Dec. 4, Local Holiday Traditions

For many people, the holiday season is all about embracing tradition. But tradition doesn’t look the same from state to state, or even from region to region. The way we celebrate the holidays depends largely on our religious beliefs, but many of our traditions are passed down from generation to generation, varying in ways that depend on our ancestral heritage.

Shereen Siewert welcomes Dr James P. Leary, emeritus professor of folklore and Scandinavian studies from the University of Wisconsin, and Ben Clark from the Marathon County Historical Society for a discussion on the history and surprising origins of the traditions most familiar to us in north central Wisconsin.