seasons greetings everyone i'm joanna jewell is senior multimedia journalist for the belmont citizen herald and wicked local belmont and you're watching belmont's newest talk show belmont buzz i'm your host and today i actually have a very special co host with me she's a dear friend and pretty well known around belmont nancy satirists nancy serves on the board of the belmont media center she's very active with the belmont woman's club and she's also active with the taxi arky greek orthodox church in watertown and i'm sure this countless other things that she could tell you about herself but today we're actually going to talk about holiday traditions and this is actually nancy's idea and i want to thank you for that i definitely the latest buzz in belmont is holiday traditions as we're in the heart of the holiday season we just wrapped up hanukkah and heading toward christmas and a joyous new year ahead we hope and pray so i mean i thank you for having me today i  have you on on a regular basis i think you'd be a great co host thank you it'll be fun i would love to do it i enjoy the media center i think we should as belmont residents be really proud of the tremendous growth the media centers had and our executive director jeff hanson has done so much with the f c c and all of these other things that are needed we cannot lose community t v you know this to me is the heart of our town i remember true watching the kids when they were in high school sports etc so we need to protect our community channel so this is  all of a show that we're going to talk about i think today we're going to talk about holly if you didn't so nancy tell me what's your favorite holiday tradition i'm sure you have more than one but let's let's just give me your favorite one of my favorites is i had my mom's mother cooked cookies you know baked cookies every year and she baked thousands of cookies and gave the way to all of our family members and my mom's not a huge fan of baking loves to cook but not bake and so i really got involved with that as a young young girl and trying to help my grandmother my grandmother was old school and she was a little difficult and she kind of raised her voice quite a bit frankly she yelled if you drop something made a mess or whatever so my goal every year was to learn a little bit more about baking and to be yelled at a little bit less that's one of my favorite what do you like to bake i bake cookies big old fashioned star cookies a sugar cookies that you decorate that sounds good and of course for all of us who are trying to keep healthy top of mind i bake these really neat fruit cookies which people really like and so i enjoy the time to bake it takes hours and hours but it's worth it it's worth every minute of it and i think it's kind of sad to say a little bit of we are in a bookstore and people are shopping so you'll be seeing people walking by that's just part of the excitement in belmont center where we are on site here at belmont books i want to thank the owners kathleen crowley and kris for having us here today and we really really appreciate it belmont books and belmont center we were without a bookstore for so many years and it's so great to have it back and they have the black berry cafe this is just happened in spot in belmont through hours the diversity in the books or it's phenomenal the comedy and history and all kinds of great things and if you haven't done your christmas shopping yet or even you haven't hanukkah gift or two that's due this is the place to visit well i'm going to bring up actually since we're talking about books it was a favorite holiday tradition but i am sad to say that now that my kids are older it's not a tradition anymore but i used to read to them twas the night before christmas every every night before on christmas eve that was the last thing we did before they went to bed and they would beg me one tradition that in my family that i have to say has kept going ever since i was a little girl my grandfather would dress up as santa and give us all our presents then my father took that over after he passed away and he and he became a grandfather and he was giving out all the presents to all the grandchildren my children my sister and brothers children and now that my father has passed my brother has taken over the just wonderful so that's sort of a christmas day tradition where  the house dresses up as santa and gives out the presence of really make sure you give him my address too because no one leaves any presents for us once you get older and you have children grandchildren people kind of don't give you any gifts anymore maybe a gift card or whatever but send them over to my place i'd love to have a surprise santa visit i bet i bet a lot of people in belmont have holiday traditions that you know they may want to share with us you want to go around and we find out find out lots of great information today  my name's marriage do you live in belmont yes can you tell me what your favorite holiday tradition is well my favorite holiday tradition is me and my family we do a yankee swap every christmas  day and we all get together and it's a nice time i really like that idea do people do like gag gifts i know we do all different kinds of get it's mostly just something that like everyone would like so that no one gets sad if they don't have something they enjoy and i really like that idea that's great to did you get yank you swap gift you know i haven't got mine yet i need do that what's your name i'm honna do you live in though i do you go to topic here what is your favorite holiday tradition in our stockings we always get an orange at the