiting another family on Christmas and being utterly baffled by how coordinated the entire event was. There was a communal breakfast, stocking time, present time, obligatory nondescript dialogue on gratefulness, and the entire rest of the of the day was dedicated to “family time,” which apparently just means that you can’t leave the house or use electronics. After several more years of being an adult and witnessing multiple versions of these traditions, I began to think about my own family and our take on the festive season. So, here you have it, the Gladden holiday traditions:
First thing to note about the Gladden holidays; we don’t operate on a timeline. Nothing has to be done on a certain day. Dedicating time for three people to celebrate together is difficult (forget about gathering up the other scattered members of the brood, that’s well near impossible), and we’re not too concerned about it either. We’ve celebrated Christmas in March, Thanksgiving in June, and we usually have some combined day dedicated to all of our birthdays in August. We’ll get there when we get there. As for the actual holidays themselves…
Thanksgiving: For starters, we don’t actually celebrate Thanksgiving. For context, many moons ago, my dad proposed to my mom after their third date (they are, by all definitions, highly efficient people). Neither of them could afford to take off of work, so they eloped on Thanksgiving Day. They don’t remember the specific day and they’ve never cared enough to calculate, so we celebrate their anniversary on Thanksgiving, unless, of course, we’re busy. When the time does come, we pack up the car and drive to Branson, Missouri, or as the locals refer to it, “the Evangelical Las Vegas.” Branson has many things, but perhaps its best feature is Silver Dollar City, an 1800s themed park. A season pass costs less than 75 cents a day, and Thanksgiving Day is the prime time to go. Nothing quite says “happy anniversary” like no line for the wooden Outlaw Run roller coaster.
Kolleen Gladden ‘21 says of this picture: “This is my fam bam, look at ‘em.”
Christmas: Christmas is a fun one. Our celebration plan is simple. We read the Christmas story from the gospel of Luke, go on a ten-mile run together, and then go to IHOP (a particularly fun rarity, as my family almost never eats out). Sometimes we do gifts, and by that, I mean my father does gifts. His strategy is to box up items that my mother and I have either misplaced or forgotten about throughout the year and present them to us with glee. “You always get something you wanted at some point,” he once explained. Over the years, I have been reminded of the existence of many hoodies, hats, and scarves, but my favorite gift came in December 2018. On Christmas Day, I opened a tenderly wrapped box to reveal a blanket bearing a smiling picture of me and my first serious (ex)boyfriend, a gift that same boy had presented to me years ago. “How did you even find this?!”
“I bet you’d forgotten all about that blanket!” my dad beamed with pride. He wasn’t wrong.
Days later, things again took a turn as I was relaying this story to my second serious ex (who had, for context, known my first boyfriend), who I’d ended things with several months prior. His eyes widened with interest. “Obviously, you don’t want the blanket, right? Can I have it??” I’m not sure what should concern me more—that he quite seriously wanted this blanket, or that the request didn’t surprise me in the slightest. Either way, if you see a bearded man strolling through Oklahoma City proudly wearing a blanket with my face on it, mind your business.
Anna Bobrow ’20
Guest Writer
My immediate family and I are practicing Jews, but my mom’s extended family is Christian. Every year, my holidays are filled with celebration and family time from both the Jewish and Christian traditions.
Growing up, we (my mom, dad, and identical twin brothers) would celebrate Hanukkah at our home in Charlotte, NC, by lighting the Menorah, eating homemade latkes cooked on an electric fryer on the back porch, and exchanging small gifts each night. At our peak, we lit twelve Menorahs at once (definitely a fire hazard). On Christmas Eve, we would either attend a traditional Christmas dinner with a mix of Jews and non-Jews that was hosted by a Rabbi friend, or we would go out for Chinese food and a movie, a tradition of many American Jews. On Christmas Day, we would pile into our minivan, play Christmas CDs, and drive from Charlotte to Northern Virginia to see my mom’s family. I am one of six cousins on my mom’s side, including Christian Knoble (UVA Law ’20), and we all were born within 2.5 years of each other. By virtue of being close in age and good friends, the cousins would always get up to some sort of adventure or trouble over the holidays. We would open gifts under the tree and enjoy a Christmas meal of roast beef and turkey cooked by my aunt (Christian’s mom).
As our family changes, so too do our traditions. Yet, family time has remained constant. My immediate family has started dialing into a conference call line so we can recite the Menorah blessings together each night, even when we are not physically together. We are often joined by Jewish relatives from my Dad’s family. Instead of driving up on Christmas Day, we usually arrive in Northern Virginia before the Christmas holiday, where we help my grandparents decorate their Christmas tree with decorations from my mom’s childhood and eat Christmas Eve dinner in their apartment. When Hanukah coincides with Christmas, we light the Menorah with my grandparents and bring latkes. Side note: cranberry sauce and latkes is a winning combo. We still look forward to a big Christmas Day celebration at my aunt and uncle’s house, although our traditional meal is now enchiladas.
Being part of an interfaith family has taught me not only about differences in belief and practice, but also about the common values that bind us. From my experience, holiday traditions serve an important role in strengthening ties with family and friends. I consider myself lucky to have ties to two religious traditions that bring us together each year.
Meg McKinley ’21
Guest Writer
Every Christmas Eve, my family gathers around the table to eat the same meal we’ve shared for years—a Panda Feast from Panda Express. After crying together over the hot peppers and false hope in our fortune cookies, we move to the living room to open our first presents of the holiday. Every year, mom gets us all pajamas in the spirit of The Santa Clause(minus the monogram) and new Christmas ornaments. Mine tend to be law themed, e.g., a ceramic orb with a charming Christmas dinner scene that declares “Law School: the weak are killed and eaten.”
On Christmas morning, we’re all up at the crack of dawn to glare at Dad as he slowly reads the longest version of the nativity story in the gospel of Luke. At long last, the family opens presents and shares a breakfast of monkey brains (bread & molasses). Later in the day, we’ll watch a couple of TNT’s 24 hours of A Christmas Storywhile snacking on the graham cracker “ginger bread” houses we built around old cartons earlier in the month.
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