With YLHS students just returning from Thanksgiving Break, we are in the midst of the much anticipated holiday season. No matter what holidays you celebrate, most families form fun traditions around the holidays to celebrate. There is nothing like family and friend traditions to get you into the holiday spirit.

Alli Provenzano (12) states that for Thanksgiving, her family will normally drive up to Palm Desert to celebrate with her extended family. After Thanksgiving, her family participates in Black Friday in Palms Desert although Provenzano claims that the mall that they go to in Palm Desert does not quite compare to the favorite malls of ours in Yorba Linda like the Brea Mall or Irvine Spectrum. Provenzano continues to share some of her family Christmas traditions recounting “for my family we always have to wait upstairs until my parents wake up. Then they always record us kids sprinting downstairs to our stockings.” Provenzano also adds how her family has a tradition of going out to a Christmas tree farm to pick out a pine tree to chop down. When they arrive home, her family will decorate the tree and their house together to make the atmosphere feel more festive. To top it all off, Provenzano mentions how “[her] family is goals because every year they wear matching Christmas pajamas on Christmas morning.” As for friend traditions, Provenzano shares that around Christmas time her and her friend group will do Secret Santa, where each friend is secretly assigned a person to purchase a gift for.

Payton Janish (12) shares her similar family Christmas tradition of decorating their Christmas tree with ornaments together. Interestingly, Janish reveals that her family always listens to Kenny Chesney boating Christmas music while decorating their tree. Rianna Patel (12) says that other than the normal family Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners, the only tradition her family has is participating in Secret Santa every Christmas. Jacob Padgett (12) states that for Christmas, they normally throw a party for their whole family and enjoy a nice dinner together.

With the holidays approaching, Faith Webb (12) shares that “[her] all-time favorite family tradition is definitely the one where [her] whole family comes over to [her] house to bake cookies and decorate them for ‘Santa’.” Since Webb still has many younger kids in her family who still believe in Santa she says that they try to do as much as they can to keep the magic of Santa alive, like leaving the cookies out until Christmas day. Webb also enjoys and takes a special pride in decorating her whole house with Christmas lights and decorations with her father to make her house festive for all her neighbors to see.

As for me, since I have a relatively small family, my Thanksgiving is quite unconventional. We have grown accustomed to eating our Thanksgiving meal the day before so that on Thanksgiving, the four of us can pack up some sandwiches with the leftover turkey for lunch and drive to go on a family hike in the morning, of course bringing the dog along. Recently, our new Christmas tradition has been to attend the annually released Star Wars movies after opening presents in the morning.

Overall, the holidays are a great time to celebrate with friends and family. Different family traditions are a good way to create long-lasting memories and to make the holiday season more magical.