Every year we go home to our family after the exhausting week of exams. That’s when all the Christmas festivities begin. Usually cousins and other relatives come into town or some families just have small gatherings and just simply decorate the tree together. Among all the gatherings and festivities, we can’t avoid any of the weird or normal family traditions that go on.
Some of us, like me, have the simple annual family gathering. It is required to dress nice and be in the holiday spirit. Two weeks before we have our “Family Christmas,” each member draws a name from a bowl and that name indicates who you buy a gift for. We do this mainly so no one is broke after buying 6 gifts for 6 cousins. It’s a pretty simple tradition we do every year, but not every family does it.
Other families are more adventurous than others. “Every year we take turns riding on my grandfather’s motorcycles since they have a track in their backyard,” said Anna Porter, sophomore in education. “It doesn’t sound that glamorous, its just that they literally have a dirt track in their backyard that they made one year. My grandfather is kind of a hoarder when it comes to motorcycles,” said Porter.
“For some reason my family makes red and green Jell-O shots,” said Mackenzie Merrifield, freshman in political science. This seems like a tradition I would love to convince my family to start doing. Nothing like Christmas themed drinks to spread the holiday cheer.
“Every year when my family goes to pick out a Christmas tree, we go to this field that seems like a huge maze full of trees, and my sister and I play tag and run around the trees until we are worn out,” said Mabry Palmer, freshman in education. “No matter how old we are we still do it every year, Christmas seems to bring out the child in me,” said Palmer.
Katie Bolt, a sophomore in political science, says that her family plays poker every Christmas eve and wagers stocking candy. That’s definitely a tradition that’ll snag you some sweet stocking stuffers. Other traditions are a bit strange like making a birthday cake for Jesus every year. Christmas is great because that’s the time you get to see how weird or fun your family is during all the holiday traditions that keeps the family close.
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