HOLIDAYS

Celebrating The Holidays by Ryanne

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Let it snow!Creative Commons License Louise LePierres via Compfight

Every year I celebrate Christmas with my family. I have three sisters and one brother; I also have my nephew, niece, and parents to spend christmas with. My family always decorates the christmas tree together a little earlier than others. Every Christmas Eve my family (dad’s side) has a party. I see cousins, aunts, and uncles I only see once a year. I love this because we have dinner with them and celebrate together. At the end of dinner we exchange gifts. The kids put out cookies and put all the presents under the tree for the morning. We go to bed and wait for Christmas morning to come. When I get up, I wake everyone else up and we all go down stairs. I find the presents that are mine and open all of them. We then go to breakfast at my aunt’s (mom’s side) house with my family. We enjoy the breakfast and all day we enjoy family and friends. A week later we celebrate New Year’s and go to my mom’s friends house. We count down 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1- HAPPY NEW YEARS! After this, it’s the end of all the holidays this year. That is how I celebrate my holidays at the end of the year!

 

Please comment how you celebrate. Do you celebrate the same holidays? If not what holiday do you celebrate? Do you even celebrate a holiday during this time? If you don’t, what is your biggest holiday during the whole year? I would love to hear what you have to say. Please leave a url to your blog so I can comment back. Thanks!

~Ryanne      

 

Holiday Post – By Isaac

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Every year my family celebrates Hanukkah and Christmas. For Christmas, all of my family comes to my house in the morning to exchange gifts, and there’s never been a time where it wasn’t fun! My uncle always makes us amazing pancakes, but that’s kind of annoying because we have to wait for him to get here (he lives a long way away). I make a Christmas list every year, but my brother doesn’t and gets really amazing stuff. I tried that once, and I got nothing I really liked. My family hasn’t gotten their Christmas tree yet, and I’m getting a little worried!

Hanukkah my family just does by ourselves. I love using the dreidel, but my family doesn’t do the thing where you win chocolate coins. We used to do the thing where you gave people gifts on each day of Hanukkah, but now we just light the menorah and eat latkes.

My parents don’t encourage staying up very late, but this year they are letting me stay up until midnight on New Year’s Eve. I have never seen the “ball dropping” in New York City, but I have always wanted to go. Maybe I will someday!

 

Glossary

Hanukkah – A Jewish holiday where people celebrate the oil that burned for eight days

Christmas – A Christian holiday where people write lists and “Santa” gives them presents under a tree

Dreidel – A four sided top that you spin and you win something

Menorah – A candle holder with 8 candle spots and a spot for the Shamash, which lights all the other candles

New Year’s Eve – The American new year falls on January first, and the day prior, people have all sorts of parties at midnight.

Ball Dropping – At midnight, a giant ball falls in a building in Times Square, New York City, signifying the switch to the new year.

Still don’t understand what Christmas is about? – Christmas Website

Still don’t understand what Hanukkah is about? – Hanukkah

Holiday Post by Bode

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Holiday post: What Does My Family Do For Christmas?

What my family has been doing since I was 7 years old is to go to my best friend’s house because he always has a Christmas Eve party. What we do there is celebrate Christmas, eat a lot of dinner and eat more dessert. Then my best friend’s uncle who is really good at playing the piano and my best friend plays the saxophone. So what they do? They perform a song together in front of everybody. My Aunt, Uncles, Cousin, and Grandma all come to our house before the party and they stay on Christmas Eve and celebrate Christmas with us.  After the party we go back to my house and go to bed. Whenever I go to bed on Christmas Eve I always stay up in my bed all night because I just want to get out of bed and open all the presents. Then finally when it’s the morning I’m always the first one out of bed and it’s so annoying because my grandma always sleeps in till like 9:30. Then we open all the presents and celebrate.    

