The holiday season is one of the most exciting times of the year. Every year families come together to enjoy each other’s company and celebrate the time of year. Different religions have celebrations during this festive time, making it all the more enjoyable and important. These holidays include Christmas, Hanukkah, Three Kings Day, Kwanzaa and more. There is so much to learn about the holiday season as it has various activities and events.
Freshman Waylon Wert celebrates Christmas with his family. Every year, they celebrate Christmas by remembering the birth of Jesus Christ and take in being together during this wonderful time of year. Being together is a big part of Wert’s family traditions, including watching movies, decorating around the house, having a big feast and family game nights.
“My favorite holiday memory is being in the mountains with my family [and] hiking,” Wert said.
Junior Brielle Brown celebrates both Hanukkah and Christmas with her family. The Brown family celebrates the holidays by playing silly Christmas games or with the dreidel. The menorah is a symbol of how God provided enough oil for the Jewish people to keep their candles lit for eight nights while a war was going on. Every year she enjoys putting up the Christmas tree and the menorah for the holiday season.
“In Jewish culture, family means a lot, and getting to spend time with them is a tradition in itself,” Brown said.
Senior Vanelly Rodriguez-Ceballos celebrates both Christmas and Three Kings Day. Three Kings Day is the day that people remember the three kings who went to visit the baby Jesus with gifts for him. Since this holiday is on January 6, she and her family leave their Christmas decorations until the beginning of January to continue the festivities. Some of Rodriguez-Ceballos’ best holiday memories in her childhood are being with family and friends.
“I’m just really big on spending time with family,” Rodriguez-Ceballos said. “We usually fly out my family from the Caribbean to come for the holidays.”
Alexander Monterosso, an American history teacher here at Wakefield, celebrates Christmas with his family by having a bake night. They make treats like biscotti, cookies and more baked goods to make the festivities more exciting. This night brings his family together for a day out of the year to finally talk and spend time together without the hustle and bustle of work or school in the way.
“I like trying to find a gift for somebody,” Monterosso said. “That quest to find something that they are actually going to like, [which is] meaningful and useful.”
Over the holidays, people celebrate different traditions, but all of them seem to have something in common: family. Spending time together with family and friends is a great way of making these celebrations more exciting and memorable.
“It is always important for families to be together during the holiday season,” Brown said.
