Golden BachelorAlums Kathy Swarts and Susan Noles on Their Favorite Christmas Traditions (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

“I bake from scratch. I’m not a great cook, but every year, I have to make my pecan pie and my zucchini bread,” Swarts says. “If I come and I don’t have those baked goods, it’s a problem.”Swarts even revealed the key to her delicious zucchini bread: “You have to shave the zucchini and leave some of the fluid in. That’s the trick.”For Noles, it’s about returning to her European roots.

Susan Noles and her children on Instagram.Susan Noles/Instagram

Susan Noles/Instagram

“My scuttle soup or escarole soup — the Italian wedding soup. If I don’t serve it, my son would boycott,” Noles says.

Noles loves to get her grandchildren in the kitchen with her, too.“I love baking my Christmas cookies with them. And I don’t have to say no to them. Because you don’t see them every day. You don’t have to be the one to discipline unless they’re really bad, of course,” she says. “Julian, my 14-year-old, gets all the sprinkles out for the ricotta cookies. We do it every year.”Swarts agrees that grandparenting is easier than parenting — it comes without the mess.

Kathy Swarts and family on Instagram.Kathy Swarts/Instagram

Kathy Swarts/Instagram

“I love having my grandchildren get on the floor, playing with them, doing fun things. I don’t have to clean it up. I just go over and have a blast and then, ‘Bye! I’m going home!’ ” she says. “But in [all] seriousness, I love that I’m able to pass down traditions and stories that I think are so important in carrying on family traditions.”

source: people.com