Our UA Panthers are an eclectic bunch! Check out their time old and also unique traditions…and maybe even adopt some of your own based off of their fun ideas.

Sheryl Bourgeois, PhD
, 
executive vice president, University Advancement


My favorite holiday tradition is baking with my mom, which I have done since I was in elementary school, and which my daughter has been a part of since she was about 2 years old. Each year, we gather for an entire day, usually at the beginning of December. We start at about 8 a.m. and go until about 5 p.m. If we are lucky, it is a cold day, so that we can have the fireplace going, along with holiday music in the background. We make dozens and dozens of cookies, loaves of braided bread, at least six types of fudge, a variety of bars and other holiday treats, as well as caramel popcorn. The house smells so wonderful. For us, it is the official start of the season!


Brittany Hanson
, 
public relations assistant, Office of Communications & Media Relations


I do the decorating for my family. This involves getting the tree, bringing it home and putting all the decorations on it, as well as around the house.

brittany-the-tree-that-falls-down-every-year


Brittany’s family tree that falls down every year.



My grandmother is VERY particular about her tree. It needs to be a fluffy tree, with a wide base, full and rather tall. However, she does not want to go pick the tree out herself, leaving it perennially to my grandfather and myself to interpret these requirements. At age 10, I decided to be rebellious and pick a tree that I preferred—a  pokey stick like the Noble Fir, versus Nana’s expressed favorite, the Douglas Fir. After many stern looks and adamant declarations of it being a “poor choice in a tree—not full enough at all,” we were forced to tie the tree back on and attempt to exchange it.

In college, I lived next door to a fruit stand that sold trees on the lot during the holidays. Because I was friends with the owner, I got the pick of the tree litter and brought home one that was so big its base blocked part of Grandma’s front door. She bragged to everyone on the street.

Additionally, every year at least once, our family tree falls down—which, in my mind, is because fluffy trees are not as vertically stable as non-fluffy trees. But, you know, maybe I’m just biased.

For about 8 years or more, I have been getting friends together to get dressed up to go see
It’s a Wonderful Life
wherever it happens to be playing in O.C.

Rachael Samimi
,
manager, special events


Christmas is my favorite holiday. Outside of baking holiday cookies for an entire weekend with my sister, decorating the house and driving around to see holiday lights, a new tradition I plan to start this year is a countdown to Christmas. A childhood friend of mine is a grade school teacher and started this tradition with her first child. Much like an advent calendar (sans chocolate), each night Lily will be given a wrapped book to add to her library. Since she is a toddler, I anticipate the most fun will be unwrapping the gift rather than the story, but at least we can start her on a tradition early. The hope is that my husband, some of our family members, and I will give Lily a gift each night and read her the story before bed. Some of the books I’ve chosen are favorites, while others are recommendations. A few are holiday-themed, but most can be read all year long.


Essraa Nawar
, 
development coordinator, Leatherby Libraries

esraa-holiday-traditions
Despite growing up in Egypt, Thanksgiving became a dear holiday to my heart. It not just about food and getting together with friends, but also a representation of the perseverance, hard work, living in harmony and family values that the early settlers of this county had—values I grew up embracing and constantly try to instill in my own kids.

We also look forward to all the Chrismtas parties that we get invited to as a family this holiday season. Whether celebrating with friends or with neighbors, it is always fun to witness holidays other than the ones we grew up celebrating. We feel so lucky as we get to celebrate more holidays now in addition to our own holidays like Ramadan and Bayram!

Kim Greenhall
,
director, Chapman Fund

kim-family
The holidays are a funny time for us. My family whole-heartedly buys into the spirit of giving, family and connection, but being Jewish, we celebrate the holidays in a very “Jewish” way. Let’s start: ever since I was 2 years old, I have packed my bags for the holiday break and headed to Miami Beach, Fla. while I was young, and as an adult, Boca Raton, Fla. These two Florida cities have one thing in common: lots of other Jewish people who come from the northern colder areas, descending on the South for the warm weather, great food and family (they are called snowbirds). We do celebrate Hanukkah with one night of traditional food, which consists of potato latkes (potato pancakes), and then we add our own tradition of eating those with stone crabs and key lime pie. For the most part, we spend the holidays much like every other American family, except our Christmas Day looks quite different:

  1. We always wake up and joke whether Santa found us in Florida…of course he never does.

  2. We spend the day at the beach. Some years wrapped in blankets and ski hats because it is cold

  3. We go for dinner to a Chinese restaurant—which, by the way, are the only restaurants open on Christmas day. In Florida, they are packed to overcrowding with other Jewish families who had nothing on their plates that day. And we then finish the day at the movie theaters often splitting up because no one can decide which film they want to see most. By the way, when I say my family that includes my aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews—about 30 of us.

