Festivities in the Frost 

By Red B, and Sadie S., Grade 10 

What do you think of when you hear the word ‘Winter’? The cold weather, the hot chocolate, or getting to celebrate with family? Maybe you’re just excited for the break in school. MIS has so many students that celebrate a wide array of holidays, from Sinterklaas to Lunar New Year.  

December has so many holidays across the month. Starting with December 5th in the Netherlands when Sinterklaas is celebrated. “On the 5th of December, on his birthday, the kids get a really big amount of presents.” Alec W., Grade 11 tells us. Then comes Saint Nikolaus on the 6th of December. “Saint Nikolaus is just a day he comes and gives all the good children candy and Krampus also comes and beats and steals all the naughty children.” Sarah O., Grade 10 says. Then, of course, Christmas, “Christmas is when Santa comes and brings you presents.” Sarah continues. And this year Christmas has a friend on the same day, Hanukkah, “The eight nights of Hanukkah, it starts on December 25th this year and I think it ends January 3rd, but I’m bad at math.” Kenley S., Grade 10, tells us.  

Traditions differ across the many holidays, especially when it comes to gifts, music and food. Even within Christmas the traditions change. “(We eat) Turkey or beer grilled chicken. You basically put a beer can in the chicken.” Alani B., Grade 10, told us. Similarly Madelyn D. tells us her family “Normally (eats) baked chicken and pot pie.” Sarah O., told us about her traditional Irish Christmas dinner. “We eat roast turkey, we eat ham, we eat lamb. It’s like a Sunday roast. There’s a lot of mashed potatoes and yorkshire puddings.”  

The concept of gifts also changes per holiday. For Dora F., grade 10, gifts are just “Us buying stuff that we want and calling it a gift.” Dora continues, explaining that “We’re not necessarily Christian, it’s just Christmas.”  

For a lot of people, Christmas is really just a holiday some people celebrate. It doesn’t have to be for religious reasons.  

Alec W. told us about the gift giving traditions his family has for Sinterklaas. “We play this game where we roll a dice and either you move a seat, or the present moves a seat, and you end up with random presents from the packages.”  

He also told us about some food. “There are these chocolate letters, so you get a letter shaped like the first letter of your first name. There’s (also) a thing called paper notes that are kind of like gingerbread but more cinnamon.” 

Kenley S. also tells us about her Hanukkah traditions. “Every night we get a gift kind of like a stocking stuffer in Christmas language for other people but that’s kinda what we do.” She continues, telling us about a game. “We play the dreidel game but we play with almonds and sometimes dog treats so our dogs can play with us.”  

Sure, all these traditions sound amazing, but what about family specific traditions? “(We go) skiing, and I love to go outside with my sister and do snowball fights,” Alani B. told us.  

She also told us about how her and her family listen to a lot of music. “I’m usually the one DJing because I actually have a good music taste.”  

Sarah O. told us about a tradition her family has concerning their tree. “We have a rotation for who puts the angel on the top of our tree but the angel is a photo of our dogs. So this year it’s my second oldest sister and last year it was me.” Even her pets are included in her traditions. “We started putting up stockings for our dogs so they can enjoy it too.” 

Snow is always a big part of the winter holidays. “We would all go sledding, because I lived on this big giant hill,” said Dora F. 

Overall, the winter season is full of exciting activities and an array of traditions. Traditions to bring families and friends together in a meaningful way with gifts, music, and food. Who knows? Maybe you and your friends could create a new tradition this year.