Bay Village students share family traditions

The holiday season has arrived, a time for rejoicing, connecting with loved ones and creating memories that will last a lifetime. For the Observer's annual last-issue-of-the-year feature, Mrs. Martha Fisher of Westerly Elementary School in Bay Village asked her third-grade students to share favorite family traditions from this time of year.

My Lovely Christmas Eve
On Christmas Eve my family goes to my Aunt Debbie’s house. I see my cousins and we get matching pajamas. We eat snow ball cookies. They are cookies with walnuts. We eat brownies and sing songs in her music room and I play the piano. For dinner we have spinach quiche, grapes, and mac and cheese. The kids play house up in my cousin’s mom’s old room when she was a kid. Then we ride up and down the steps. The stairs go in circles and we slide on our bottoms down the stairs. Next we change into our matching PJs. Finally we open presents and we play with our new toys. All of us write letters to Santa and put them in my aunt’s special mailbox. We go home and I say,  “Hi,” to Jingle, my Elf on the Shelf, and go to bed dreaming about the wonderful day that is coming.
by Lulu V.

My Christmas Tradition
We cut down our tree each year. Our family has gone to Wilcox Tree Farm to cut down our Christmas tree every year since I was a baby. My parents make us a big breakfast before we leave. My dad gets his saw and we all pile in the car to go find the perfect tree. Our family rides on their tractor to take us out to the trees. If we are lucky there will be snow on the ground so my brother and I can have a snowball fight! Some years my brother finds a tree and some years I find a tree but we never leave without a tree. Sometimes we struggle to get it in the door and some years we have to cut the top because it is too tall. Once we finally get it in, our dad takes a nap and my brother, my mom and I put on ornaments and candy canes and lights! I like to eat the candy canes but I also like to see the ornaments I made and have got from the past. I do this every year and I LOVE IT!!
by Aaron B.

My Christmas Traditions
On Christmas Eve I go to my Grandma’s and meet all my friends and family. When we first get there, we get to play inside the house and play games. Then my 12 year old cousin comes and we get to play more games while we wait for more friends and family to get there. Second, when our friends and family get there, we always give them a big hug and welcome them. Then when they all come we usually get to open 1 or 2 presents. After that we all eat a very, very tasty ham dinner. After dinner we get to open presents! We all get very nice presents. I love all the presents that I get on Christmas Eve. Next we get to play games and talk to each other.  Later we have to go home and we say our good byes. Christmas Eve is awesome because we get to see friends and family.
by Alyssa J.

My Danish Christmas Traditions
In my family we have a Danish Christmas. We have elves that move into our house. They come on December 1st and leave on Christmas Day. The elves in our house are boys and girls, 2 girls and 2 boys. One of the girls and boys sit on the mantle and the other elves lay by the Christmas calendars. Christmas calendars are sewn and they have little rings. Every day the elves leave small presents. In the winter it’s not so hard to wake up because I can’t wait to see the presents!
by Camilla S.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Christmas Eve is Very Special
On Christmas Eve my brother Ryan and I make cookies with Mom. These are special cookies just for Santa. I hang up my stocking by the fireplace. Auntie Lisa comes over and brings presents to put under the tree. Grandpa David brings presents too! Auntie Erin, Auntie Lanna, Emma, Holly, Chocolate and many other family members come over for a big dinner. After dinner my whole family goes to church. After church we go home and open presents. Ryan and I put cookies and milk by the fire place for Santa. I go upstairs with Dad and read Christmas stories before I go to bed. When I wake up I go downstairs and open presents from Santa. Santa then goes back to the North Pole to start on next year to make it even more special!
By Nicholas S.

My Holiday Traditions
We have many holiday traditions. First we go to Lake Farm Park. We go to Santa’s workshop and build toys. We also see lights, watch the horse show, and we go on a horse drawn wagon ride. Next we have gingerbread house night. Two hundred people gather and build gingerbread houses. It is at my grandma’s church. The event raises money for Habitat for Humanity. There is a lot of candy to build with including coconut, pretzels, frosting, and licorice ropes. Next my brother and I go to my grandma’s house. We frost and sprinkle over 150 cookies. After we are done, we go see trains at Puritan Nursery. Last we eat grandma’s beef stew and biscuits with my dad, my mom and the rest of my family. We eat the beef stew on Christmas Eve. Our holiday traditions are very special to me.
by Elise P.

