Holidays are the perfect time of the year to spend time with family. Christmas in particular is when one hears about so many different family traditions. Ever since college, students commonly find themselves starting to appreciate holidays more.
“Every Christmas Eve we go to my Dad’s side of the family and Christmas Day we go to my Mom’s side of the family,” sophomore Jackie Neary said. “It’s fun because both sides of my family are older so every- one’s busy working and in school, so it’s nice to see everyone. It’s special because everyone’s all together in one place.”
“Every year the traditions start on Christmas Eve. We go to 4:00 mass with my Aunt and Uncle (my dad’s brother) and then go to their house for dinner and exchange gifts. After that, we go to my neighbor’s house to celebrate,” junior Jess Breuning said. “Then Christmas Day my family opens up gifts in the morning and my mom makes cinnamon buns. We go to my aunt and uncle’s (my mom’s sister) house for dinner with some of my cousins and we exchange gifts. My favorite tradition is probably having dinner at my aunt and uncle’s house on Christmas Eve cause my Aunt’s an awesome cook!”
“Christmas Eve we go to my grandparents on my dad’s side and this is personally my favorite,” sophomore Alex Petrongolo said. “My dad’s family is so big and Christmas Eve is the one tradition that everyone goes to and never breaks. All my cousins and I (mostly the girls) spend Christmas Eve morning helping our grandmother set up the house and help out with all the food that she needs to prepare for the family.”
The Petrongolo family makes sure that they keep traditions from the beginning of the day through to dinner. They even have a specific order of eating.
“That night when everyone comes we start with all the appetizers and that’s leads into dinner. After dinner no matter how old we are it is always so much fun while we wait for Santa (my brother) and buddy the elf (my one cousin) to come and hand out our grandparents gifts to each grandchild,” Petrongolo said. “Once that long process is over we do our Pollyanna. Following Pollyanna we all get our Christmas pajamas. That is always a big excitement every year.”
Christmas is a great time to take a break whether it is a month, a week or a few days to get together with family you have been too busy to see. It is moments like these that help put one’s life back into perspective of what truly matters. The feelings one has after these gatherings are priceless.
Everyone has their favorite parts of the Holiday. For Jackie Neary it is “Christmas morning at my house with my brothers and sister because it reminds me of when we were younger.”
For some families, their traditions start to change over the years as people grow up and move away. This only leaves more room for new traditions to be made.
“My tradition stays the same every year,” Petrongolo said. “We have a big family so we do one side for Christmas Eve and the other side Christmas Day.”
Some families are able to stick to traditions no matter how old people get.
