Food is the source of life as well as happiness. So during this season of joy, delicious food is what raises our spirits the most.
Senior Mia Rasmussen is passionate about “Tootsie roll lollipops that are peppermint.” She also likes “peppermint tea … it’s only available at Christmas time,” she says. “Sometimes, when we have candy canes, I’ll put one in [the tea], and then melt [the candy cane] in it.”
However, not everyone is fond of mint. Freshman Alice Pulsinelli does not like candy canes, commenting that “they burn my mouth. I just feel like [the mint] needs to be a little less minty [and] a little diluted in candy canes.”
Cookies are another beloved Christmas treat. Pulsinelli likes to “make cream cheese cookies with my mom, and we also make gingerbread cookies. And my grandma and I, we make Lucia buns for Christmas.”
Likewise, seventh grader Bailey Sparks thinks the cookies are “fun to decorate,” and she makes “snowmen and gingerbread men.”
Gingerbread is a key element of eighth grader Chelsea Walden’s favorite Christmas tradition: “Every year I make gingerbread houses [for] a competition. I’m not bragging but I usually win.”
Sophomore Owen Koederitz shares that “One of [his] favorite Christmas desserts is king cake.” His family will also “get Vietnamese food … because my mom’s family is related to that side. So that’s just a nice cultural thing we do.”
In terms of beverages, hot chocolate is a classic. Sparks shares her experience with hot chocolate, recalling, “When I was in New York, there was a little stand … and their hot chocolate was really good.”
Pulsinelli says, “We always have Martinelli’s sparkling cider. So we have it for our Christmas dinner, and that is the best drink, because it tastes so wonderfully apple-y.”
But eggnog is disliked by many people. Rasmussen comments, “I think eggnog is really gross. I don’t know what it is, and it scares me and it smells.”
For Rasmussen, Christmas foods are “a fun celebration of the season, and it gives you a feeling of nostalgia when you have a candy cane … It’s really nice.”
Similarly, Pulsinelli says, “A lot of [why] Christmas foods are important to Christmas is when you get to make them with family and friends. So I really like to make different foods with different members of my family, which is cool, because I associate what I eat for Christmas to the message of Christmas and being with family.”