Secret Sisters
Every year for Christmas we have secret sisters because we have four girls in our family. Secret sisters is when you buy a gift for one of your sisters and you can’t tell anyone who you have. This year I have Abby. My sister Claire makes cookies and says “I’ll give you all the cookies if you tell me who you have for a secret sister.” The other sisters don’t care who has who. They just worry about the gifts that they have to get for their secret sister. Every time when I go down the stairs to the basement, my sisters are yelling “what do you have!?” so they can try to guess who I have with the present. But, of course, guess who might just be down there? MY SISTER ABBY!! And of course, she’s asking what I have so she can know who I have! But then she goes upstairs and mom comes down and wraps the presents. But after all the asking and begging to know, everyone gets what they wanted. But it’s not over yet! Someone has to have my dog and do you know what that means? More SECRETS! So one person has to get TWO presents. And that’s the end of the secrets for this year but just wait until next year!!
by Emma L.

Cutting Down My Christmas Tree
Do you cut down your tree with your cousins? We do! The day after Thanksgiving, my brothers, sisters, cousins and I always cut down our Christmas tree. We go to the Pine Tree Barn and get a saw and a sled. Then we go to the trees. We run around looking for a tree. It always takes our family a long time to find a tree we all agree on. But when we do, we pull it to the car. Before we put it on the car we watch it go through a machine that ties a string around it so it will stay. Then we have lunch and sometimes have dessert. There is also a store there. We hang out there and we have to run around the store to keep track of our parents. After that we start to head toward the exit. The people who tied the tree together help us put it on the roof. Then we say goodbye. Now I’m excited to start decorating our beautiful tree.  
by Evelyn R.

My Holiday Traditions
Every Chanukah my mama makes hot latkes. All of my family comes over for a big Chanukah dinner with latkes. We light the candles on the menorah. There are 8 candles and the 8th candle is the one that helps lights the other ones. My family lights them together. My sister and I get gelt. Gelt is a chocolate coin but we never get to eat our gelt before dinner. We open presents every night during Chanukah. We sing songs with my family and we say prayers on Chanukah.
by Gabrielle C.

My Muslim Celebration
Eid is a holiday for Muslims and it is after we fast for 30 days. We eat special food and we get lots of gifts and a ten dollar bill sometimes. We get to go to mosque and pray on Fridays. We have to wear long sleeves on Eid. We also celebrate Ramadan, a holiday for Muslims. We don’t eat or drink anything for 20 hours and at ten o’clock at night we eat and we also sometimes eat before the sun comes up. We fast for 30 days. Ramadan shows our love of God.
by Lynn A.

What I do for Christmas
Every Christmas we go to my Gramma’s house with the family. That’s where Santa gives most of the families their gifts. I have a job of passing out the gifts. Then one by one each member opens their gift. But before Christmas, my parents and I get my tree. I always look forward to decorating it. My two favorite ornaments are a little truck delivering gifts and a glass icicle. Every Christmas brings new memories for me.  
by Nick L.

My Christmas Traditions
My favorite holiday is Christmas. Every Christmas, we have an Elf on the Shelf. Her name is Holly. Sometimes I write to her. She always writes back. Every year we do an Advent calendar. My mom puts little treats in the tiny doors. She puts smarties, Hershey kisses and sometimes fruit snacks. I always make a gingerbread house each Christmas. Every year my sister’s ginger bread house is always very simple. My sister does not put a lot of candy or frosting on her gingerbread house. I always put so much candy and frosting on mine that it doesn’t even look like a gingerbread house. My family always gets a new ornament each year. Last year my family got an ornament from Disney World. I got an ornament with Winnie the Pooh and Piglet. I love decorating the tree. It is so pretty with all the ornaments. My favorite ornament is a glass bell with Santa inside. Every year we do a different Christmas craft. This year we did a foam craft. I made a candy shop with a gingerbread man. On Christmas Eve my family and my cousins go to my Aunt Shirley’s house to eat dinner. When we get home we sing Christmas carols. We also watch Santa Tracker. Then when we wake up we open presents and watch a Christmas movie. We go to my Grandma’s house for the rest of the day. I love the Christmas season.
by Sarah F.

Making Gingerbread Houses
My mom and I build a gingerbread house for the Christmas holiday. We put M&Ms and Skittles and more candy on the gingerbread house. We make a little gingerbread man. We make his eyes with Skittles and his mouth is made of frosting. Our gingerbread man is looking out of a window of the gingerbread house. First we connect sides of the gingerbread house with frosting. Second we put frosting the house so we can decorate it with Skittles, mints, M&Ms, and Smarties. Our gingerbread house is not too tall, or not to small. It is always just right.
by Daniel F.

