Holiday Traditions
by Toni Robin

As a New Yorker growing up in a Jewish household, the last week in December always meant trips to Florida beaches to avoid the cold and long days of winter. Now, as a transplanted San Diegan since 1984, warm weather holidays seem normal and still include a Christmas Day swim in the ocean… only now it’s in the Pacific. As we do annually, we asked noted San Diegans, many of whom hail from other places as well, how they celebrate the holidays in sunny San Diego.
— T.R.

Tim Flannery
Former San Diego Padre and San Francisco Giants Third Base Coach
As the son of a Christian minister growing up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Tim Flannery’s holidays have always revolved around the church… and still do. Flannery, who has a home in Leucadia when not coaching in the Bay area, continues the Christmas Eve tradition of candlelight church services followed by pizza, champagne and a birthday cake for Jesus. “Dad always kept it short for us kids because we knew there was cake waiting!”

Ingrid Croce
Owner, Croce’s Restaurant & Jazz Bar
Cookbook author
You can find love in a restaurant! Ingrid Croce did, when she met her husband Jimmy rock at table 21 at her restaurant twenty years ago.

“We married on Thanksgiving, our favorite holiday. The party went on and on, spilling into the next day. We served Thanksgiving leftovers, with delicious homemade turkey paninis on a sourdough bâtard with orange-nut cranberry spread*, mushroom and onion bread stuffing, and much more. A Chimney Rock Cabernet was the wine of choice at our wedding because it sounded a lot like Croce-Rock and it was delicious.

We had more than a hundred and fifty friends and family at our house last Thanksgiving for the ‘leftover after party,’ and the guest list keeps growing. If it gets much bigger, we’ll have to bring it back to Croce’s, where it all began!”

*This recipe appears in Ingrid’s cookbook, Thyme in a Bottle.

Raquel GIscafre
Chairman, Promotions Sports, Inc.
Former tennis pro and Wimbledon doubles champion Raquel Giscafre has tennis in her blood. She came to san Diego 24 years ago from Argentina and along with business partner Jane Stratton, has since orchestrated the annual Acura Classic. Each December, her family of 14 gathers in the mountains of South America for a week of traditional celebrating which includes a huge Christmas Eve dinner followed by midnight mass and of course, tennis the next day.

While she’s still in San Diego, she enjoys her favorite tradition, a visit to December Nights in Balboa Park. “Holidays in Argentina are more religious than commercial, so I love the chance to enjoy the atmosphere, the music and all the caroling. It’s one of my favorite things to do over the holidays.”

Rob Wellington Quigley, FAiA
Architect
Santa Claus and his reindeer are not the only ones riding through the night on Christmas Eve. Noted local architect Rob Quigley, designer of the new Children’s Museum expected to wow San Diegans next year, also travels through the night on December 24th. Quigley grew up in Los Angeles and his wife, architect Kathleen Hallahan, is a rare native San Diegan. For the past 20 years, the family, including daughter Thea, has celebrated Christmas eve in San Diego and then hit the highway for a midnight drive to LA in time for Christmas morning. “We’ve come to enjoy the quiet, reflective drive of the split holiday and no, we’ve never seen Santa on the road.”

Pat Launer
Theatre Diva
As a theater critic for more than 20 years, December means just one thing to Pat Launer — “A Christmas Carol.”

“No matter how many times I’ve seen Charles Dickens’ classic, it manages to touch my heart and make me think about giving more to others and getting second chances.”

“Every new year is a time for fresh starts. but you can wake up any day, like Scrooge on Christmas morning, and reconceive your life, change your style, alter your relationship to humankind,” she mused. Pat has seen many incarnations of this timeless tale featuring everything from a gospel choir, jazz musicians, circus performers and homeless drifters.

This year, the theater diva will get her dramatic holiday fix at North Coast Repertory Theatre. “I never want to miss my annual night of ghostly visitations and soulful philanthropic reminders,” she added. If you don’t know Pat, she’s the one furiously taking notes in the dark!

