VHS students reflect on their holiday traditions

Ashley Rice, Reporter

It seems that every family has some sort of holiday tradition. Some people travel to different places while others stay home and celebrate with their friends and family. Other families put up trees and even more put up bright lights and decorations.
Some families even have traditions surrounding presents and when people can open them.

“My family opens Christmas gifts at exactly 12:00 a.m.. We don’t open them in the morning. We celebrate on the 24th and open presents at midnight,” senior Maria Guerrero-Rivas said.

There are so many different traditions and each family has their own, whether it was intentionally created or not.

“What could be considered a family joke at this point is one unintentional tradition. When I was about five or six, we got my uncle pieces of coal in a beautiful tin. We still manage to forget to give it to him every single passing year,” sophomore Jaylie Carleton said.

Traditions have a special way of bringing people together especially over the holiday season. They are a way of spending time
together by doing things that everyone involved cares about.

“My holiday tradition is Chinese New Years. People usually get $200.00 but you have to dress in kimonos and other traditional clothing. We usually have two to three days of celebrating where we all have to get along, and it’s really important to my grandmother because she has celebrated it since she was little,” freshman Herminy Shaw said.

Food is heavily central to a lot of traditions. Most families have foods that are important to their religions, cultures, and families; these foods are made every year without fail.

“I’m Jewish, so we celebrate Hanukkah. We make latkes, and we put up menorahs and lights,” junior Shai Gefkovicz said.

Holiday decorations can also be a big part of traditions. Some families put up trees, others put up menorahs, and others have a specific color that holds significance.

“Anything red gets put up. Red is everywhere,” Shaw said. “… decorating our tree has been happening since my grandma was little, and the interesting part is that the youngest is always the one to decorate the tree and no one can complain about how it is decorated.”

Traditions have always been a way that families can come together and put aside differences to spend time with loved ones. There are all kinds of cool traditions and each family has their own that have existed for years. Every year, families start new traditions that will last for decades.