The Golden Bachelor students Kathy Swarts and Susan Noles share their favorite holiday traditions. “I like to decorate a small Christmas tree with about a thousand ornaments. I made socks for all my children and grandchildren. It takes me days to put it up and days to take it down. But, I love it,” Swarts tells PEOPLE during a recent interview. “Who doesn’t love Christmas? Who doesn’t love fake snow at Christmas in Texas?” For Noles, it’s all about the food. “I’m Italian! Of course, we are big on holidays,” she says. “In my house it’s crazy and loud and we eat like there’s no tomorrow.” In October, Swarts, 71, and Noles, 67, attended the Warner Bros. Fall TV Celebration with Fenty Beauty to promote their Bachelor Nation podcast, Bachelor Happy Hour: Golden Hour. On the carpet, they detailed to PEOPLE how they prepare to spend the holidays with their families — including their favorite meals to prepare.
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“I bake from scratch. I’m not a good cook, but every year I have to make pecan pie and zucchini bread,” says Swarts. “If I come and I don’t have those pastries, that’s a problem.” Swarts even revealed the key to her delicious zucchini bread: “You have to shave the zucchini and leave some of the liquid inside. It’s a trick.” For the Noles, it’s a return to their European roots.
Susan Noles and her children on Instagram.
Susan Knowles/Instagram
“My chowder or escarole soup—Italian wedding soup. If I don’t serve it, my son would boycott,” Noles says.
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Noles also likes to take his grandchildren with him to the kitchen. “I love to bake Christmas cookies with them. And I don’t have to tell them no. Because you don’t see them every day. You don’t have to be the one disciplining, unless they’re really bad, of course,” she says. “Julian, my 14-year-old, takes all the sprinkles for the regatta cookies. We do it every year.” Swarts agrees that grandparenting is easier than parenting—it comes without the mess.
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Kathy Swarts and family on Instagram.
Kathy Swarts/Instagram
“I love having my grandchildren on the floor, playing with them, doing fun things. I don’t have to clean it. I just come and enjoy, and then, ‘Bye! I’m going home!’ “, she says. “But inside [all] Seriously, I love being able to pass on the traditions and stories that I think are so important to continuing the family tradition.”
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up to date with the best PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Balancing between grandparents and a new star isn’t easy, so Swarts and Noles find time to prioritize themselves. “As we get older, as I get older, I know I just have to be true to myself. I have to wake up every day and look in the mirror,” says Swarts. “I don’t have to impress anyone. I just love myself and be good to other people. it is [a] pretty simple rule, just live life and love yourself.” Noles shared advice for anyone entering the third stage of life like her. “What we do every day is talk to people who say life isn’t over. I don’t care what you want to do, whether it’s a new friend, a new hobby or a trip — do whatever you want, but know that your life is not over, you’re not invisible,” she says. “You’ll still enjoy your children and grandchildren, but do something for you.”
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Source: HIS Education