Midwinter Holiday Celebration & Sale!

Season’s greetings, Pathfinders and Starfinders! It’s December, which puts us right in the middle of a whole host of holidays and celebrations. We’ve reached out to our staff and contributors to ask about their favorite traditions for the winter (or, in the case of our southern hemisphere friends, summer) holidays!

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Eren Ahn (they/them)

Hello! I’m Eren (they/them, primarily), and you’ll see some of my work in the upcoming Lost Omens Tian Xia books for Pathfinder Second Edition. My family didn’t have too many winter traditions growing up (I got presents on Christmas for the first ten years of my life and tteokguk (rice cake soup) on New Year’s after that), but since I started living on my own, I adapted some traditional dongji rituals to celebrate the solstice. For me, this means making patjuk (red bean porridge) and leaving a small bowl of it on my windowsill overnight for any wandering spirits. I’m fond of winter, cold snaps and polar vortexes and all, and it’s a calming ritual to look forward to in my generally fast-paced life.

James Jacobs (he/him)

I’m James Jacobs (he/him), Narrative Creative Director for Pathfinder, and for me, the winter holidays are traditionally when I wander some 800 miles south to spend time with my family and to relax in my hometown of Sandpoint/Otari/Point Arena. There were a few years there during the pandemic when this tradition got interrupted, but things are mostly back to normal there. Bad weather might step in to keep me here in Washington (as it has a few times in the past), but otherwise the long journey south beckons with its promises of hanging out with family, relaxing in the redwoods of Northern California, visiting some local landmarks (during Thanksgiving I visited the Point Arena Lighthouse, which is the tallest lighthouse on the west coast of the United States, and which you’ve also seen if you watched movies like Forever Young or Need for Speed), and hoping for a bigfoot sighting or two.

Joshua Birdsong (he/him)

Hi everyone, I’m Joshua Birdsong. I am a designer for Paizo. I am very excited and humbled to be part of such an amazing team, and I look forward to helping create some awesome books for all of you! My favorite holiday tradition is consuming an entire container of chocolate hazelnut pirouline wafers on Christmas day! If you need to get in touch, you can find me on Twitter at @impr0phet. Don’t forget to be awesome!

Lynne M. Meyer (she/they)

Hello! I’m Lynne (she/they), the newest member of Paizo’s editing team. I’m pagan but grew up in a Protestant family. My holidays aren’t complete without pfeffernusse, a traditional German spice cookie. When I was growing up, my German grandmother lived with us and taught me to bake. She had pfeffernusse every Christmas—and only at Christmas. I looked forward to it every year.

When she passed, the tradition stopped. Years later, when I started dating the man who’d become my husband, I decided to bring it back. I even used my grandmother’s antique measuring cups.

It turned out that pfeffernusse is his favorite cookie! Pfeffernusse became my signature bake. Pre-pandemic, I’d make as many as ten dozen to share with our families. Times are different now, and those celebrations are happy memories. Circumstances make it difficult to see our families in person, and I’ve since lost my father as well as a brother.

Yet pfeffernusse remains part of my Yule. It’s the one holiday tradition I keep without fail. It ties me to my past and my present with love. Every year, when the aroma of anise hits me, I’m a little girl again, celebrating Christmas with my family.

Rue Dickey (they/he/xe)

Growing up and living in a very mixed-culture household means I celebrate a wide variety of holidays during December (Christmas Eve with my in-laws, Chanukah, the Solstice, and “Witch-mas” with my mom—Christmas day, but it’s goth and we make hot chocolate and exchange gifts). One tradition that transcends all of these holidays, though, is making fudge!

I use my grandmother’s fudge recipe (included below), which has been handwritten, photocopied several times, and taken a picture of via a phone to wind up in my hands. It makes 5 pounds of fudge—no more, no less, and no ratio editing allowed. And now you can make it too!

Ingredients

• 4 ½ cups of white sugar
• 2 cubes (8 oz) of butter
• 1 (12 oz) can of evaporated milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 18 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips (or semi-sweet chocolate, chopped)
• 1 (7 oz) jar of marshmallow fluff
• 2 cups chopped nuts (optional)

Steps

1. Cook the sugar, butter, evaporated milk, and vanilla over medium heat until the mixture comes to a slow boil.
2. Beat with electric mixture for seven (7) minutes, continuously.
   1. My wife and I take turns holding the mixer for this step, as it can start to ache.
3. Remove from heat.
4. Add in chocolate chips, marshmallow fluff, and nuts (optional).
5. Stir until all ingredients are well mixed.
6. Pour into 13” x 9” baking pan and chill in fridge until set (about 2 hours).
   1. If you’re like me and want to eat hot, kind of un-set fudge, half an hour on the counter is enough to make it cool enough to eat, but still warm and soft.
7. Cut into cubes and enjoy.

(Makes five pounds)

Tomas Gimenez Rioja (he/him)

Tomas (he/him) has written for Pathfinder Lost Omens Divine Mysteries.

Here in Argentina the holidays are during summertime. In the coast city in which I live, we usually spend the days going to the beach, and resting at home after that. Some card and board games are often played as well. On Christmas and New Year's Eve I meet with my family, and many others from my father's family, and get some asado (fantastically grilled meat from here). After midnight, once presents are opened, or exchanged, or a toast is made if it's New Year's Eve, it's time to meet with friends, where we spend the rest of the night playing games, might get a holiday-themed one-shot going, and go see the sunrise together when it comes.

Whatever you’re doing for the holidays this season, we hope you have a wonderful season! And to sweeten things up a bit, Paizo is offering our annual midwinter holiday sale!

Illustration by Kent Hamilton

Holiday Sale!

From now (Friday 12/15) through Monday, January 15, take 10% off a single order* on Pathfinder and Starfinder products at the Paizo Store using the code holiday24 at checkout.

* The holiday24 code stacks with Paizo Advantage and other discounts. Not valid on subscriptions, preorders, backorders, Foundry VTT products, or non-Paizo downloads. Code expires at 11:59 p.m. Pacific on January 15.