Once again, we have made it to the most wonderful time of the year ... except with a virus that has shut down the world and changed many aspects of our daily lives. However, people choose to stay positive and make the most out of this holiday season, keeping spirits bright and holiday festivities alive.

I had the opportunity to reach out to a few of our amazing Salisbury High School teachers and ask about their personal holiday traditions and favorite recipes.

As Laura Dos Santos puts it wonderfully, “A lot of these traditions are not going to happen this year or will be edited to fit the COVID-19 times. We will not be seeing our extended family at all and have yet to make our cookies since there aren’t enough people to eat them. I am sure this year we will make new traditions that will blend with old ones in the future.”

To start us off is Freya de Conde, an English teacher at SHS. She brings a pickle tradition I have never heard of before, but perhaps you have.

In grade school, she had a friend who used to do the “pickle in a tree” tradition with her family and sparked inspiration within de Conde. Her parents gladly incorporated this tradition into their own home.

“Some American families will hide a glass pickle in their Christmas trees. It should be the last ornament to be placed in the tree on Christmas Eve. On the following day, Christmas Day, the custom suggests that the first person to find the pickle gets a year of good fortune,” de Conde said.

“The origin of this tradition is a bit unclear. Some say it is a German tradition, but there doesn’t really seem to be a clear link to Germany. Others suggest it stems from sometime during the Civil War.”

Next up is DosSantos, a biology and Spanish teacher at SHS. Dos’s family incorporates many cultural traditions into their holiday festivities including Portuguese, Italian and Pennsylvania Dutch. Her family spends lots of time together crafting, exchanging heartfelt gifts and eating ... whether that be cookies, fish, lamb or pork and sauerkraut.

“For the past few years, my mom, sister, grandmother, aunt and I make a winter-related craft. We have made gingerbread houses, painted and decorated canvas Christmas trees and made snowmen out of rice and socks (and embellishments). Not sure what is in store this year, yet,” DosSantos said.

During the holiday season, gift giving becomes extremely prevalent and it can either be easy or stressful to find gifts for loved ones. Dos’s family exchanges silly or heartfelt ornaments and stocking stuffers.

“One of my favorite things that we do every year is each family/house buys ornaments for the tree to gift to one another. We get to take them off the tree when we visit each other’s homes. Since that won’t really happen this year, I added mine to the top of their Christmas gifts. This year’s ornament from me is a wooden roll of toilet paper with a plaid bow and it says ‘I love you more than toilet paper. 2020.’”

Last but certainly not least is Megan Basile, a biology teacher at SHS, talking about family time and a wonderful apple pie recipe.

“Our traditions revolve around spending time with our families. Both my husband and I are from large families and we love spending time with them, especially at the holidays. Our family gatherings always revolve around food! I started making this apple pie over 30 years ago. It has become a Christmas staple for both sides of our family and I have started to make it as a gift for extended family and friends,” Basile said.

That’s all for this week. Thank you to the teachers who were kind enough to share their holiday traditions with the community. Have a happy holiday everyone! Perhaps think about creating new traditions this year. Below is the apple pie recipe from Mrs. Basile!

Christmas Apple Pie

Crust:

1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

2/3? cup butter

4-6 tbsp. apple cider, chilled

Sift flour, sugar, salt and cinnamon into a bowl. Cut in butter with a fork or pastry cutter until mixture resembles rolled oats.

Moisten with just enough apple cider to permit the dough to be formed into a ball. Wrap and refrigerate for two hours.

Filling:

6-9 Macintosh apples

1 1/2 cup sour cream

1 cup sugar

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/2 tsp. salt

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1/4 cup flour

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Peel, core and thinly slice apples. Whisk together sour cream, sugar, egg, salt, vanilla and flour in a bowl. Pour mixture over apples and toss well. Spoon apples into pastry-lined pie pan. Bake 10 minutes at 450 degrees, Reduce heat to 350 degrees and continue to bake for 35-40 minutes. While pie bakes, prepare topping.

Topping:

1 cup walnuts

1 stick of butter

1/2 cup flour

1 tbsp. cinnamon

1/3? cup sugar

1/3? cup brown sugar

Mix sugars, cinnamon and butter together. Stir in walnuts. Sprinkle over pie after full baking time. Bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees.