The holidays are a time for gathering with loved ones around a fireplace, a table of food or even a simple warm drink. Here, our Edible San Luis Obispo contributors share their favorite holiday traditions, inviting readers to cherish special winter moments. Try one of ours or create something new of your own.

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Christian Camacho

Novenas are a popular South American tradition, one my mother’s side of the family brought with them from Colombia. In the nine days leading up to Christmas, houses are decorated amid laughter, cacophonous singing and shouting. Colombian fixings adorn dinner tables. Novenas are how my family and their friends, who immigrated together, stayed together. We continue this tradition not out of necessity but out of love for the village that raised us.

Rachel Ponce

Each Christmas Eve, our family skips a formal dinner and invites the kids to choose their favorite foods for a cozy spread of small plates. After they eat and have been tucked into bed, my husband and I cook lamb chops and open a beautiful bottle of wine while wrapping gifts. Nothing like last minute, but it’s tradition and we have fun doing it.

Linda Reed

I have a glass tabletop Christmas tree that holds six birthday candles. During Christmas Eve dinner, everyone claims a candle, and they are all lit. The person whose candle is the last to go out wins a prize. Everyone roots for their candle to burn sloooooowly.

Alisa Heraldo

One of my favorite traditions during the holiday season is playing games with my family on Christmas Eve. It’s a time where we can all let out our inner child, laughing and engaging in all kinds of silliness.

Dustin Klemann

Growing up in the Midwest, it wasn’t uncommon for people to enjoy Christmas Eve with their favorite local Chinese restaurant foods. Year after year, sitting down and enjoying fried rice and tangy chicken was sweet-and-sour chicken for the soul. Living in California now, we have to travel for snow, but the tradition of appreciating Chinese food during the holidays is never far away.

Uli Billington

Growing up in Germany, Christmas Eve was my favorite holiday. My parents would cook a wonderful three-course menu, and I was involved in the kitchen at a young age. My younger brother and both my grandparents always joined. We set the table with a nice tablecloth, napkins and candles and we got all dressed up. After dinner, we would go into our rooms and wait for the “bell” to ring, which was my father signifying that the Christ-child had brought presents. He then played an old record with Christmas music. We sat around the tree and my dad would read a Christmas story to everyone — my favorite part. We then opened presents, one person at a time, and ate homemade Christmas cookies.

Emily Basanese

One of my favorite traditions in my family is cooking sfingi, a traditional Italian donut, on Christmas Eve. Each year my Grandma Millie would mix up a literal vat of dough that would rise all day. That evening, family and friends would crowd the small kitchen while Grandma cooked the sfingi in hot oil, then rolled them in sugar. Fresh, hot, fluffy, greasy, and sweet — they paired perfectly with a cup of (decaf) coffee.