Just How Lucky We Are by Carlie Wilson

It’s Christmas time. A season of holiday lights, food, Santa Claus, snow, music, and of course, the presents. When I was younger, Christmas was my favorite time of the year, probably because I knew that every year I would be waking up to a pile of gifts under the tree with everything that I wanted and a delicious meal was waiting for me at my grandmother’s house.

When I moved to South Africa in fifth grade I quickly learned that Christmas is not all that it is cut out to be. No Christmas lights on houses, carols on the radio and in the store were rare, and Santa Claus was non-existent. In seventh grade I was given the opportunity to volunteer at a local elementary school once a month. On our visits there, we would simply read them books and sometimes we even played games with them. On our trip in December we were all asked to bring a gift and a book for our book buddies. I decided to buy my book buddy a barbie doll and some children's reading and writing books that would help her with her English that she was, at the time, trying to learn. Upon arrival, I was really excited to give her the Barbie doll because when I was younger, playing barbie with my sisters was what I spent almost all of my free time doing and I wanted her to be able to experience the same thing. When I gave her the gifts, she immediately pulled out the books, set the barbie aside and excitedly continued to flip the the pages of the book and then went on to show her friends the books leaving the barbie doll forgotten on the table. It was very interesting to see how much more appreciative she was of the books than of the doll. For me it was quite the opposite. When my mom bought science books, world maps, Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader video games, BrainPop quiz books, the Rocket Science kits, and even Junie B. Jones books, though I was appreciative of them, I had received them every year, throughout the year, and had loads of them stacked up in our playroom. My focus was the on the bikes, American Girl dolls, the Wii, Easy Bake ovens, and Play Dough sets.

When I came back to America  I realized how much we materialize Christmas time. It was almost overwhelming to see how much time and efforts are put into a time that has lost  it’s real meaning. Don’t get me wrong, I still love Christmas time and enjoy the gifts that I receive, but it is hard to see Christmas the same when I have witnessed people who are unable to find a book under the tree (if they even have one at all) when they wake up in the morning. It just doesn't seem right.

The Week Before Break by Sarah West

The air is cold, the festive lights shine bright,

people smile and laugh all through the night,

yet as the children frolic in the fresh snow,

we are stuck inside, in our homes.

Although we'd love to join in the fun,

there is just too much work that needs to be done.

Instead of holiday cookies, we make study guides,

And instead of carols we memorize formulas and outlines.

We work on projects instead of watching classic movies,

instead of spending time with family we must fulfill our duties.

As students, we always put school work first,

even when the constant stress over grades is the worst.

So still we continue to study late as all of the teachers cram

as many tests into the week before break as they can.

We don't even get to slow down during the best time of the year,

when we should be enjoying all of the holiday cheer.

Birthday Wishes Come True by Carly Piniaha

16th birthdays are literally, once in a lifetime. They are celebrated immensely with sweet sixteen parties or other big events. I recently turned sixteen and it had become my time, as many others before me, to decide what I wanted to do for my sweet sixteen. Now, I'm not much of a party thrower myself so those ideas were not in my future. Without any ideas, I decided to just celebrate with my family and friends. My parents on the other hand had other ideas. They set up an amazing 3 day weekend where I got to go to Disney with one of my best friends, Mikayla.

Disney had always been one of my favorite places. I mean it's a place to go on fun rides and meet princesses, and what little girl wouldn't love that? Though I’ve grown out of meeting princesses, (sorry Rapunzel), it still holds a special place in my heart for all the fun things to do there. It’s much nicer to spend the majority of our time riding on the various rides there are than waiting online to get an autograph and picture. Throughout the whole trip we were able to ride all the roller coasters in the park, which is an added bonus.

Disney, holds true to its slogan as happiest place on earth. The people who work in Disney are some of the nicest people you will ever meet in your life. Even though they deal with thousands of people every workday of their lives. Everywhere I went they would wish me happy birthday or just strike up any random conversation. The employees made my Disney trip ten times more enjoyable just from their kindness.

On the first day, we went to both Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. We started off in Hollywood Studios and ended the day in Animal Kingdom. I’ve always loved the Star Wars rides in Hollywood Studios, even though in all honesty I haven’t seen all of them. Animal Kingdom was one of the most interesting parks with cast members putting on shows in the middle of streets almost every twenty minutes.

