Golden Bachelor alums Kathy Swarts and Susan Noles are sharing their favorite holiday traditions.
“I love to decorate a little Christmas tree with about a thousand ornaments. I’ve made stockings for all my children and my 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 like fake snow at Christmas in Texas?”
For Noles, it’s all about the food.
“I’m Italian! Of course, we’re big on holidays,” she says. “It’s crazy and loud in my house 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’re preparing to spend the holidays with their families — including their favorite dishes to prepare.
“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/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 regatta cookies. We do it every year.”
Swarts agrees that grandparenting is easier than parenting — it comes without the mess.
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.”
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Balancing grandparenting and newfound stardom isn’t easy, so Swarts and Noles find time to prioritize themselves.
“As we get older, as I’ve gotten older, I know that I just have to be true to myself. I have to wake up every day and look at myself in the mirror,” Swarts says. “I don’t have to impress anyone. I just love myself and be good to other people. It’s [a] pretty simple rule, just live life and love yourself.”
Noles shared a piece of advice for anyone entering their third stage of life like her.
“What we do every day is talk to people out there saying life is not over. I don’t care what you want to do, whether it’s a new friend, a new hobby or travel — do whatever you want, but know that your life is not over, you’re not invisible,” she says. “You’re still going to enjoy your kids and your grandkids, but do something for you.”
Read the full article here
