Junior Delaney Quinn says it’s being surrounded by loved ones that puts her in the Christmas spirit, “On Christmas Eve I have all of my family come over and we split up [and] go to two movies,” she said “and then we get back and we have Chinese food.”
During the cold of the winter months, globally there is the warmth of the Christmas season that brings people like the Quinn family together in the midst of chaos and stress, before the new year.
As the Holiday season quickly approaches, traditions are beginning as well. Whether it’s parties, church on Christmas Eve, watching movies, or special meals, they all bring the joy of the holidays to many families. Triton Staff member, Cheryl Wotton shares her strict schedule, “we begin decorating the day after Thanksgiving…we get our Christmas tree the following Sunday,” she said, “Christmas morning we always have an egg bake..when the kids wake up we do stockings, take a break, and resume our gift opening.”
Only a month before the festivities begin, Triton students Taylor, Chloe, and Angela get insight into some holiday traditions. It seems like a common theme for families to come together to celebrate the December holidays, student Abby Richard similarly said “We have Chinese food every Christmas Eve [after church], in the morning we open our stockings first and then we open our gifts, we go to my Aunt’s house for Christmas dinner.”
In a Yahoo article by Madeline Buiano, researchers conducted a survey that concluded that 73% of people bond more with their loved ones over the joy-filled season than at any other time. Special Ed Teacher, Kurt Riese says his traditions are pretty traditional, “I always have Chinese food on Christmas Eve,” he said “I do too,” student Maecy Gay-Killeen added. “We do the stockings, we always serve roast beef at Christmas dinner,” he said. But some people might not find this tradition at all.
There are over 4,000 religions worldwide and celebrations look different for almost everyone. We asked History teacher Mrs. Lisa Herzl, who celebrates Hanukkah, what she does during the 8-day festival, “on the first night we get together with our family and have Hanukkah dinner, Hanukkah foods are fried in oil [the Hanukkah story],” she said, “we just do gifts on the first night when we are all together,” she said.
Hanukkah is drastically different in celebration compared to Christmas.
Junior Elinor Leahy tells us, “I go over to my aunt’s house, I decorate gingerbread cookies…” she said, “I have a fake tree downstairs and a real one upstairs, that’s what we always do.” Christmas time is an exciting time for most. Driving around to get a closer look at the joys of the season is just one of those exciting events for the Leahys, “We always drive around and look at Christmas Lights with a hot chocolate [on] Christmas Eve,” she said.
In different forms and religions, everyone can enjoy the happiness of the season with their family and friends along with some magic throughout.
