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Holiday Survey

from Baby Born

The holidays bring out different memories for different people, and our authors and illustrators are no exception. Every year we ask our newest authors and illustrators one simple question. Their responses depict a time deeply rooted in tradition, thankfulness, and most of all, family.

Happy holidays and a peaceful new year.

How do you celebrate the holidays and what do they mean to you?
Doug Chayka photo Doug Chayka
When I was a boy, my favorite thing about celebrating Christmas, apart from the excitement of getting and giving presents, was sleeping under the Christmas tree. It was always so cozy under the branches! My twin brother, Jim, and I fell asleep under the tree every night for about a week in anticipation of Christmas morning. Our parents always took us back to bed eventually. We even did it on Christmas Eve. I guess we thought we could catch Santa, but it never worked.

This year, I’ll be spending Thanksgiving back in my hometown, Weedsport, New York, with my wife, my brother, my sister, and my parents, and hopefully other extended family members. I can’t wait to be with everyone, laugh, eat a lot of turkey, and fall asleep in a chair sometime in the afternoon. It seems my favorite things about the holidays are family, eating, and sleeping.
–Doug Chayka is the illustrator of Yasmin's Hammer
Lambert Davis photo Lambert Davis
For me, the Holiday Season is for spending time with family and friends. Since I live on the east coast of Australia, in the southern hemisphere, it is mid-summer, so my family and I spend lots of days at the beach and go to pool parties as well as barbecues.
–Lambert Davis is the illustrator of Seaside Dream
Janet Costa Bates photo Janet Costa Bates
Christmas is special, always centered around family and food, but one distinct tradition actually happens on New Year’s Day. Dinner is at my parents' house, and at some point in the afternoon, about a dozen friends show up. They enter the house with music blaring, hands clapping and maracas shaking. They sing "Boas Festas," a Cape Verdean song whose title means "Happy Holidays"—I believe the literal translation is "Good Parties"—and then they sing "Auld Lang Syne." It's loud and festive! They parade through the house and we follow in line. Then we make a toast to the New Year. After the toast, they turn the music back on, march out, and go off to the next house. It’s a wonderful way to welcome the year.
–Janet Costa Bates is the author of Seaside Dream
Craig Orback photo Craig Orback
The holidays are about travel and family. My wife and I alternate visiting our families on the east and west coast. It could be snow in Connecticut or sun in California. While I don't always enjoy the hassle of flying, it is fun to experience weather that is different from the rainy Northwest that time of year. Preparing food is something I enjoy, and also playing games, like Trivial Pursuit and cards, with the different generations. When in California, I also enjoy the tradition of spending Christmas Eve at my Grandma’s, up the hill from my parents’ house. That goes back to when I was a little kid. Enjoying the view of the ocean and the Christmas tree while sharing presents is a wonderful memory.
–Craig Orback is the illustrator of The Can Man
Andrea Cheng photo Andrea Cheng
I am not a big holiday person. My happiest memories with family and friends are of regular days: sitting around after dinner talking about everyone's day, going for walks or bike rides, cooking or baking together. Since we don’t have any religious affiliation, we don't celebrate the usual holidays like Christmas or Hanukah in any real way. We did start one tradition, though, and that is a New Year's hike.

When our three kids were little, we decided one New Year’s day to go for a hike in the woods. We took only a box of Cheese Nips as a snack. As we walked, we got cold, so we built a fire in a small grill and roasted the Cheese Nips. After that, we made the New Year’s hike a yearly event, and we always roast Cheese Nips. This may not seem like a real holiday tradition, but it is as close as I can get.
–Andrea Cheng is the author of Only One Year
Jen Cullerton Johnson photo Jen Cullerton Johnson
How I celebrate the holidays depends on the country. I am from a bilingual family.

My family is from Chicago and we celebrate Christmas Day by opening presents and sharing stories and watching old movies.

My husband's family is from Buenos Aires, Argentina and for many years we lived in Buenos Aires. With our Argentine family, we celebrate Noche Buena, or Christmas Eve. We eat dinner at a long table where up to 30 family members can sit. Unlike Chicago, Buenos Aires is very warm for Christmas, and because of the heat, we like to eat salads and asado, which mean barbeque in Spanish.

No matter what country my family and I are in during the holiday season one thing is certain: we are a family.
–Jen Cullerton Johnson is the author of Seeds of Change
Lee Bennett Hopkins photo Lee Bennett Hopkins
Thanksgiving Day is celebrated with family . . . and . . . it marks the beginning of the Christmas season. The day after Thanksgiving, we search for the huge Christmas tree that will stand bedecked in our Great Room. We begin decorating, throughout the house and lanai, for the annual An Enchanted Christmas Evening, a gathering of family and friends . . . great food, live music, and a host of surprises for all. Christmas is magical in Florida. A highlight is going to the beach to see Santa Claus . . . in shorts . . . arrive on the shore by boat, and watching children play in mounds of machine-made snow, many experiencing snow and ice for the first time, in temperatures in the 80’s. It truly is a ho-ho-ho time of year.
–Lee Bennett Hopkins is the author of Amazing Faces
Chris Soentpiet Chris Soentpiet
My favorite holiday is the Mid-Autumn Festival (aka: Harvest Festival). This is very similar to American Thanksgiving. It is held on the 15th day of the eighth month in the lunar calendar, which is in September or early October. Since my wife is Chinese, she likes to buy mooncakes at the bakeries in Chinatown. They are filled with thick, sweet filling made from lotus seed paste or red bean paste. I like the ones with a hidden salted egg yolk. In Korean, we call this time Chuseok, and we celebrate this time by eating lots of yummy rice cakes. No matter what we eat, it’s a great way to get our families together and remember our ancestors.
–Chris Soentpiet is the illustrator of Amazing Faces
Ann Malaspina Ann Malaspina
On New Year's Eve, my mother gets up early to bake the Vassilopita, the Greek New Year's cake. As the last hours of the year pass by, the dough rises. In the afternoon, she puts the cake in the oven, but only after she tucks the lucky New Years coin inside.

When I was growing up, we watched the ball drop on television. Then we rushed to the dining table. My father sat at the head of the table, and my mother brought in the Vassilopita, gloriously golden and fragrant, and placed it before him. Every year, my mother worried: Was it too brown or not brown enough? Would it taste light and airy, or too heavy? The taste didn't matter to me. I was nervous with anticipation. Who would get the coin this year? If only it could be me.

Lifting the bread knife, my father named the pieces. The first two pieces were for St. Basil—an important saint in the Greek Orthodox Church—and the house. Then he went down from the oldest to the youngest family member. The number of pieces changed from year to year with deaths, marriages, and new babies. After my brother’s cat got the coin, my father limited the pieces to humans.

As he began to slice, I’d listen carefully. Did I hear the knife scrape on foil? Where was that coin? Only when everyone had a piece were we allowed to start ripping ours apart. My heart fell if someone else yelled, "I got it!" But if I discovered the crumb-covered coin in my piece, I tried hard to be modest.

These days, if I'm not at my parents' house for the holiday, I'm still awoken early on New Year's Day with a phone call. Before my father says, "Kalá hristúyenna!" (Happy New Year!) he announces who got the coin. A few years ago, he called with good news. Days later, I found an envelope in the mail, with a smaller envelope inside, labeled "Ann's New Year's Coin." My father's phone call and mother's careful handwriting made me realize, not for the first time, my enormous good luck.
–Ann Malaspina is the author of Yasmin's Hammer


Holiday Survey 2009

Holiday Survey 2008

Previous Holiday Survey Responses

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