Did you say breakfast? It’s ok if you did, although the answer I was looking for was family.

Back when I was still interviewing, I remember Chris telling me that most Carrots were not from New York City and thus, did not have any family members here. That is why, he said, it is important that Carrot Creative is a family. Since starting here, I have never doubted the absolute truth of this statement. My fellow Carrots quickly became my new New York family and despite being far from home, I’ve never once felt alone.

So in the spirit of family and the holidays and being just a tad bit sentimental, I asked my fellow Carrots to share some of their favorite holiday traditions & memories.

William: Over the holidays we make it a point to watch at least one of the Lord of the Rings movies, usually the Fellowship of the Ring. Then, every New Years eve (that I’m in town for) we have a giant feast of King Crab legs & other related seafood awesomeness before heading out!

Dan: My family gets naked and runs around the neighborhood singing Wilson Phillips songs, drunk. Wait, we’re posting these anonymously right?

Steve: Every Christmas Eve, after dinner, my entire family gathers around the TV, pops in the “Best of Will Farrel SNL” DVD, and watches Mark Jenson’s Family Christmas.

“What do you say, let’s get this party started!”

Kyle: When I wake up at my mother’s house, she makes us all wait at the top of the stairs (even when my room was in the basement). In the beginning it was just me, my two sisters, & our dog. Then my sisters starting having kids, and now there is me, my two sisters, their 4 kids, and two husbands which is far too many people to wait at the top of the stairs. While we’re waiting she’ll take pictures and say “WOW Santa came!” & we’re supposed to act surprised. After she’s gotten a sufficient amount of photos, we’re allowed to come down & open gifts.

After that, my sisters and their significant others will drive to my father’s house on the other side of town. He usually greets us at the stairs with the same “WOW Santa came!” talk. Each of us get handed 1 gift at a time as we sit around the tree while John Denver and the Muppet Christmas Album is playing. We open gifts in the order of our age, my older sister first, then my twin sister gets to open the next one (by two minutes). After all of the gifts are dealt, my father makes everyone breakfast; omeletes titled “Super Dee Dooper Alla Pee Hooper”.

Juliette: When I was little, maybe 2 or 3, my parents bought our first live Christmas tree for the house. I got so excited when it arrived that ran up to give it a hug. I quickly realized that hugging it was a bad idea because it wasn’t soft at all. Hours later, I was rushed to the emergency room covered in hives. It was that day that I learned I was allergic to Christmas.

Will: My favorite tradition is listening to Bing Crosby’s holiday albums with my family.

Adam: My favorite Katzenback Christmas tradition has to be that my Dad has mandated that everyone in attendance must wear a pair of Christmas/Holiday socks. With just shy of 30 Katzenbacks you get some wild sock/slipper combinations along with fierce competition for who has the best pair, but let’s not kid ourselves here. We all know who the winner is…

Kathryn: For the last 14 years, my Dad and I have made it a tradition to drive out to Virginia’s Horse Country for a day of father-daughter bonding, eating, and shopping. We drink hot toddies, talk about the year we’ve had, and end the day picking out ornaments at a German Christmas shop. This year, though, will be the start of a new tradition. Since my parents moved to Western New York we’ll still be battling the cold, but instead of horse country, we’ll be at Ralph Wilson Stadium on Christmas Eve for my first Buffalo Bills game. It will never replace the memories I have in Virginia, but the great thing about traditions is that it’s never too late to begin new ones as long as you’re with the ones you love.

Chris: Getting work done over the holiday break when the brats are gone and it’s quiet. Also, reading or catching up by the fireplace at my parents’ house. Also watching Star Wars.

Daniela: My mother is a little insane about the Holidays – especially Christmas and more specifically, the Christmas tree. She IS the mother in the John Roberts Christmas Tree video.

We’ve had the same fake tree since I was a little kid, and each year my mother would spend at least a solid week decorating it. This wasn’t a relaxing mellow activity either. Every day spent on decorations meant screaming, cursing, my mother on the floor sweating on the verge of tears, exclaiming this will be “the last year” she is doing this, that she hates the tree, etc. But each year – the day after Thanksgiving, she starts setting things up as always. My favorite memory is of the elaborate village she’d create underneath with fake snow, shops, people, a skating rink, and even a ski mountain with little skiers going down it. I’d sit on the floor and make up stories about the people living there and it would provide hours of entertainment for me (I had no friends). The village has now moved to the mantle place and while it may not be as intricate and detailed as when I was younger – the tree is still pretty impressive. Now that I am older, I appreciate how intense my mother gets around the holidays & decorating because it means I get to have these awesome memories & hilarious stories to tell for years to come. Oh and one weird thing me/my sister used to do every Christmas eve is play “bank” (as in, we were both bank tellers working at a bank) while watching Christmas Story.

Mike: One year my mom bought a fake tree. My brother and I came home and after some drinking, decided to go outside and cut down a real tree instead. We chose a 15 foot one, cut it down, dragged it inside the house, and decorated it. There were leaves and dirt everywhere. Maybe we were drunk, maybe the tree was lopsided, but the next morning the entire thing fell over. It is still my favorite tree.

Alexis: I like that my family has a big Christmas Eve dinner (even though we’re Jewish, shh).

Darryl: My favorite holiday tradition is drinking hot chocolate and eating Christmas cookies. And eating Christmas cookies. And eating cookies that are decorated for Christmas. Christmas cookies are the center of all that is good. Do you know where I can get some more Christmas cookies?

Jeff: Every Christmas Eve my whole family sits on the couch and my dad reads us “The Night Before Christmas”. It’s real cute.

Sunny: For at least 22 years (probably longer since my sister is older than me) my mom has let us open a single present (of her choosing) on Christmas Eve. It is always pajamas. My sister and I have probably owned more pairs of pajamas in our lives than any other human beings on this planet. That’s at least 38 pairs of pajamas between the two of us over the years. That’s obscene. The other part of the tradition is that my sister and I (and our mom) alway feign surprise when our gifts turn out to be (!) pajamas.

So, from all of us in the Carrot family, Happy Holidays!