bottom and so every we always like eat them after we finish opening presents and it's really just like a sweet way and the present i mean i guess who started that tradition in your family i believe my mom i brought it from her family when she grew up so i'm not really sure but it's been around a while do you think you'll continue that when you have a family of your own yeah i think it's really sweet and i don't know i like oranges a lot hi i'm nancy sarah's with the media center how are you good and what is your name i'm kristen and what do you do here at the bookstore kristen i sell lots of books and other things it's a great job yeah today i'd like to know what your favorite holiday tradition is that's a topic for the buzz this week and i'd love to know honestly we don't we don't really celebrate christmas but you've got those families for like we celebrate christmas for the kids right we do we sell because it's for our dogs so we put together stockings warm and things like that and it's a lot of fun and that's what we do for christmas we don't do a whole  lot i think that's great i'm a real dog lover so i would love to be part of that i think it's a wonderful idea i think of my dog as part of the family and i think you're doing a great thing i love your tradition so we don't want to interrupt your conversation but we thought you looked like two really great fun that know all about celebrating and enjoying themselves so the day for grandmothers yes that was my grandmother's day and i just keep doing it you know give it away to everybody i do but i mostly you know bring it to family events different we have a bunch that we go to so that is van tast i'm sure people be really upset if you did not hold that tradition yeah it's a requirement right that's so great thank you for talking with us today hi my name is laura hi laura and tell me what your favorite holiday tradition as i really love christmas eve because i just love the anticipation of that event so we always go to our churches christmas pageant and then come home and at christmas eve dinner and i make everyone go to bed early as much as i handed it the tree ready so let's get the tree ready and santa claus is visit that's wonderful it is so great isn't it i hope santa magic happens for me to the share yeah absolutely so we're asking people today what their favorite traditions are so tell me what's your st name yes mary and mary what's your favorite tradition for the holiday season i love to just duplicate what my mom does in terms of recipes and making sure that i carry on that tradition with the fishes as the old italian tradition goes so that's my favorite for christmas eve that is that is beyond housework seven fishes right ok the lobster she does the the big stuff lobster the big stuff shrimp sometimes will do the smelts but she did him all back in the day that is great and now how many people would you have on new year on christmas eve rather i'm probably going to have close to ten maybe twelve but i have the crew coming over my brother is kids my kids my in laws is great that's a wonderful tradition and i'm sure everyone looks forward to that joanna do you think we can get or squeeze into more seats well i want to i want to ask what do you do christmas day christmas day is a little bit more low key sometimes we'll do a brunch and then we'll have dinner later in the day but the kids are opening up the gifts and relaxing and just enjoying the holiday family and friends i think i'm hearing more and more people like to do the christmas eve and then have that day to enjoy a special you have younger children there opening up the gifts and you having breakfast and it's kind of a and i state it relax you know so give us your weather prediction what do you think is going to happen let it snow when it's now one of my kids doesn't believe in santa anymore he's like mom if there's santa it's going to snow christmas eve i'm like yes absolutely you know absolutely we're praying for that if we're going to be your new england might have a little white christmas it's going to happen let's just hope yeah yeah well you were really sweet mary thank you so much for sharing that with us and i want to think about you christmas eve and that's in my family used to do to what i was a kid so that's great come on over of the belmont bookstore opening was huge i hope so but we've gotten so much enthusiasm from the from the community it just feels like it's the interest in the story is growing and growing and the ca full almost every day so it's very nice if you want to tell us what your favorite holiday tradition is well our family waits the last minute to get the tree and we need a big tree which means that we go and everybody sold out of the big trees so we drive all over eastern massachusetts looking for somebody who has a big tree left over and we always find one but it's takes a while like around when when do you get it usually usually the week before  late but late enough why are you so late well usually because we're waiting for the kids to come home from college and then how long do you keep it up after christmas new year's day it goes out on the lawn y pretty short letter yeah they don't usually last longer than that it because after the rd day we forget to water them and you know have to deal with the pine needles everywhere right but actually i had a christmas tree catch fire when i was younger so i'm always sensitive to for us to be involved in the community rather than just sort of sitting here waiting for customers to come in and we've also got a lot of the schools that have partners with us for various events or to just bring