Christmas is one of the most loved holidays all over the world. Everyone comes back to childhood during this magical time. Every family and country has its own traditions.  In my country they change from north to south, an example is a food.

Christmas Eve’s dinner is characterized by fish in both of the parts, Christmas lunch instead is composed of “cappelletti in brodo” and “abbacchio”. All the country becomes full of lights, a big difference is that most of us live in apartments so the lights are on the streets and not all over the house. As an exchange student, I wanted to get to know the traditions of some of our Prep students a little better.

Some of the questions that were asked were: “Does your family celebrate Christmas or a different holiday?” What are the Christmas traditions of your family? What do you usually do on Christmas?”

Sophomore Alba Fernandez, who is an exchange student from Spain said that on Christmas Eve she has dinner with her family and on Christmas morning they open the presents. 

“We have dinner together,” Fernandez said. “And then the next morning, we open the presents, my parents and I. But the dinner is with all my relatives: my cousins and uncles.”

Fernandez said she spends Christmas Day with her parents. 

“I wake up, I open my presents,” she said. “We have lunch.” 

I asked Fernandez if there is a typical tradition of her country.

“Reyes Magos,” she answered. “Is like Santa Claus, we actually have Santa Claus but we call it Papa Noel and then in January we have Reyes Magos.” 

Michael Olotu, a junior football player at Imagine Prep, shared his traditions too. He and his family celebrate Christmas and they put decorations all over their house and have dinner together.

“We just decorate the house,” Olotu said. “ We open gifts in the morning, and we get different kinds of eggnogs and just sit around the table and we taste them to see what kind of eggnog it is.” 

Junior Genesis Ayala said that she celebrates Christmas and on Christmas Eve her family and her usually go out to eat dinner. 

“Yes we do celebrate Christmas,” Ayala said. “Usually for Christmas Eve, we go out for dinner to a restaurant we’ve never gone to.”

On Christmas instead, they open gifts and make traditional food. 

“And Christmas Day we open our gifts,” she said. “We make tamales, pozole, and some more traditional foods.”

Talking about traditions Ayala said that they do a Posada. 

“In my country, we do a Posada which is when we go from door to door in the neighborhood and ask for a place to stay,” Ayala said. “That symbolizes when Mary and Joseph had to ask for a place to Give birth to Jesus and bring in our favorite family dish to share with the neighborhood.”

Senior Tanaeah Singh spends a lot of time preparing food for both Christmas and Christmas Eve. 

“We usually do a day dedicated to prepping and making food for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day,” she said. “We also open most of our gifts on Christmas Eve and open big gifts on Christmas Day.”

Singh and her family usually watch Christmas movies and eat on Christmas.

Junior Gaige Veit goes with his family to his grandparent’s house. 

“We always go to my grandparent’s house,” Veit said. “And all my family goes there for Christmas.”

He usually wakes up early in the morning and opens presents, they also make hot chocolate and all other Christmas things. 

“I start my day waking up early in the morning.” he said, “After that, we open presents and then just spend time with my family for the rest of the day. We also watch Christmas movies and drink hot chocolate.”

Jermaine Jolly, an eighth-grader at Imagine Prep said that they celebrate Christmas and part of their traditions is watching a show. 

“We like to watch a show called Psych,” Jolly said. “I usually eat fried chicken.”

Nakeira Hale an eighth grader at Prep said that she and her family celebrate Christmas and they like to get matching pajamas and drive around to see the lights. 

“My family does celebrate Christmas,” Hale said. “We get matching pajamas and go look at Christmas lights. We also get hot chocolate.”

 “On Christmas, we usually open presents as soon as we wake up and then we go to a family Christmas party and eat lots of food.” 

Hale said that one of their traditions is the white elephant.

“We do a lot of presents and we do white elephant and secret Santa,” Hale said 

Junior Christian Crivello said that his family tradition is to have a big breakfast in the morning and then they spend the day together. 

“Have a big breakfast in the morning and then open presents,” Crivello said. “I usually hang out with family.”

 Blanca Sanvicente, an exchange student from Spain and a junior said that she celebrates Christmas with her whole family for a few days. 

“We celebrate Christmas,” Sanvicente said. “And we are together for a few days, like my whole family and we spend time together.”

Her family’s tradition is to sleep all in the same house, have dinner and eat special food 

“We usually sleep together for a few days, like in the same house,” Sanvicente said. “And we have dinner, special food.” 

“On Christmas, we have the gifts,” she said. “We open them, and we just play games”

Talking about traditions from Spain she said that there’s a king that brings presents.  

“There’s like a king, and he gives you gifts.” Sanvicente said 

Senior Brissa Manno said that they celebrate Christmas and every year she and her sister get a new ornament for their tree.

“We celebrate Christmas,” Manno said. “Every year me and my sister get a new ornament for our Christmas tree.”

She added that her grandma comes to town and they make cinnamon rolls.

“So my grandma comes to town every year,” Manno said. “I and my grandma make cinnamon rolls the night before Christmas and in the morning my sister wakes us up to open the presents.”