Holiday traditions make good memories

Everybody looks forward to the holidays. Students get a break from school (and hopefully from homework) and eat too much food. They also get to spend time with friends and family and give and receive presents.

What really makes the holidays special is enjoying personal holiday traditions. But everybody is different. Wheatland Union High School is home to students of many different backgrounds. Every student I talked with had a story to share about their holiday traditions. Most of their traditions centered on food and family.

Food is a big part of the holidays. Everybody has their favorite foods — steak, shrimp, yams or Jell-O. Who could imagine Thanksgiving and Christmas without a lot of cooking and second helpings?

Jaime Sobreyra, a senior, mentioned, "We always have a really big dinner on Christmas Eve."

For some people, Thanksgiving goes with turkey and stuffing, and Christmas means ham and egg nog. Others eat less "traditional" foods — lumpia, latkes or burritos — but it's a tradition for them nonetheless.

Eating food is great, but chances are, that's not what will be really memorable.

Natalie Ross, a sophomore, laughed and said, "We bake cookies for Christmas, but we always have to bake more because we end up eating them all."

Whether it's baking cookies or gluing together popsicle sticks to make ornaments, the fun of traditions is not always the end result, but the time spent rolling the dough or putting on the sprinkles.

No matter what you do during the holidays, it's more enjoyable if it's done with family and friends. While it's easier to stay at home, sometimes you have to travel through crowded airports or drive a long way to get together with those you care about.

Jicayla Johnson-Rosemond, a junior, can relate and said, "On Christmas, we'd always go to my aunt's house, and her town had a really ugly Christmas tree."

The holidays are a built-in reunion for extended family with exclamations of "Look how tall you've gotten!" and "Good to see you again!" Some families have traditions that involve going to church, watching sports, playing board games or decorating the tree.

When we were young kids, we had endless holiday joy, but as we got older, some of that magic may have faded. Traditions can bring back that magic, year after year. Here in Wheatland, we may not have some of the classic winter traditions like sleigh rides and snow forts, but that doesn't spoil the holiday spirit of our student body. The students I interviewed seemed excited about the upcoming holidays and celebrating their individual traditions.

Whatever your traditions, may your holidays be memorable!

Meghan Lasswell is a junior at Wheatland Union High School. Her column appears about every sixth week in Education.