My Holiday Traditions: Josephine Dupuis

Days until Winter Break: 7

Josephine Dupuis enjoys her holiday season with a 62-year-old tradition. A remnant from her days as a bounty hunter, each year she heads to the North Pole to find the man with the biggest bounty on his head: Jolly Old Saint Nick. Now, of course, Dupuis doesn’t actually plan to get the head of our beloved Santa Claus (as she is among the small percentage of 100-something-year-olds who still believe in the man’s existence), but hopes instead to be the first to discover him and his elves in the North Pole.

This year’s special route involves a trip through Antarctica that will go so far south it’ll practically become the north, and eventually, Santa’s village. She plans to get herself a sailboat on Craigslist and sail all the way down the coast of the Americas until she reaches the snow-covered lands of Antarctica. From there, she will get her team of Siberian Husky octuplets off the sailboat and sled her way south until she feels the radiation of Christmas cheer, claiming the urge to bake Christmas cookies and sing carols will be the sign she’s found her man.

Josephine Dupuis
Josephine Dupuis was born in the late 1910s (she forgot which year) as Helen Smith. World-renowned for her work as a human statue in New York City, she decided to change her name in order to fully embody the heritage of her muse, The Statue of Liberty. After losing her job during the Great Depression, she tried a wide variety of occupations, ranging from potato farmer to bounty hunter, but none of them brought her the same passion as being a human statue. She’s hoping that her new job in journalism will spark a flame in her 100-and-something year old heart. She is dedicating all her articles to her two favorite great-great-grandchildren, Yammy and Paige. She is a long-lost cousin of Madie Phillips (’23).