The boxes are brought out, overflowing with decorations for different holidays — some for Thanksgiving, some for Christmas, some for Hanukkah. Everyone has their special family traditions. The Gauntlet asked our student body how they celebrate the winter season.

Thanksgiving

Senior Deniz Ersoy, from Istanbul, Turkey: For Thanksgiving, I will go get some cooked turkey from Publix, and I will eat it and rent a movie.

Senior J.J. Byrnes: For Thanksgiving, I’m flying up to New Jersey to my cousin’s house. My family is going there.

Sophomore Tiffany Chinwuba: For Thanksgiving, I usually go to the Ritz Carlton. My whole family from my dad’s side comes down and then we have a party at my aunt’s house.

Freshman Kelsey Leskinen: On Thanksgiving, I always wake up to watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Then we cook all day. I set up the table and help my mom cook. Then we either go to my house or my grandmother’s house and we all eat as a family. We always eat pumpkin pie, turkey and stuffing.

Freshman Richard Worthy: For Thanksgiving, we can’t leave the house. It’s like house arrest. Pretty much we focus on cooking and there’s a big feast at the end, and usually we just watch golf.

Freshman Jessica Williams: Canadian Thanksgiving is already over for me. I just had a party with a few of my friends and ate turkey.

Senior Alex Stolarczyk: [For Thanksgiving], my family makes a turduckin–you get a turkey and a duck and a chicken and then you stuff it in the turkey. Stuff the chicken in the turkey and the duck in the chicken. It’s super good.

Freshman David Gao: For Thanksgiving, I attempt to eat a turkey with my neighbors. My mom makes dumplings.

Hanukkah

Ethan Leuchter: We [will] first have the Thanksgiving dinner and then, towards the evening, we’ll celebrate Hanukkah. We light the candles about 8 P.M. and say the prayer.

Katie Siegel: For Hanukkah, we light the menorah for eight nights. We spend a little time together exchanging gifts. The first night we eat challah and traditional Jewish food. Usually, since we are all so busy, we don’t celebrate it every single night, so we’ll probably not celebrate it on Thanksgiving.

Christmas

Sophomore Artemiy Andreev, from Moscow, Russia: We celebrate Christmas on the 31^st of December. Usually my mom, sister and grandma come together and [make] some ravioli called pelmeni.

Senior Lewie Khella: For Christmas break, we always go to a different country, so we’re going to England this year. We have family in England. Last year we went to Greece and met up with family as well.

Senior Delia Revard: We either stay here and do the whole Christmas dinner shebang or we go up to Ohio or St. Louis and visit family and hang out. For Thanksgiving, we just stay at home and have a huge dinner. We bring out all the fancy silverware. It’s cool and fun.

Senior Laura DeMaio: For Christmas, we have a ton of guests, like, 12 people, eating dinner. We always go to the beach on Christmas to celebrate.

Senior Kirsten Samuels: [For Christmas], I’m going to Denmark because my family is from there. We have a lot of Danish traditions like we sing Christmas carols [gathered] around the Christmas tree in Danish and we have a competition with pudding with three almonds in it. Everyone has to eat some of it and whoever gets the almond gets a prize.

Freshman Lethario Jones: For Christmas, we first start with a Bible story [of] how Jesus first came into the world. We open presents on the 24^th. We exchange presents from the oldest to the youngest, so my grandparents will get their presents first and then my parents [and so on]. Then, we have a big family dinner and stay [up] until ten at night watching Christmas movies.

Freshman David Gao: For Christmas, I get a Christmas tree, and it’s big. We decorate it with sparkly balls and I hang out with my friends.

Junior John Donnelly: For Christmas, we always go to St. Louis because that’s where my family lives. For my mom’s side of the family, we open the gifts on Christmas Eve. For my dad’s side, we go to one of our relatives’ houses and open gifts on Christmas morning instead so that way we can go between the two families.

Junior Andrew Zandomenego: Normally, during the Christmastime, we make something called ayacas. It’s just a typical Venezuelan meal for Christmas. It’s really good.

Sophomore Claudia Usubilaga, from Merida, Venezuela: We actually celebrate Christmas on the 24^th and eat special Venezuelan Christmas food like arepa and hallaca.

Sophomore Amanda Veliz, from Coquimbo, Chile: We celebrate Christmas in the summer so it’s very different. All of the people go to the beach. It’s summertime and it’s Christmas.

Freshman Juliana Rodriguez: We celebrate Cuban Christmas on the 24^th and then American [Christmas] on the 25^th.

Thanksgiving and Christmas

Freshman Jonathan Boyd: For Thanksgiving, we just have a bunch of my family over. Everyone makes food. Usually we eat turkey, stuffing [and] potatoes. Christmas is kind of the same deal, except it’s like a German tradition. We open presents on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day so we open presents on both days.

Freshman Matt Goeders: We don’t really go out and do much [for the holidays]. I just lie around at home and hope my friends stay so I can have someone with me.

Freshman George Prince: [For] Thanksgiving break, I go to New York with my whole family. For Christmas I either stay home or go skiing.

Sophomore Ali Sammour: For Thanksgiving, we are having a friend come from out of the country and for Christmas we are going on a cruise.

Freshman Parker Shanahan: For Thanksgiving, normally my Greek family members come down and we all eat lamb. For Christmas, it’s the same thing, but instead ham.

Freshman Savannah Sandstrum: We usually go to Disney for Thanksgiving and Christmas. My grandparents from both sides come over.