December 2011

BEARFACTS

341 South Sappington Rd St. Louis, MO 63122

12.14.11 Issue 4

Time Traditions! for

White House Traditions

The biggest living Christmas tree is 160ft tall

the tree this It‟s beginning to look a lot like year is also Christmas…At the White House. Many green (besides the people have various traditions on how to tree itself).

The ornadecorate their Christmas trees. The Obama‟s have according to travelandleiments are made of recycled matheir own tradition of picking out the tree and decorating it sure.com terials and the tree has LED lights for with a theme. “Usually, the day after Thanksgiving, or somesaving energy. time in that weekend right after Thanksgiving, the main The White House expects about 50,000 White House Christmas tree gets delivered” said Social Studies people to pass through and enjoy the decorateacher, Ms. Nondorf. “One of the fun traditions is that, it is tions throughout the house. “This year, the always delivered by horse and wagon”. official tour features 37 Christmas trees, 30 are So where does this tree come from? This year it came natural trees and 7 are made from paper, felt, or from Schroeder‟s Forevergreens close to Neshkoro, Wisconsin a l u minum” according to whitehouse.gov. Of course according to the washingtonpost.com. The Schroeder family, the t h e Blue Room will have the best feature of all having family that grew this tree, is honored to have it placed in the t h e magnificent tree dedicated to the troops that serve Blue Room. They had to go through many tree judging and the nation. competitions from the National Christmas Tree Association to But this is not the only thing that is a sight to see. There is a win this honor. It took about twenty years to grow it into the ginger bread replica of the White House that weighs about 400 great Christmas tree it is today. This tradition has been around pounds and is displayed in the State Dinning Room.. This too is since 1966 and the winners of this competition have earn the a tradition of the White House. Though the traditions change privilege to give thier trees to the White House. throughout the years with the different presidents, the meaning The theme the Obama‟s chose this year is “Shine, Give, Share” of Christmas remains the same. according to www.whitehouse.gov. The 18‟6” tree is in honor of Bear Facts writer, the men and women in the military. The tree is decorated with Meg Haenchen cards made by children who have parents serving in the military. Adding to the decoration of the tree are badges, medals and patches that are displayed as ornaments. Everything about

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Photo by Meg Haenchen

Horseradish and Wigilia Christmas Eve with a Fourth-Generation Pole The scent of freshly baked bread and sauerkraut accompany me as I set the formal dining table Christmas Eve. No matter who comes to dinner, there is always an extra place at the dinner table that night. “For the weary stranger,” my aunt told me one year. “For Jesus in disguise.” If this stranger ever decides to make the long trek to my secluded house, then he better like Polish food.

room where we watch How I Met Your Mother. When everyone, five to fifteen people, depending whether it snowed or not, is ready, the eating begins.

It‟s the same thing every year -- a sauerkraut dish with sliced sausage and baked apples, pierogis, fried dumplings stuffed with mashed potatoes and horseradish, golumpkis, (pronounced gwumpki) meat-and rice-stuffed cabbage rolls, and my great-aunt Bernice‟s Polish bread, studded with white raisins. Traditionally, a family would share oplatek, unleavened bread similar to communion hosts with religious scenes printed on the sides, before the meal. Sadly, with the decline of Poles in St. Louis, so, too, has the availability of oplatek. My aunt Mary McGrath, mother of an My great-grandmother, Bernice (left) with her Ursuline alum (class of parents and brother in a formal portrait taken in ‟04), remembers what it was like every year, Poland. c e l e b r a t i n g My father‟s side of the family is Wigilia. “We weren‟t as Polish, living out strongly Polish. We cook Polish foods for in South County, unlike our cousholidays; our family reunion shirts have ins. They lived in the city and were a Polish flag on them; and every time we swearing at me in Polish by the time they get together, some of the little old greatwere 10! But that was the one time we‟re aunts always sit in the center of the as Polish as they were! Everyone came room, teaching everyone new swear over, and everyone forgot their probwords in Polish. Most of the year, these lems.”

Polish tendencies are smothered, but This is why every year we labor once a year, on Christmas Eve, we go with thin egg-roll dough and fumes of back to our roots. The tradition of sethorseradish: family. Christmas is about ting an extra place at the table is an old family, coming together and rememberPolish one, for as the Polish saying goes, ing from where you came. This Wigilia, “A guest in the home is God in the spend time with your family. Invite home.” The Wigilia-- Christmas Eve those crazy great-aunts over for some dinner--is an incredibly sacred time for a different cuisine. Who knows, they just family, and we respect that. This is the might teach you to swear in another lanone meal where my phone is turned off, guage.

Wesolych Swiat Bozego in a different room, as is my father‟s Narodzenia! Merry Christmas! work Blackberry (he‟s worse than most Ann Slesinski Ursuline students, the way he checks it Bear Facts Copy Editor every other second). Everyone dresses up in heels and make-up, even though the dinner table is a good 15 feet from the

Christmas Traditions in the Kitchen Every year, Leigh Rocca, junior, and her family bake traditional Italian Miscotti cookies. You pronounce the name of these treats “mes-coi-ti.” This recipe has been passed down in the Rocca family for many years. Rocca explained, “My greatgrandpa was an extraordinary baker and made Miscottis for his bakery a lot. After he died, my great-grandma continued to bake them for the family.” Her grandparents decided to continue the tradition about six years ago. This tasty treat is now a favorite Christmas tradition all members of the Rocca family enjoy. “My extended family gets together to make about 500. Those are divided up between my family, my grandparents, and aunt and uncle.” The cookies are simple and fun to make. Rocca described, “You take the dough and roll it out into a long skinny piece. Then coil the dough from both sides to get an „S‟ shape.” Their taste may be plain, but it‟s the tradition that makes baking them so fun. “Miscottis have a dense, fairly plain taste, but we always frost them with icing.” These little cookies have created memories for Rocca that she and her family will never forget.

“After making most of the cookies, my younger cousins make massive cookies with the extra dough.” Christmas time is never the same without a day together in the kitchen, baking their favorite family recipe.

Meg Vatterott Bear Facts Print Editor

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