Christmas Lights and Yummy Treats! Holiday Traditions

Holiday lights on your mind? Do you have a favorite light display you visit every year? How about a delicious edible must eat for the season?  Well today we will talk about Christmas Lights and Yummy Treats plus these holiday traditions featured on ABC with Carter Oosterhouse from The Great Christmas Light Fight and  Sherry Yard baker host of The Great American Baking Show: Holiday Edition.

Thank you Disney for your invite to the Mary Poppins Returns event which included a stop to ABC to talk about #25DaysofChristmasEvent.  All opinions shares are 100% my own

Christmas Lights and Yummy Treats! Holiday Traditions To Enjoy on ABC

For the 25 Days of Christmas Event at ABC not only did we talk to the hosts of Pop Up Santa and Disney Fairy Tale Weddings, but we also talked lights and bakings with Carter Oosterhouse and Sherry Yard from The Great Christmas Light Fight and The Great American Baking Show: Holiday Edition.  It was so much fun to learn about them, their jobs and shows!

Our Must-See Holiday Lights List -Christmas Lights

My biggest fight is with the tree lights.  It always becomes a mission to put them up.  But once they are up, I sometimes feel like the tree needs nothing more! While I don’t plan and create masterpieces in my front lawn with holiday lights, The Great American Light Fight finds amazing displays for us.   “The Great Christmas Light Fight”, on The ABC Television Network, and now streaming on demand. Produced by Fremantle, the immensely popular series features returning celebrity judges Carter Oosterhouse and Taniya Nayak. Don’t forget to watch them again on demand! Inspired by The Great American Light Fight I set out with a few of my friends to share with you some of our favorite lights this time of year. So if you are in our neighborhood be sure to visit:

New Jersey

My friend Jennifer over at New Jersey tells us a bit about her favorite light display: “My favorite light display is a neighborhood light display on Sooy Lane in Absecon. My family and I have been checking out this local New Jersey Christmas light display for years. It’s just not Christmas without it. The family’s over-the-top display of lights started in 2006 and has grown every year. It spans not only the front year but also the entire house, the side yard and part of an adjacent forest. They don’t charge anything for visitors but do accept donations for the Greater Atlantic Cancer Fund. Once they turn the lights on December 1, it’s a nonstop stream of cars driving by nightly until the lights go off on January 1. It’s definitely a sight to see.

Port St. Lucie, Florida

Zippy from Champagne Living tells us that “I love the light display at the Port St Lucie Christmas House. It’s located in my former neighborhood in Tradition. Jim and Jerome have been decorating for the past 11 years, upping their game year after year. Because their home is such an attraction, they now offer tours of the home (in & out). The house is SO festive, that it was featured in last week’s “Great American Light Fight.” While THEY may not have won the big prize, The Boys & Girls Club of Port St Lucie and Dogs & Cats Forever (our local no-kill shelter) is reaping the rewards of the toy drive and raffle they are running this year.”.

Miami, Florida

We love our South Florida tradition of visiting the iconic Santa’s Enchanted Forest! It brings together a fabulous holiday light extravaganza that pairs up nicely with fun, rides, food, and much more. It has been around for 36 years and started out as a family lighting a dark and isolated road by the highway! Great family fun that gets us festive and ready to go drive by neighbors with hunting for impressive light displays!

Connecticut

This is Rachel from Tools 2 Tiaras does for her lights tradition: “Our tradition is taking the grandkids out for dinner then grabbing hot chocolate to go, and head to Hubbard Park to drive through the amazing light display of animals. They even have a place to park so you can walk around the park, over the small bridges, and they have a small house to peek in the windows and see what the elves are up to!”

Holiday Yummy Treats

I can’t tell you what a pleasure it was to meet the fantastic three-time James Beard Award winner, the amazing pastry chef Sherry Yard!  She brought us specialty chocolates and shared the joy of baking with us.  Want to see her in action? Don’t miss The Great American Baking Show: Holiday Edition on Thursdays at 8 pm ET on ABC!  

Sweet and Savory Holiday Favorites

Apple Struddle is what Sherry Yard could live off for the rest of her life!  We could not wait to share with you some of our favorite sweet and savory holidays must eat snacks and treats:

Zippy shares that while most people think of latkes and dreidels for Chanukah, we mark the festival of lights in our home with an even MORE traditional treat – DONUTS! Because Chanukah marks the reclaiming of the Temple and the miracle of the oil lasting 8 days to keep the lamp lit, fried foods are the traditional foods, and Sufganiyot (jelly filled donuts) are our family’s favorites. 

Jennifer at Jersey Family Fun says: “My favorite holiday treat isn’t really based on a recipe. In fact, any sugar cookie recipe will do. It’s what I do with my sugar cookies at Christmastime that I love. I decorate them with chocolate. I stock up on those chocolate wafers in red, white, and green. Using special candy-making bottles I’ll squeeze out the melted chocolate onto the cookies. Red and white for stockings and Santa. I’ll use melted green chocolate for Christmas trees and other colors for the ornaments. It’s a tradition I started when I was younger before I even had kids. I would get frustrated that icing would smear and be hard to work with. I discovered that once set melted chocolate would harden. I could make and store as many cookies as I wanted without worrying about the design getting ruined. It was my light bulb moment and I’ve been making my Christmas cookies this way ever since.”

Pandebonos:

Pandebonos (Colombian cheese bread) are the highlight of festivities and holidays alike at our home (and back home)There is nothing like a good, just baked, hot Pandebono. These cheese breads are definitely a crowd pleaser! With the holidays upon us, will we be bringing up memories, and also teaching our kids our food culture traditions as we bond in the kitchen!

Creme Brulee

“I’m not a baker so I help my mom when she makes cookies. I get to decorate and eat them. I do have a staple dessert that my guests always expect- that’s my creme brulee.“.  

Holiday Traditions

In addition to baking, decorating, and hunting for cool light displays, we love watching 25 Days of Christmas on ABC!  What are some of your favorite holiday traditions?

 

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