My Christmas Traditions
The first week of December, I always go with my dad to pick out a tree for Christmas. The last thing we do for Christmas is to hang the stockings under our mantle. Every year on Christmas Eve, my Grandma from Colorado comes to our house for Christmas. We put a village on our mantle. We put houses and people on our mantle, some snowman and deer but we put one special decoration up on our mantle. It is Santa and his reindeer. We put soft cloth under everything to make snow on the ground. We put a manger by our front door. There is Jesus and Joseph and Mary. There are goats and sheep and even a dog. We have a great time on Christmas.
by Caitlin N.

My Elf on the Shelf
Elfy, the Elf on the Shelf, is one of Santa’s little helpers that look after me to see if I’m good. He is a boy elf like it said on the box we got him in. He looks like a doll. But when he flies to Santa he probably looks like a mini person. I have never seen him when he does not look like a doll. He wears a red suit and a red and white hat. He moves from place to place each night. Elf on the Shelf is really fun to have around. You can buy little clothes for your elf. I really like my Elf on the Shelf. You can leave food for your Elf on the Shelf it is like leaving cookies for Santa and the elf eats them. The Elf on the Shelf’s is a very fun tradition to have, you can do a lot of things with elves.                           
by Paden V.

I Love Christmas
Christmas is my favorite holiday. I always like putting up the Christmas tree. We put ornaments on the tree. My favorite ornament is the SpongeBob one that I bought at Gale’s with my mom. Another favorite of mine are the 6 guitars and the 1 bass ornament. I hang them on the tree. I also hang a Patrick ornament on the tree. I also put lights and tinsel on the tree. I put regular lights and multi-colored lights on the tree. I always put a tree skirt on the tree. We put a train on the bottom and an angel on the top. We put light-up candy canes in the front yard. We also put out our nutcrackers and window clings. We also get out my Christmas stuffed animals and books. Christmas is my favorite holiday.
by Logan Y.

My Christmas Traditions
These are my Christmas traditions. We pick our tree and we decorate it. My dad decorates the outside of the house. Every year we put out milk and cookies for Santa. We make reindeer food for the reindeer. We watch Christmas movies throughout December. We watch “A Christmas Story” and “Christmas Vacation”. We go to out grandma’s house. These are my Christmas traditions.
by Colin D.

My Christmas Activities
Every year my family goes to Downtown Winter Fest to see Santa. At lunch time we eat at the Hard Rock Café. Santa gives my sister and I chocolate cookies. There are a bunch of activities to do. My favorite activity was the science experiment. My sister and I had to make snow! Another activity is making a creation with Jaw Bones. Jaw Bones are different pieces of plastic that you have to put together. Another activity is making a creation out of Fuzoodles. Fuzoodles are big, long, fuzzy sticks. After all of the fun activities are done we see a Christmas play around the big fountains that we throw coins into when we walk in Winter Fest. My Christmas tradition is fun.
by Joey F.

My Christmas
Every year we go to Gale’s Garden Center, they name their Christmas trees. One year it was Chuck, the next year it was Clementine, the next year it was Lucy and this year’s going to be Lilly. Then we decorate, we put on the lights and ornaments. Then I put on the star. I go to my Grandma’s house on Christmas Eve, we eat dinner with my family, then my family and I open presents together. My Mom’s rule is I have to wait till my parents wake up to open presents but I can open my stocking. After I open my stocking I watch Stampylongnose, he is a Youtuber. Later the company comes over and we open the rest of the presents. I have a lot of fun at Christmas Eve and Christmas!
by Lindsay L.

I Love Christmas
I like everything about Christmas. I like the tree, the presents, and the snow on the ground. I even like the ornaments that I made in kindergarten. I like to eat cinnamon rolls. Last year, I loved the ninja bread men. Ninja bread men are like gingerbread men just that they look like ninjas. We use cinnamon candies for eyes. That is what we do on Christmas Day.
by Samuel B.

My Christmas Traditions
At Christmas time, we go on the Polar Express Train with my family and friends. We also go to Lake Farm Park Country Lights to see Santa. My family goes to a tree farm to cut our own tree.
by Sophia F.

Christmas Traditions
On Christmas Eve my family has a party at my house with my grandma and grandpa. My parents cook turkey and cookies. My siblings and I open presents from my grandma and grandpa. Then we go to sleep waiting for Santa! On Christmas Day, I spend the whole morning opening presents. After opening presents, we bring some new toys to my grandparents’ house and eat breakfast. My brother, sister and I play with all our new toys all day! On Christmas we eat gingerbread cookies. Christmas is my favorite holiday!
by Sylvie B.