books into the students so it's been nice i'm got my own a lot of gift ideas here today oh good i'm glad you're here i hope is that this gets broadcast quickly and joanna isn't kidding there are puzzles note cards beautiful beautiful things missing from free advertisement chris well it's well deserved you've really brought back life to the community where we are avid readers here in belmont so we really are excited about what you've done so thank you chris and please thank kathy for us as well maybe we can do this on a regular basis belmont buzz a belmont books sure sounds nice  be here for another week can you tell me what your favorite holiday tradition is well being polish we have one of my favorites it is for christmas eve we call it and we do  just we don't have any meat but it's mainly just meat dishes and they are just all kinds of wonderful dishes with mushrooms and just and different kinds of fish so very good they break off a piece you break off a piece in then you greet each other and give each other best wishes for the next year i love that that's really nice thank you so much for sharing that do you hope that your children and their children will continue to pass on these traditions yes so far they have tell me your favorite holiday tradition ok christmas eve my family always makes the seven fish italian dinner not exactly seven courses but seven fish fish and it's a lot seven has a lot that's aggressive but i think you're right the other young lady we interviewed to say she was italian and she does about four hours well yeah yeah it's all the bully a basis cheating but you still do it you could say that was a few extra kind of fish like they all are quite well alec it's a pleasure and thank you for working here about my books is a great place to work every single person here has been extremely nice it's a wonderful atmosphere so thank you for talking with me today alec merry christmas hi so tell me your name brand for am blumstein tell me what's your favorite holiday tradition oh actually i like thanksgiving dinner a lot that's my favorite it's warm it's family and it's a religious and we don't have arguments on life everybody else is supposed to as a matter of fact we all agree it's the last few years not to talk politics most of us are in agreement but it can still we can get worked up work ourselves up so whenever somebody starts to talk politics somebody else will jump in and say that's enough let's move on time to grab another drink or desert or something wri e them red sox you know so it's a fun time that is great brant thank you so much it's a holiday and i think you're right it holidays can be tense let's face it you sometimes are the people you see all the time other times you're with people you don't see all the time and then there's always the in laws why do they call them in laws by the way of us think about that should they be called outlaws outlaws they want to lock them up and maybe you know not a bad thing but i guess it's not constitutional  i think you're right let's be nice it's beautiful season thank you for talking to us today brand thank you my name is tell the i am the star manager here about my books how's it going it's very busy which is great well thanks for taking some time to talk to us this is a special edition of belmont buzz and belmont bucks and we're interviewing people about holiday traditions so i'd like to ask you what is your favorite dish my favorite holiday tradition is making a lot because with my family and celebrating hanukkah as well as that given that we do christmas both that's great how did you learn to make it from my mom had just a family recipe and it's delicious how do you make it that's a secret or it's a secret mostly you just need potatoes and the ends and add and some flour and a lot of saffron wh they hard to make now pretty easy song as you know i'm great in a lot of potatoes but you can always fit processor this tradition was passed on from hope from my mom's family for as long as how far back do you think  probably since my grandparents came over from hungary at probably about fifty years ago do you plan to pass this on to your family definitely why do you think that's important i think that food is thing that brings a lot of people to gather this year we made them with our friends who have added highbrow and it's a good way to start discussions about pain and enjoy the holidays together i couldn't agree more thank you for sharing that you know joanna i was thinking today listening to all of the holiday traditions that people shared with us i heard a lot of learned from my mom learned it from my grandmother i think often times as moms ok we don't like our kids are really paying attention so true ok yeah they're discounting not listening they think they have all the answers at a very young age and what really resonates with me today and made me feel great was that they do listen they do care about the family traditions and no matter how contemporary the world becomes and how busy we are it's important that we never forget our roots and i couldn't agree more and we've the key word you just said was was busy busy not an excuse not to carry on some important family tradition i think it's just nice and everyone talked about bringing the family together and their friends and i think to me that's the essence of christmas also seems to me that the theme is food i can't dismiss what i heard today and i think it's so nice to see a lot of the young people really follow the family traditions it's wonderful i couldn't agree more thanks again everyone for turning into this very special episode of belmont buzz this holiday