Every year on the 25th of December, families, friends, and communities come together. Some sing, pray, dance, laugh, eat or even attend a church service. A typical Christmas can look different for everybody depending on family and religion, but for most, the average Christmas Day consists of dinner and presents. 

“We wake up, we normally eat, and then we go downstairs and we open up gifts. We start in order: my mom, me, my sister, and my dad. And then our dog is jealous, so we also have to give her some gifts too. But and then after that, we eat a big breakfast, and then we just watch Christmas movies,” freshman Belle Hufflefinger said. 

Religion can play a big part in why people celebrate Christmas. Though it may be overlooked by all the gifts, some students view the holiday as Jesus Christ’s birthday. 

“For me, I feel like the point of Christmas is celebrating Jesus’s birthday and everything because he played an important role in our lives. I know not everybody believes in it, but I do. I just feel like that’s really the main reason why. And I feel I’m very grateful for all the gifts I have and the household I’m in and everything with the food. I just feel all of that was created by him,” Hufflefinger said.

Others view Christmas as just a day to celebrate with your family and friends and make new memories.

“Christmas means to me a day that I get to spend with my family. We just get to do a bunch of stuff that morning. So Christmas is family oriented,” junior Callie Barnes said.

During this busy season many families and friends partake in different traditions. A lot of people enjoy exchanging gifts with their friends. 

“Every single year, my friends Zoe and Alyssa come over with me and my sister and we exchange gifts with each other. We’ve done that ever since we were little,” Hufflefinger said.

Unfortunately, some activities can get in the way of celebrating Christmas. In Freshman Damontae Balmat’s case, the activity was football.

“It was three days until Christmas break, I was gone all Christmas break because the tournament was state finals for football and we were in Naples, Florida. We had six games out because we were there until after Christmas. We were there two weeks after Christmas, so it was two games every week or something like that. It was hot too. We went to the beach and stayed in a nice hotel. We didn’t get presents until we got home so we didn’t celebrate Christmas there,” Balmat said.

Not everyone is as fortunate to spend Christmas with all of their family. 

“Well, since my parents split, it depends every year. I switch between waking up at a person’s house and then going later in the day to the other person’s house that I didn’t wake up in the morning with,” sophomore Avery Keyes said.

Not everyone’s Christmas looks the same and not everyone believes in the christian interpretation of it. Maybe “typical” Christmas looks vastly different from the “conventional” Christmas but no matter, Christmas is special when spent with the ones you love.