Lefse, remote control cars and hockey jerseys: Flyers reveal family traditions and childhood gifts

The season is a long and winding road with still plenty of miles to go but as the NHL hits its annual holiday break, Flyers fans may be hoping for a pair of playoff tickets under the tree.

One of a handful of teams that ended their pre-holiday schedule on Friday, the Flyers are amid a four-day break that ends on Wednesday when they reconvene for practice in Vancouver.

Although several guys will be heading back home to the Philly area, the final stop in Detroit made it easy for some of the Ontario-born players like Morgan Frost, whose mom came down for the game, and Owen Tippett to head home for Christmas. Scott Laughton’s parents also attended the game before giving him a lift back to Ontario where he plans on indulging in his mom’s cheese and bacon croissants.

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Joel Farabee hasn’t been back to Upstate New York in a while but he made the four-hour drive home. When he got there, he surely helped with the family tradition of making pierogies on Dec. 23.

“When I was little I used to roll the dough with my mom. We’d have everyone at a station, my brothers would be boiling them. Sometimes I’d be putting them on the sheet and bringing them out to the garage to let them freeze overnight,” said Farabee, who noted cheese is his favorite kind. “... When I was real young, we’d have like my cousins, everybody, we’d all go home to my grandpa’s house and we’d make like hundreds of those, and then everyone in my family would get to take like 50 home.”

Even though he grew up in a Dutch family, Marc Staal’s aunt would make “these insane pierogies” every year when he was growing up in Thunder Bay, Ontario; he likes them thin with potato and cheese or bacon, for the record. Now his wife makes Christmas cookies every Christmas Eve with his kids in Connecticut, where he’ll be spending the holiday this year, and hoping Santa brings him a new red Craftsman-like toolbox. It’s a little different than what he was hoping to get as a kid.

“I got this remote control car one time, I think I was eight,” said Staal, when asked what his favorite gift was as a kid. “It was one of those ... double-sided ones where they could flip over. I asked every day for a month and it came and I remember being pretty excited about that one.”

Of course, he had to share it with his brothers.

As the Staal family did during the holiday, Travis Sanheim would hit a frozen pond on Boxing Day in Manitoba before watching World Juniors. Carter Hart would go for a skate with his family on either Christmas or Boxing Day — and has continued the tradition at the Flyers Training Center a few times over the years with his dad “ripping pucks.”

But there was nothing better for Hart than the present he got one Christmas in Alberta.

“My first Carey Price jersey,” said Hart, who added he got chirped quite a bit for sporting a Canadiens jersey in Oilers territory. “I think it was his first year in the NHL, he would have been 20 or 21. I was 10 years old and I got a red Montreal Canadiens jersey with Carey Price on the back. He was my favorite goalie growing up and that was a really cool one.”

It was a present he surely didn’t see coming because, as the goalie said, “Sometimes you’d see one that’s wrapped up in the shape of a hockey stick and you’re like, ‘OK, you already know what it is.’” But a stick is just what Scott Laughton recalls as his favorite gift as a kid.

“It was my first composite stick. It was a [Easton] silver synergy Mike Modano curve,” said Laughton, who added the stick was bigger than him when he got it. “It was behind my curtain in my living room; not wrapped or anything and it was my first composite stick, so I’ll always remember that Christmas.”

Nick Seeler recalls getting knee hockey (or mini-sticks) as a present one year and Tippett’s favorite gift was the pair of Bauer skates he got when he first started playing competitive hockey as a tyke. For Garnet Hathaway and Frost, bicycles stand out and Travis Konecny says his best gift was a Siamese kitten, who was subsequently named Jazz. But for Ryan Poehling it was, of course, a hockey-related gift.

“I got a Nashville Predators jersey. It was like that super ugly, that golden thing with the big Predators logo but I loved it,” said Poehling, who is looking forward to seeing his grandparents during the break. “I wanted it and it was a Tomáš Vokoun jersey, the goalie. I don’t know why but I loved him so I got that and I was fired up.”

Growing up in Minnesota, the Poehling and Seeler households would have lefse, a traditional Norwegian flatbread that would have cinnamon and butter, for Christmas. Tippett’s family eats cinnamon buns while Hathway’s dad, John, makes a type of oyster chowder, and Frost’s dad, Andy, makes Morgan’s Nana’s recipe for shortbread cookies with green and red sprinkles.

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Growing up in Sweden, Sam Ersson’s tradition was watching “Kalle Anka och hans vänner önskar God Jul,” which translates to “Donald Duck and his friends wish you a Merry Christmas.” It is the 1958 Walt Disney special, “From All of Us to All of You,” and airs at 3 p.m. every Christmas Eve.

Ersson will be heading to New York City with his family this year, where he has already spent a few Christmas’ stateside. For the last two years, the Swedes in Leigh Valley would head to the Big Apple for a taste of home at Aquavit; the restaurant serves a traditional Swedish julbord or Christmas table that showcases a smörgåsbord of traditional food from herrings to meat to dessert.

In Sweden, the holiday is celebrated on Christmas Eve. In North America, the majority of guys said they couldn’t even open their presents till Christmas morning. As Tippett pointed out, “When I was growing up we always tried to get my mom to give us one the night before but she would never break.” This year a few were hoping for something golf-related under the tree but all agreed this time of year it is about one thing as Laughton said:

“Just good health for my family and to be able to spend it with them. I think that’s that’s the best gift you can get.”