With the holiday season coming up, people are starting to get into the holiday spirit. We all have holiday traditions that are important to us and our families; these traditions are what bring us into the holiday spirit and shape the course of our holiday season. With feedback from San Marcos students from a survey, we found the most popular holiday traditions among our student body.
One of the top responses for holiday traditions was seeing family for Christmas and Hanukkah. Along with this tradition, students said that making and eating food with their family is a tradition. These foods include apple pies, eggnog, gingerbread and sugar cookies, tamales, pozole, latkes, and stuffing. Another popular tradition was decorating a Christmas tree, which is a key part of Christmas and being festive during the holiday season. Snowboarding, skiing, and sledding is also a popular tradition among our student body,although it can be a harder tradition to accomplish because we do not have snow in Santa Barbara. Some of the students have more specific and unique traditions.
“Every year my family has a Christmas Eve party, my grandma makes fruit cake and that tradition has been passed down over generations,” said sophomore Stella Kramer. “It is a big community event and all of our neighbors and loved ones come together in holiday spirit. It is a time for my family to reconnect with those we don’t see and spend time with loved ones.”
Traditions like these can connect us with our loved ones especially after spending time apart due to the pandemic.
Freshman Scarlet Akin said, “My favorite holiday tradition is celebrating Hanukkah. Every night we light a candle on the menorah and have family dinner then we open presents and say a prayer. This tradition is important to me because it connects my family and we spend quality time together. I also love the traditions that come with Hanukkah and being Jewsih because it is a time for me and my loved ones to celebrate our religion since it is such a big part of my life.”
“My favorite holiday tradition is on the Lady of Guadalupe’s birthday. On this day we wake up early in the morning and sing “las mañanitas” to her at 5 am,” said senior Viviana Galindo. “This is important to me because she is an important figure in my Catholic religion and it means a lot to my family.”
Traditions based on religion are important in some of our student bodies’ lives and also emphasize the importance of family time.
Overall, on campus our holiday traditions vary and are very diverse. These traditions mean a lot to our students when getting into the holiday spirit and are a great way to spend time with loved ones and enjoy the holidays.
