As the new year, 2025 has started, all the families have mainly settled down from the holidays by this time of January. As the holiday season was exciting, every family does similar things for Christmas but also have some specific traditions. There are some very common traditions that most families do, but it is fun to learn about silly things some people play or celebrate. As of 2024, 85% of people in the United States Celebrate Christmas, the other 15% of people probably are not Christian and celebrate a different holiday. After Christmas break, I interviewed some of my classmates to find out what they did during the break/what they celebrated. The people I interviewed included Emma, Robert, and Stella.

My first interview question was “Do you celebrate Christmas, if so, how does your family celebrate Christmas Eve?” Everyone I interviewed had responded that they do celebrate Christmas and it is their favorite holiday of the year. Emma, Robert and Stella said they had a fancy dinner with their family on Christmas Eve.

Secondly, I asked “What food do you eat on Christmas?” Stella said she had steak, Robert said he had Prime Rib, and Emma said she had ham. As for the third question, I asked “What does Christmas mean to you?” This was a very common question that many people think around the holidays and the majority of people I asked said that Christmas means spending time with family and arranging gifts. Stella told me, “Christmas means to me spending time with my family, and spending quality time with my grandparents.”

Next, I asked “ What traditions/activities do you do for Christmas time?” Robert’s answer was the one that stood out and he responded with “Every year we eat Chinese food while decorating the tree.” Many family traditions for Christmas also have to do with baking a certain food or eating a certain food.

The last question that I proposed to the people that I interviewed was “Do you get a Christmas tree, if so how do you decorate it?” Everyone said that they definitely get a Christmas Tree every year and decorate it with ornaments and an angel on top. The majority of people I interviewed also said that their family usually gets two Christmas trees for their house. Throughout the years, it is true that the selling of Christmas trees has been going up due to the fact that many families love having two Christmas Trees. As Robert said, “Ya, my mom likes to get two Christmas trees, one that is decorative for Christmas, and another that is more of the ‘fun’ tree”.

Although the holidays during winter are a crazy time of the year, it is one of the only times of the year when some people can see their extended family. Also, even though Christmas is all about getting gifts, one of my favorite “gifts” is being able to have a family that can afford gifts and spend quality time with me and my siblings. Overall, it is fun to have family traditions to look forward to around Christmas, and many families have cool ones to hear about.