The second day was the day we went to Epcot. I had been most excited to go to this park because of the Japan section. I have been studying Japanese for a little over two months, and I was trying to push myself to speak Japanese while I was there. It’s very nerve racking to do this, for me at least. So when I was able to speak to the employees from Japan in Japanese it was a big accomplishment for me.

The final day we went to the Magic Kingdom. At seven o’clock they closed down the park and opened up for a Christmas festival. We were able to stay for this and rides that usually were 130 minutes or more went down to ten. The castle was lit up with hundreds of Christmas lights and was one of the prettiest sights in the park. At nine o’clock they even had a parade where the whole main street had “snow” coming from the tops of the buildings.

I am so thankful for my sweet sixteen I ended up going to Disney. It was an all round great experience that outweighs any party I would have had. My parents and Mikayla were able to make my 16th birthday one that will be unforgettable.

Santa Claus: The Man, The Myth, The Legend

Santa Claus: The Man, The Myth, The Legend

By: Jillian Parks

December 2, 2008. As my heart pounded, my eyes gaped up at the man whose beard was made of snow and suit was as red as ripe cranberries. What was I to ask for? I knew at this very moment that I only had seconds left to spare to tell him the present I wanted most. Finally, I blurted out “A bike!” The events to come were much of a blur. My brother and I smiled for a picture, and gave the man the rest of our lists. But I knew that the thing that I whispered to the jolly man was the thing I was for sure going to get.

That Christmas, I knew I had made the right decision. The bike I got was beautiful (well it seemed so at the time). Cotton candy colored streamers fell out of the handle bars. An assortment of purple flowers, each unique in their own patterns dotted the winter white background. That day, I felt like the luckiest girl in the world, and it was all because of Santa.

 Believe it or not, though, the man people know today as Santa Claus, the one said to come down chimneys on Christmas and bring gifts and joy to children, did not always have these characteristics of the jolly man we all know and love today.

The Legend of Santa Claus

The legend of Santa Claus can be traced back hundreds of years to a monk named St. Nicholas. It is believed that Nicholas was born sometime around 280 A.D. in Patara, near Myra in modern-day Turkey. Much admired for his piety and kindness, St. Nicholas became the subject of many legends. It is said that he gave away all of his inherited wealth and traveled the countryside helping the poor and sick. Over the course of many years, Nicholas’s popularity spread and he became known as the protector of children and sailors. By the Renaissance, St. Nicholas was the most popular saint in Europe.

Sinter Klaas Comes to New York
St. Nicholas made his first inroads into American popular culture towards the end of the 18th century. In December 1773, and again in 1774, a New York newspaper reported that groups of Dutch families had gathered to honor the anniversary of his death.

The name Santa Claus evolved from Nick’s Dutch nickname, Sinter Klaas, a shortened form of Sint Nikolaas (Dutch for Saint Nicholas). In 1804, John Pintard, a member of the New York Historical Society, distributed woodcuts of St. Nicholas at the society’s annual meeting. The background of the engraving contains now-familiar Santa images including stockings filled with toys and fruit hung over a fireplace. In 1809,Washington Irving helped to popularize the Sinter Klaas stories when he referred to St. Nicholas as the patron saint of New York in his book, The History of New York. As his prominence grew, Sinter Klaas was described as everything from a “rascal” with a blue three-cornered hat, red waistcoat, and yellow stockings to a man wearing a broad-brimmed hat and a “huge pair of Flemish trunk hose.”

Shopping Mall Santa's

Gift-giving, mainly centered around children, has been an important part of the Christmas celebration since the holiday’s rejuvenation in the early 19th century. Stores began to advertise Christmas shopping in 1820, and by the 1840s, newspapers were creating separate sections for holiday advertisements, which often featured images of the newly-popular Santa Claus.It was only a matter of time before stores began to attract children, and their parents, with the lure of a peek at a “live” Santa Claus. In the early 1890s, the Salvation Army needed money to pay for the free Christmas meals they provided to needy families. They began dressing up unemployed men in Santa Claus suits and sending them into the streets of New York to solicit donations. Those familiar Salvation Army Santas have been ringing bells on the street corners of American cities ever since.

Living as Less Than by Madison Levinson

In class we read "The Minority Report" by Philip K. Dick. Although my blog post does not have to do with predicting the future of crime, it does pertain to the title of the work. Specifically, the word "minority". When people mention the word "minority", minds tend to travel to the obvious: skin color, race, and gender. The minority that people tend to ignore is religion. For the purpose of this post I will be focusing mainly on the Jewish religion, as it is my personal experience. Now, I was never deprived. I am a Caucasian, affluent, single child, who got anything I set my little heart on. But what I never truly got was a the sense of inclusiveness. This feeling was especially heightened during the winter months that approach the holiday season.

