To truly understand a family, don’t just look at their photo album; observe what comes out of their oven during the holiday season. You’ll learn everything you need to know. Food tells the truth. Holiday dishes and meals hold culture, identity, inside jokes, the occasional disaster, and at least one relative who insists their recipe is the best because it is simply tradition.
Take Director of Dining Services Matt Burek, who could basically teach a masterclass in nostalgia. His family’s famous French Canadian roux stuffing is treated like an heirloom, carefully protected and passed down through generations. “[For] this recipe, the ‘roux,’ there are only two people in my lifetime who knew how to make it,” he said. The roux is slow-cooked for hours until it’s soft and creamy, and to this day, whenever he visits relatives, he goes home with a whole container of this edible heritage.
Another one of Burek’s favorite family recipes is his mother-in-law’s blueberry bread, brought over from Ireland in 1911 and made for Burek on his birthday, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. This recipe, too, requires special techniques. “You have to flour the blueberries so they don’t get mushy,” he said. And that’s not even the oldest recipe he looks forward to. His family’s banana bread tradition dates back over 100 years. His wife makes it whenever the bananas start to overripen, and especially when a snowstorm is on the way. While he’s out clearing the grounds, she puts a pan in the oven so that when he comes back inside, there is a fresh, warm square waiting from the nine-by-nine pan she always uses. This tradition has become one of his favorite comforts of winter.
For Lila Southiere (Class I), the holiday season reminds her of lasagna. “Every year we have lasagna. It’s really basic, but it’s my grandfather’s favorite,” she said. After Christmas Eve mass, her family heads home to prepare dinner that’s as essential as the tree itself. Christmas morning in her house is a full-scale cooking event; her mom bakes, her dad makes what Southeire says is “the best Canadian bacon,” and the whole family leans into the comfort of routine. But even she knows traditions sometimes need to adapt. “Doing the same thing each year is comforting. But I don’t think traditions should be resistant to change,” she said.
The holidays don’t just bring food for Rachel Train (Class II); they bring fusion. “My family celebrates both Hanukkah and Christmas because half my family is Jewish and half is Christian,” she said. The one constant across both holidays? Her dad’s cookies. “He’s been using this recipe my whole life. He experiments with different styles every year,” she said. Train’s father has passed on the cookie recipe to her, meaning the cookie empire will survive another generation.
Train also said that holiday sentimentality hits her fast. “The cold weather instantly gives me nostalgia. Any Christmas movie makes it feel like the holidays,” she said. More importantly, she has come to appreciate the deeper value of her family traditions as she has grown older. “I didn’t realize the holidays were one of the few times I’d see my whole family together,” she said.
For Faris Dawes (Class II), holiday mornings are remembered by his grandmother’s pancakes, towering stacks layered with apples, strawberries, raspberries, and whatever other fruit is available. “She serves them on a fancy platter, and they’re so good,” he said.
And then there’s Christian Weller (Class II), whose holidays can best be described as energetic. His family’s signature pumpkin pie recipe was developed by his dad by combining older family recipes. “My dad pulled together a couple of family recipes, he worked with his parents to mix them and make something of their own, and now he’s passed it down to me,” he said. Their holidays are lively, but in the best way. “Everyone’s running around, getting the turkey out, grabbing something from the oven, but we bond through that shared craziness,” he said. Weller even has a legendary cake story: his sister once tripped and entirely destroyed a holiday cake, which later became so iconic that it was the cover of his family’s yearbook for that year. If that isn’t peak family tradition, what is?
When you put all these stories together, one thing becomes clear: holiday food is memory, it’s identity, it’s chaos and comfort and connection rolled into one.
As Weller said, “It’s less about the specific tradition and more about being together.” And really, that’s the recipe everyone returns to year after year.
