Hey Professor: Holiday Edition

N. Gregory Mankiw, Robert M. Beren Professor of Economics

What are some of your favorite holiday traditions?

My family enjoys musical theater and we will sometimes go down to New York and take in a couple of plays...I’m an early-to-bed, early-to-rise kind of person. I rarely make a big deal out of New Year’s — I almost rarely stay up until midnight.

What was the best Christmas gift you’ve ever received?

My first child was born four days before Christmas. She must have come home a day or so before Christmas. That was definitely a special Christmas for us.

What’s your favorite carol or movie?

I love “It’s a Wonderful Life.” It’s a movie I never tire of watching. I was appalled that a few freshmen in my seminar had not seen it. I think it’s a movie everyone should watch before coming to college, at least once.

What do you want for Christmas this year?

I am a hard person to shop for because I don’t have tremendous material desires. My wife replaces my clothing as she sees it wearing out.

Steven Pinker, Johnstone Family

Professor of Psychology

What are your holiday plans?

I am retreating—what I’ve done for each of the last four or five years is retreat to a place I have back in Cape Cod. I always have some sort of writing project, like a book I’m doing this year...We go for walks on the beach, bundle up and go for bike rides. If it’s not too cold, we go kayaking.

What was your most memorable New Year’s?

December 31, 1999: I was in New Zealand. I was one of the first to see the coming of the millennium. We were also among the first to know that disaster wasn’t going to strike because of the Y2K bug. I knew it was going to be a bunch of nothing. I could confirm—in fact I called my relatives to tell them that the planes didn’t fall out of the sky, the electricity didn’t fail, ATMs didn’t stop working.

What’s on your Christmas list?

Being Jewish means that Christmas is not a big deal. We’ve managed to avoid the whole gift thing, which is great. We don’t have to spend weeks shopping for gifts people will throw out. I know I sound like Scrooge. Bah humbug. I love latkes, but we kind of worry about all that oil so we don’t always make latkes.

Do you have a favorite holiday, then, if Christmas and New Year’s aren’t a big deal for you?

I’ve come to like Thanksgiving even though it was not a big deal in Canada at all. It’s an acquired tradition when I moved here to Cambridge...We spend it in Truro, where the pilgrims landed before they came to Plymouth. They anchored in Provincetown and they sent out a party that found water and corn in Truro. They thanked God when they should have really thanked the Indians.