Nick Canepa
Sports Columnist, San Diego Union-Tribune
The holiday tradition at Nick Canepa’s home goes all the way back to the old country. “Cannoli night” at the Canepa’s started a continent away in Genoa, Italy. “We’ve been cutting dough, rolling and frying cannolis for the holidays for many generations. I know I’ve personally made thousands and who knows how many I’ve eaten!”

Cannolis, for the uninitiated, are Italian pastry desserts that originated in Sicily. These bite-sized sweets are fried and then filled with a creamy filling. Each December, family and friends arrive at Nick’s home in Little Italy — he lives just six blocks from where he grew up on India Street — to work on the cannoli-making assembly line. “It’s gotten bigger over the years, so people must enjoy it.” Or maybe it’s just the fresh made cannolis they get to take home in exchange for their efforts.

Jim Laslavic
NBC 7/39 Sports Director and former NFL Linebacker
A popular broadcaster and former chargers linebacker, “Laz” arrived in San Diego in 1978 after a trade with the Detroit Lions. His large Pittsburgh family used to celebrate holidays at his grandmother’s saloon. New to town, he missed those noisy and festive family gatherings. Luckily, he was “adopted” by Charger sideline photographer Teri Cluck and her husband Bob, who invited him to celebrate Christmas Eve with them and Charger PR director Rick Smith and his wife Susie.

What started as two or three families gathering on Christmas Eve has grown into an annual rotating party that has included up to 60 people, four generations and a musical talent show where each family gives a performance. Jim, his wife Susan and two grown children are now at the center of their own boisterous family gathering!

Madison
Morning Show Host, 102.1 KPRI - FM
For “Madison in the Morning,” his family holiday tradition was created by chance. A military brat who traveled the world until he was eleven, Madison came to San Diego from the Deep South to avoid the humidity. Almost 10 years ago, this popular radio personality was taking his family of six, including a newborn, to an early dinner after Christmas Eve church services. A series of mishaps, including a lost reservation, unresponsive wait staff and a need to get home in time for Santa’s visit, caused the irate Madison to get up and leave. All was not lost though, he recalls. “We got up, walked out and literally right next door was a Chinese Restaurant. We ordered a bunch of food to go and had one of the best Christmas Eve dinners ever. Now, we have Chinese food, fortune cookies and egg drop soup every Christmas Eve.”

David Peckinpaugh
President and CEO, San Diego Convention and Visitors Bureau
As the head of ConVis, it’s David Peckinpaugh’s job to know all the great things to do in San Diego. Last year, he brought his family from the Midwest in time to celebrate their first San Diego Christmas.

“We always had a very traditional, old-fashioned holiday and the girls (8 & 10 years old) had never known Christmas without snow! We decided to start new traditions including going to see The Nutcracker, The Parade of Lights on San Diego Bay, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” Still, the celebration that comes closest to recreating his memories of a Midwest holiday is “December Nights” in Balboa Park. “It’s the closest we can come to our image of a storybook Christmas without getting on a plane back to Cleveland!”

Alan Ziter
Executive Director, NTC Promenade
For Ziter, arts executive and resident since 1986, Christmas of 2000 was the very first year he didn’t celebrate at his parent’s house in New England. That year, the remaining Ziter clan flew west to spend their first California Christmas with Alan and his sister Nancy, who had also relocated a few years earlier.

“We had worked hard to keep all of our annual traditions in place, including having Nancy doing all the holiday baking my mother usually did so we wouldn’t miss our favorites: Christmas breads, cookies, fudge bars, and much more….about 20 different things. We went to the airport to pick up my parents and other sister, and there’s my dad, walking down to baggage claim, with two giant tins filled with all my mother’s baked goods.” An exhausted Nancy turned to her mother and asked why she brought all those goodies. “In case yours didn’t turn out!” was her response. “Clearly, my mother wasn’t ready to pass her Christmas torch! But we had a great visit and gained twice as much weight that year.”