Celebrating the Holidays in New York: Grace Teacher’s Traditions
Image: Right outside of Radio City Music Hall, New York City streets are decked out for the holiday season. Media from American Holidays. Media from American Holidays.
During the winter months, in New York City, the Grace Church School community members celebrate many holiday traditions. From visiting the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree to seeing the Radio City Rockettes to decorating with family, teachers at Grace have diverse holiday traditions.
Richard Gastel, the Geometry and Algebra II teacher, thinks New York’s “holiday markets are awesome” for the delicious food and shopping. He enjoys visiting the Columbus Circle market and looks forward to picking up fresh waffles from Wafels and Dinges, with a variety of toppings and flavors. Mr. Gastel also takes a short 10-minute walk to Max Brenner in Union Square to purchase the delicious chocolates in festive metal tins. With his family, it is a tradition to watch“It’s a Wonderful Life while they decorate their tree.” Mr. Gastel and his family “get the cheapest goofiest ornament for each other” every year, another memorable tradition.
Rolando Ros, the High School Math Department Chair, annually participates in holiday festivities, including a 30-minute drive with his family to the American Dream Mall in New Jersey. His family enjoys the rides and holiday shopping at the mall. Mr. Ros is Filipino and celebrates Noche Buena on Christmas Eve, explaining that he and his family “stay up until midnight, do our gift exchange and tell stories.” The next morning, on Christmas Day, Mr. Ros and his family attend Christmas mass, “which is always crowded but worth it,” he says.
Amy Pan, who teaches Pre-Calculus and Data Science at the High School, says her favorite part of the holidays is walking by the Rockefeller tree at least once every year. She loves seeing the lights and decorations around the idyllic area that surrounds the busy tree.
Although Ali Al-Maqtari, a High School French teacher, is Muslim, primarily “celebrating Ramadan and Eid,” he still partakes in Christmas festivities because the holiday season “is a really great time for forgiveness.” With his family, he goes to restaurants of different cuisines but chooses “the most festive ones” with Christmas trees, mesmerizing lights, and other decor. Al-Maq especially loves visiting Lafayette for its excellent French cuisine and holiday decorations. Each year, he and his kids have a tradition of getting a tree and honoring their religion by “decorating ornaments with Arabic calligraphy.”
Since Al-Maqs’ birthday is near the holidays, his kids have surprised him in past years by taking him to “see the Rockefeller tree and go ice skating.”
During the holidays, “my kids visit me every year. Christmas is a time when my kids and I do really fun stuff,” Al-Maq expresses with gratitude.
One of Grace’s High School chemistry teachers, Alexandra Scott, takes the holiday season in New York seriously, with traditions she has maintained since she was a kid. Ms. Scott’s winter break includes some of the most iconic experiences of Christmas in New York City. Ms. Scott and her daughters, along with friends, love the city’s very popular holiday attraction of the city is the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree.
Media from Rockefeller Center.
Visiting the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree each year to get into the Christmas spirit and see the Radio City Rockettes are both must-do holiday experiences in the city. The Holiday Train Show at the New York Botanical Garden is also an activity the Scott family looks forward to, featuring several city landmarks crafted from natural materials such as pine cones and tree bark. Reflecting on her favorite part of the holiday season, Ms. Scott says, “getting to see it all through my kids eyes is very magical.” Just as Ms. Scott takes her kids every year to see the world-famous Nutcracker with her mom, she, too, grew up going with her mom to the same Nutcracker, making this tradition even more meaningful.
As a self-proclaimed Christmas enthusiast, Toby Nathan, the History Department Chair, says, “I extremely overdo Christmas.” Recently, Dr. Nathan and his children picked up their tree locally, which they decorate as a family each year. They use special ornaments that Dr. Nathan’s mother has bought for him every year since he was a child, and he even has some that his grandparents used growing up. To this day, Dr. Nathan does the same for his kids, gifting each an ornament with a meaningful connection to their family. Dr. Nathan also has an ongoing Christmas playlist, containing 480 of his familys favorite Christmas songs. He never misses a year and “always finds time to watch the original Grinch movie” with his children, which is one of his favorite traditions. Dr. Nathan is such an avid Christmas lover that his kids can not even compete.
Although their traditions differ, many Grace teachers find much joy in celebrating this time of year, especially in a city like New York. Tourists travel from all over the world to spend the holidays here in our home. From the endless glistening lights, ice skate rinks, and decked-out shopping windows, New York’s holiday spirit is unmatched.
India B. ‘27 and Madison G. ‘27, the authors, are staff writers for The Grace Gazette.