The holiday season is here!
While we’re getting ready for the holidays at our workshop, our families and clients are getting prepared as well. They’re hanging up mistletoe, putting presents underneath the tree, and displaying their holiday décor – including antique silver of course.
What really makes the holidays special though, are family traditions.
We asked a couple of our customers and our team — including Martin and Rick — to share their family traditions with us. Perhaps there’s an idea here to stoke something new in your family! Please share your traditions with us, so we can be inspired as well!
Here’s what they said:
Ennis O., our client we helped to create a silver kippah, says:
“For the holidays, we celebrate both Hanukkah and Christmas. For Hanukkah, Ken (my husband) makes latkes using his grandmother’s 75-year-old grater so they come out just right. For Christmas, I like to bake with apples. I usually make spiced apple coffee cake with cardamom. This year I’ve been practicing a new Brandied Apple tart with three different apples, which has been delicious.
We also recently had a locksmith open an old trunk that hadn’t been opened in over a decade. Inside we found a number of silver serving dishes from Ken’s grandparents! We’re looking forward to polishing them up and using them this holiday!”
Doctor Leichtling, the owner of the Victorian whose chandeliers we restored, tells us:
“We do love getting the family together for meals and mirth in the beautiful home we all grew up in.”
Another one of our clients, Sandy K., describes her family’s Christmas Day:
“When the kids were younger, we would buy a new season of Friends every Christmas. We then spent the whole day in our pajamas watching the entire thing! We, of course, watched all the seasons of Friends and are still on the hunt for a new series to replace it.”
Gerardo, our team member here at Biro and Sons, reflects on Christmas in his home country of Ecuador:
“Christmas in Riobamba, Ecuador is celebrated with traditional parades throughout the month of December. Adults and kids dress up with different costumes and dance during the parade. Once the parade is over, candy bags are gifted to the parade participants. Christmas Eve is spent with family where a delicious meal with turkey is cooked among all the family and presents are opened at midnight.”
Rick Biro and his family have a tradition around getting their Christmas tree, Rick says:
“One of our family traditions for the last 28 years has been to go up into the Foothills and cut down our own Christmas tree. Often, we don’t always agree on the same tree size or shape for that matter. Here are some pictures that Illustrate such differences of opinions:”
Both Rick and Martin’s family celebrate Christmas Eve together. This is how Martin describes it:
“One of the things our family does is get together on Christmas Eve. It’s more of a European gathering. We have a fancy dinner, pull out the silver, everyone dresses up, and we have a nice meal. My mom started making cioppino and that became one of the main traditional feasts that we enjoy.”
We hope your family has a fantastic holiday and starts holiday traditions you will hold dear for decades. We know very well how tradition brings us together.