Cookie recipes and tree farm adventures: our team shares favorite holiday traditions

Happy holidays from the Pierce PR team! In the spirit of the season, we’ve asked our team members to share a few of their holiday traditions. Read on to see a few of the fun ways we’ll be celebrating, and let us know what traditions you look forward to this year. 

On behalf of our entire team, we wish you a holiday season filled with abundance and a year of joy and light ahead. 

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Sarah Mickle, Director of Operations

Every year my family would get a real Christmas tree, and while picking it out was lots of fun, the real magic began the next night when we would decorate it. It would start with hot cocoa and my dad playing “The Christmas Song” performed by Nat King Cole. Then my mom would hand out ornaments to us one at a time, letting us pick their placement on the tree (such a cool freedom as a kid). It was always fun to remember stories associated with various ornaments. But most of all, I remember those nights being filled with peace resulting from the removal of any distractions and also the thrilling anticipation of Christmas.

I’ve since kept this tradition with my own family – Christmas can’t start until Nat King Cole says so – and I’m looking forward to involving my son for the first time this year. It would be neat if he decides to carry on this tradition as well.

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Bri Carlesimo, Senior Account Manager 

Growing up in an Italian family, cooking and baking has always been a staple in our household. I’ve been by my mom’s side since she got me my first Easy Bake Oven, and everything I’ve learned has come from her and my grandmothers.

Every holiday season, we have a special sugar cookie recipe that is saved specifically for Christmas cookies. As kids, my siblings and I would pick out our favorite cookie cutters and help decorate the final products with icing and sprinkles. 

Now as adults, we continue to plan a weekend afternoon with my mom where we blast Christmas music and make a ton of holiday cookies, including the sugar cookies. It’s one of my favorite parts about the holidays, and I plan to continue this tradition for years to come! 

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Carson Brown, Account Coordinator

My absolute favorite tradition during the holidays was the Christmas countdown. When I was little, and now shamelessly as a full grown adult, my Grandma would wrap 25 small presents for me, each labeled with the day they were to be opened starting on December 1 and ending on Christmas Day. They were placed under my own 3 foot tall Disney-themed Christmas tree and were meant to be useful or silly gifts. They would range from a giant bag of peppermint patties to new pens or toothpaste. But the most anticipated presents were always the first three and the final present.

The first three were always homemade sugar, peanut butter, and ginger snap cookies she baked and placed in holiday tins. The 25th present, and ritually the first gift to be opened Christmas morning, was typically a brand new Lenox ornament. While we don’t do the full countdown since she passed, my parents have continued my Lenox collection and my mother and I spend a full day every year baking the traditional cookies. This is a tradition that I can’t wait for my own children to experience one day.

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Julia Bonner, President

I have always loved decorating the tree because of the memories we get to relive from places we’ve visited. When we go on vacation throughout the year, we make a point to purchase an ornament connected to the destination or an activity from the trip. By the time we decorate the tree in December, we are reminded of fun memories throughout the year (and previous years) and reminisce. I’ve continued to carry this tradition forward and still buy ornaments from my travels.  One of my favorites is a green glass tortoise I bought in Hawaii after a snorkeling excursion during which we swam with sea turtles. It has been a great way to reflect on unforgettable moments and remember all the reasons for which we have to be grateful. 

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Kara Weller, Communications Specialist

My favorite childhood tradition was gathering with my extended family at my Nana and Papa’s house on Christmas day, playing endless games of hide-and-seek with my cousins, and sitting around the fire with all my loved ones. Now, although much has changed and our family get-togethers look different, my family’s staple holiday recipes remain unshaken. The recipes include my grandfather’s holiday mix (think homemade Chex-Mix), my grandmother’s macadamia nut snowball cookies, and my aunt’s chocolate wafer and cream cookies. I appreciate that the recipes transcend time to help keep my childhood holiday memories alive while I create new memories as an adult. When shared with the people you love, food means so much more.

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Blair Poirier, Account Coordinator

My favorite holiday tradition is picking out our family Christmas tree, and the quest always begins the Sunday after Thanksgiving. After spending turkey day on the North Carolina coast, my family of six piles in our car feeling rather stuffed but excited to officially kick off the Christmas season. 

On our way into town, we head to our favorite local tree farm. As kids, the sweet Burleson family always greeted us with a candy cane, hot cocoa and tips on where we could find the best trees on the property. With three younger brothers, it was always a competition on who could find the prettiest, freshest and tallest tree for our home. I’ll never forget hearing “this is the one!” every thirty seconds, anxiously awaiting my parents’ final decision and the 50/50 chance of our perfect evergreen tree falling off our Suburban on our way home. 

While we’ve phased out of our friendly competitions, I can’t imagine a Christmas without a trip to Burleson’s Tree Farm. Picking out our tree will always remind me of family and I’m excited to carry on for years to come.