For most people the morning after Halloween is the official start to the holiday season. And for most people the holiday season means family, snow, and Christmas trees. Yes, Christmas trees, Who would ever think that Christmas trees could be the source of a problem?

As a small Jewish girl living in Sparta, New Jersey (The capital of farming but not Judaism) I was left out. All my friends would have days dedicated to simply decorating their houses: putting up lights, hanging up stockings and decorating the Christmas tree. All my family did was pull a Winnie the Pooh Menorah out of a box under our china cabinet. All of my friends had off on "winter break" for their holiday (but let's be honest, it may as well just be called "Christmas break"). I had to go into school practically all seven days of my holiday, and I guarantee nobody asked me what I got after saying my prayers on the fourth night of Hanukkah. All of my friends gushed about all of the toys that they got for Christmas when winter/Christmas break was over. By that time I had probably either broken or lost half of the toys my parents got me. As a small Jewish Girl I sunk to the back of the classroom during the holiday season. I quietly participated in all of the Christmas themed crafts, I just nodded and made something up when somebody asked me what I got for Christmas (even though it secretly infuriated me), I smiled and told the clerk "you too" at the store when she told me and my mother "Merry Christmas", and I envied all of the stories the children had of waking up on Christmas morning and running downstairs in their footie pajamas. That was the first time that I felt like I was less than everybody else around me.

As I grew up I came to terms with the fact that it was easier to please the majority and just do a Christmas craft. I realized that the school just didn't have the ability to give kids off for Hanukkah and Christmas. And I accepted the fact that I would always hear about decorating Christmas cookies as a family and getting into a frosting fight with Uncle Jimmy. But as I started to grow up I didn't just learn more about how society worked, I also learned more about my faith. I learned that Hanukkah was not a super important holiday, but Yom Kippur was. Yom Kippur is the Jewish Holiday for atonement, it is referred to as a holiday of the "high holy days". But I also learned that I was not given off from school on Yom Kippur. The most important important holiday of my religion was just another casual day at school where I had a science test. I had to take off from school for Yom Kippur, go to temple, and fast because that was what my religion mandated I do. That was the second time that I felt like I was less than everybody else around me.

A breakdown of religion in the United States
 (numbers may vary between different studies).

As I became a young adult I just accepted that the world was not going to give me special privileges because of my religion. The world wasn't going to favor me because I was different but the world also wasn't out to get me. What I did not accept and cannot accept is the way that people treated me because I was different. As an adult I came to terms with the person I was and the religion I worshiped because of it. I was not afraid to tell people I was Jewish when they asked what I got for Christmas. I was content with my beliefs. I felt as though I could handle however people reacted. I was wrong. I could not handle when somebody told me "You don't look Jewish". Sorry, should I carry around a giant sign with the word "Jew" and an arrow pointing at my face? Should I have my friends wear shirts that say "I'm with Jew" and an arrow pointing to me? Was I supposed to have a specific look because of my religion? I could not handle when somebody asked me if "That's why I had a big nose?". Yes, not only are all Jews supposed to look alike but were all also supposed to have the same exact honker on our face. Thank you for pointing it out because I am not at all self conscious about it. I could not handle when children started throwing pennies at me to see if I would bend over and pick them up. I am sorry to disappoint you but a penny is not going to buy me anything in this day and age. Maybe next time try a quarter so at least I can buy myself a decent gumball. I could not handle the first time somebody said "you're Jewish" as a reason for me not to have an opinion on a matter. Oh yeah, oops, I forgot. Us Jews just aren't allowed to have an opinion anymore. I could not handle learning about the Holocaust in school and feeling all of those piercing Christian eyes turn and look at me. Yeah, 6 million of us died, but I am not going to just burst into tears so you can feel bad for me. That was the third time that I felt like I was less than everybody else.

Now I can ignore the Christmas season. I can ignore the fact that my religion forces me to work around school and the world that I live in. I can also ignore the obscene remarks I receive. After all, 83% of the American population identifies as Christian, 13% identify as no religion, and the remaining 4% identify as a religion as non-Christian (The Jewish population makes up about 2.7% off the non-Christian population). I will always be a minority and I have come to accept that. I will also always feel like I am less than everybody else and I have come to accept that.