12/8/25
By Rafaela Fernandes Silva, Staff Writer
ROCKLAND- Holiday customs change every year, and other traditions continue, both for young people and the older generations.
Ms. Ashley Leighton, a science teacher said, “Well we get Christmas trees every year, and I really liked getting a real Christmas tree instead of a fake Christmas tree, and we decorated as a family while listening to Christmas music and I remember making sugar cookies and decorating sugar cookies with my mom and going christmas shopping with my grandma to help pick out gifts for everybody else.”
Ms. Leighton explained what she tends to do during the holidays, stating that she tends to spend a lot of time with her family listening to Christmas music, going shopping with her grandma, and decorating her tree, and that she always preferred a real tree more than an artificial tree.
She explained how she decorated her nature-made tree as a family tradition and enjoys listening to music related to the holiday while they all partake in the action of decorating.
Ms. Leighton enjoys the holidays and holds all her traditions close to heart with each of them through recalls of the nostalgic Christmas moments her family shares.
Livia Tomaz, a freshman from Rockland High School, said, “When I was younger, it used to be a big party for my family, and we would all gather at one of my aunt’s houses and each one of us would bring a different dish.”
Tomaz said that when she was younger her family would go to one of her aunt’s houses and each family contributed to a part of the dinner.
As the years go by, kids grow and new toddlers come to the family. Traditions that were once from teenagers are now for the toddlers.
Tomaz said that when she and her cousins were younger, they used to get gifts from the adults in the family, but as she grew, there were new kids coming into the family, and they passed this tradition to the toddlers, and now they get gifts.
“Now I think people focus more on gifts, and now with social media, it has started a competition of who has better gifts and who has the most expensive gifts," Tomaz said.
She continued to say that nowadays people will focus more on the gifts and how people compete to see who has better and more expensive ones, rather than the actual holiday spirit.
“I think people actually focus more on experiences because they get to see experiences they can go to on social media, and that makes them want to go, but also at the same time, there is more access to buying gifts online, so I don't know," Tomaz said
People focus more on experiences today because they get to see them on social media, and with social media, people have more ability to buy gifts online.
Holiday customs change every year. As people grow, they pass their “childhood” traditions to other kids in their family. Nothing will be the same as it was before; people change and grow, but still, the holiday spirit will always be present in people's lives.