Chris Pagel
,
director, institutional support

chris
The Pagel Family keeps it pretty traditional for the holidays. Between extra time at church and with the family, a pleasant baking aroma in the house and my taking care of all the exterior/interior illuminations, our home is always abuzz with holiday cheer! We will be hosting both of our families this year, so the massive spreadsheet calendar and detailed menu are ready to go. Our firstborn, Grace, is super excited and wants to tell Clare (now eight weeks) all about how to be a good girl so that Santa brings her amazing presents. My wife Ashley’s famous Christmas cookies will be available to everyone in the UA reception area starting on Dec. 14! Cheers to all!

Erin O’Keefe,
development coordinator, College of Educational Studies

erin-o-keefe
It was Christmas Eve and my two older brothers and I had just finished another play for the children’s service at church in downtown Long Beach. I must have been about 7 or 8 at the time. It was after 7 p.m. and we were all starving. We drove around for what seemed like hours to a young kid and were having a hard time finding a restaurant that was even open. We finally found a place: Tokyo Hibachi, a sushi restaurant. It is now the O’Keefe family tradition is to go out for sushi on Christmas Eve.

Rachael Daniels
,
development associate, external relations


I know it sounds ridiculous, but my mom actually fills her home with over 100 trees—many of which are themed (Star Wars, 50 states, Elvis, the list goes on…). She started adding more trees about 15 years ago and it is really impressive what she does. As she got more and more trees, she eventually built a literal barn-type storage building in the backyard to put all of the trees and decorations in. I truly don’t think I could capture in pictures the insane amount of Christmas that covers her house inside and out this time of year. She has to start putting everything up before Thanksgiving in order to get it all done by the December 1.


Tianna Haradon
,
manager of external relations


One of our family traditions that a lot of other families do as well, is holiday pajamas. Every year, my mom’s side of the family gets matching pajamas and socks. We also play “Left-Right-Center,” which is a really bad gambling game that I, as a terrible parent, have introduced to my son! Everyone starts out with $3. You roll the dice, which are labled L, R, C and ∙. Depending on what you roll, you either put $1 in the center pot, or to the person on your left, right or ∙ means you are safe. The last person with money wins the pot. Most of the family ends up having to borrow money from my son to play because he has more money than all of us and continually wins the game!

Drew Farrington
,
account manager, Strategic Marketing and Communications


I can’t think of a single interesting story other than when my brother and I got BB guns one year and spent all of Christmas morning shooting dog poop.

David Moore
,
director, legacy planning


A favorite holiday movie in my family is
A Christmas Story
(1983). We happened to catch it for the first time some 30 years ago as it aired on T.V. during a family ski trip to Red River, N.M. Each character in the movie was relatable to family and friends, and every line of dialogue (and the narrative) seemed written for and about us. For instance, we’d always been warned by our mother that we might “shoot your eye out” with our beloved BB guns. An instant classic, it has ever since been a tradition to watch the movie. No matter the time of year you visit my house, you’ll always find a 6” working replica of the major prize (leg lamp) on display—my late brother made it as a gift for me before they were ever available in stores. I also still watch
The Grinch Who Stole Christmas
and
Elf
at least once a year. Makes me laugh and smile every time.

Pamela Ezell
, d
irector of broadcast and digital media, Panther Productions


I love the holidays for several reasons, and this year, I’m especially looking forward to our daughter’s return from her first semester away at college. She’s at Brown University in Rhode Island—far, far away! Speaking of far, far away, I’m also excited to take our son, who’s a huge Star Wars fan, our daughter, who returns home just in time, and one of our nephews who’ll be visiting from Michigan to see
The Force Awakens
at El Capitan in Hollywood on opening day! We already have our tickets!

For several years, we’ve had a family tradition of going out for Chinese food for Christmas Eve. When we lived in Los Angeles, we went to Chinatown and then to the L.A. County Holiday Celebration at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Since moving to Orange County in 2010, we’ve migrated to the Shanghai Pine Gardens on Balboa Island. We go just as it’s getting dark, then by the time we’re finished, we can walk around the island and enjoy all the lights. Afterwards, we come home and enjoy the tree, some dessert, and open one present each.

When Christmas morning comes and it’s time to open presents, I turn on a special song to signal it’s okay for the kids to come into the room. It’s a song we used for the same purpose when I was growing up: “Little Saint Nick” by The Beach Boys.

Our other family tradition is to stage a scavenger hunt for the big “Santa” gift that our kids open last. I make up the clues and hide them around the house, then when all the other presents have been opened, they go on a hunt for their final surprise. Even though our kids are now 16 and 18, I think they’d be disappointed if they didn’t have to search for at least one present, so I’m guessing we’ll do this at least one more year.

We also share a special family tradition with our “freisins”—friends who are like cousins. We get together to decorate gingerbread houses or gingerbread men. We’ve done this at our friend Susan’s house, in Los Angeles’ Larchmont Village, for several years.

Last but not least, I do really enjoy the Chapman staff party. It’s a great end to the year and it’s fun to see everyone enjoying themselves. I haven’t ever won a big gift, but I remain hopeful! Just please, don’t let it be the summer sausage!!!

Happy holidays to everyone in UA, no matter what holidays you celebrate! All the best for another great year!