 West Point Christmas Tree Stanley Zimny (Thank You for 16 Million views) via Compfight

The Holidays by Tess

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I personally love the holidays! I love the food, the presents and all the different cultures that come with it. Every year I celebrate Christmas with my friends and family. We all come down and have a great dinner that includes ham and amazing sides. After the meal most of my family leaves, but my aunt and cousin stay for Christmas morning! Usually my cousin and I come out of our rooms first but sometimes it’s me and my brother. We come to the top of the stairs and look down at the present piled Christmas tree. There is a rule in the house that is no going downstairs on Christmas morning until everyone is ready. So we wait and wait until we try to wake up our parents.  And of course after all of the present ripping and unwrapping, it’s finally time for my aunt and cousin to go home. I think Christmas is my personal favorite holiday. Most people think it’s because of the presents (which it kind of is), but it’s also about the family and the fun you have!

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Photo taken by Tess Copyright_Sign2

 

HOLIDAY CELEBRATION – Eamonn

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Over the holidays I usually just hang around my house until Christmas Day. On Christmas Eve my family and I decorate anything that can be and then watch Christmas movies. Then we go to bed and wait. I usually get up in the middle of the night because I get bored of waiting so I go and  see if anything is under the tree. If there isn’t I go back to bed, and if there is I go and sit in my bed and think of an excuse to get the rest of my family up without getting yelled at and delaying them even longer. Then I give up and just run into the room and do anything that I have to to get them up.

Then after an half an hour of persuading they get up and we go into the living room. Then we start to open up the presents. I open one and then wait for my sister to open all of hers before continuing. I do this so that my Christmas lasts longer than hers. Then when all of the presents are opened and I am checking them out my mom makes breakfast. Then we get in the car and start “THE JOURNEY”.

After one hour in the car we get out at my uncle’s house. To me it is like a mansion with a pool. The first thing that we do is go into the living room and open the presents that my dad’s family has for my sister and I. This lasts about 45 minutes before all the presents are open and looked at. Then we go into the dining room and have yet another breakfast. Then we get into the car again and start “THE JOURNEY PART TWO” .

We head to my grandparents’ house down in Pennsylvania. By the time we get there it is already dinner time. This is the final stop on “THE JOURNEY” so we get to relax when we get there. We do the same thing like at my uncle’s except this time we don’t eat breakfast………….. …………we eat dinner. Then after spending the night at my grandparents we start, yet again, “THE JOURNEY PART THREE” witch is back to my house. When we get home I enjoy the last part of my break and check out all of my new stuff.

The famous Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree in New York City

Picture from Wikipedia

Holiday Celebration Blog Post – By Audrey

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It is almost time for winter holidays, and there are lots of holidays of all different religions coming up. There are many different festivities and traditions, and I am going to talk about what I do during this time of year.

Since my parents grew up Christian, my family celebrates Christmas even though we are not very religious. We celebrate Christmas for the giving and the time with family, because almost every year I get together with my family and we all have a big celebration, even if it isn’t exactly on Christmas. This year, before Christmas, I went up to my aunt and uncle’s house for a big party with my grandparents and my cousin. I was very happy to be able to exchange gifts and play games with relatives I don’t get to see all the time.

Even though my family celebrates Christmas, we have some traditions, special only to us. For instance, my family usually has a Christmas Eve dinner of Squid soup,  because it is an italian tradition. Although this year we want something different. It is one of the only times we use the table in the dining room, because usually we don’t all have dinner together. But it is really nice to get together at the table!

Another tradition we have is opening the presents from relatives on Christmas Eve night instead of Christmas morning. We always open one present at a time in a certain order, and we all talk after everyone open’s each present. I love getting to open my presents a day early,and then waking up the next day to Santa’s presents, which are always unwrapped.

I don’t have many plans for New Years this year. I always watch the ball drop on television, even if the time is an hour earlier like it was in Chicago. I always spend time with either friends or family, and most times I stay up until twelve. But some years I’m so tired I fall asleep!

I am so excited for Christmas to come, and I wish everyone a Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!

Attribution:

From Flikr – Christmas Fireplace by Christian Marineau 

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