The holidays are important to everyone in the world, no matter what holiday it is and no matter how people celebrate them, each and every person feels the same way about the holidays. Worldwide, every family has a holiday or an event where the whole family comes together and celebrates a joyous and loving day. Between the holiday shopping, cooking, and getting the house together, everyone eventually finds comfort in the traditions that they do with their family.
Some common holiday traditions include decorating your house for the season, decorating christmas trees, saying what you’re thankful for at Thanksgiving dinner, and many others that are widely celebrated. These are some well known traditions, but with families of all different religions, beliefs, and personalities there are many unique and interesting traditions that bring families even closer together than the common ones.
Class of 2025 All Saints’ student Hudson Dalton says that when he was younger his family used to not just give food for Santa, but also leave food outside for his reindeer as well. Dalton said that it was always a good time because his family would always spend a few hours making reindeer calls outside to see if they could attract the reindeer.
Class of 2024 All Saints student Hank Parrish says that they do a tradition during Christmas called Left, Center, Right. This is when each person gets three one dollar bills, and one person rolls three dice. These dice each have L, R, and C where whatever you roll you pick from that spot until the last one with the last dollar wins the game. This takes an interesting and competitive spin to a family whose strong focus is sports and being competitive. Parrish says that it’s “fun and usually grandma is the one with the last dollar bill,” so everyone has a great time celebrating grandma and having a good laugh while playing the game. Some All Saints students, like Durham Salter and Heath Speck go hunting during the holiday which is a common tradition in Texas, but not as common in other states.
Class of 2024 student Grace Yater says that her family always spends time right before Christmas enjoying time out of the country and exploring the world. Also on Christmas Eve, instead of giving Santa Clause milk, they give him a little beer for his ride across the country. I want to take this time to say don’t drink and drive a sleigh over the holiday Mr. Claus.
Class of 2025 student Cambell Wynn spends her time skiing in Vail, Colorado with her family and also enjoys putting her Christmas lights up with her dad. The night of Christmas Day, Ryland Byrd’s family does a questionnaire about college football playoff predictions, grade predictions, and all sorts of stuff and every year they look back and see their last answers and make new ones. Ethan Glenn’s family does two Christmases with different sides of the family, one on Christmas Eve and one on Christmas day. Double the gifts and double the fun.
Coach Demetrius Knox, All Saints’ Alumnus, Dean of Students, and Football Offensive Coordinator, says that instead of celebrating Christmas one day of the year, he tries to celebrate it on multiple days because he believes that we shouldn’t limit family and belief to one day whether it’s presents or just spending time with people.
Head Prefect Blake Johnson, goes to Crested Butte, Colorado and spends time with his main family. Him and his dad take the time to go skiing first thing in the morning in Santa suits to spread Christmas spirit to everyone. Kwame Oseii opens three presents representing the Holy Trinity every Christmas Eve.
These are only a few of All Saints’ Families unique traditions that bring everybody closer together. Traditions are important to build growth and the Dean of students, Coach Knox, brought up an amazing point. It’s cool to celebrate Christmas and Thanksgiving, but we shouldn’t need those days to put an emphasis on family, friends, and religions. We should take the time to celebrate our lives more frequently and enjoy the time we have with each other.
