Student Speaks

What is a holiday tradition that your family practices?

"Every year my family will make tamales together and we make a whole bunch and we'll give them to family as gifts. Christmas is the only time of the whole year we make tamales so they're special in our family. " --Vanessa Santana (9)

"My entire family-immediate or otherwise-come down to my aunt Susan's house if they can to celebrate Christmas-exchange gifts, eat good food, and just gather to talk. It's the one time of year that my whole family has an excuse to get together, so it's really important to my parents." --Eli Davis (11)

"Decorating our Christmas tree with real candles! We also put up the tree on Christmas Eve, with it being taken down January 6th on 3 Kings Day. This is a standard German tradition as the Christmas tree is there for Christmastide (a season of the liturgical year) only." --Benjamin Ditterich (12)

"One of my favorite holiday traditions is driving around with my family and looking at Christmas lights." --Irie Carr (9)

"My favorite christmas tradition that my family practices is our pickle ornament tradition. Every year we hang up a pickle ornament on our tree last, after every other ornament is put up, and Christmas morning my mom hides the ornament inside the tree for me and my brothers to find. Whoever finds it first gets bragging rights and a couple extra stocking stuffers." --Jonah Juarez (12)

"During Lunar New Year, all the elders in the family give the young children a "hong bao" with money in it. Hong bao translates to red packet in English. The red packet is meant to symbolize good wishes and luck. Also, everybody tries to wear red during the holiday. It's suppose to be like good luck or something. In China, red is a very lucky color." --Jing Wang (9)

"My family always has a Christmas dinner on both sides of the family. On my dad's side, we eat dinner on Christmas Eve and open presents from that side. At 12 AM my siblings and I open presents from our parents. Christmas day we open the rest." --Andrea McCrickard (12)

The results were close this month, but over 25% of students said that The Nightmare Before Christmas was their favorite Christmas movie. The two runners-up are Elf with 19% and Die Hard with 14.3%. A Muppet's Christmas Carol and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation were two movies that were written-in by students.