The student body of PHS is diverse. Each culture is proud in its heritage and rightly so. During this season of brotherly love and understanding, the Hilltop Star staff has collected and edited some Christmas traditions from student contributions. By reading these glimpses of Christmas joy, we will all be brought closer together and realize that different as we all are, we are all more the same. We hope you enjoy this feature and hope you all have a Merry Christmas, a happy holiday and a great new year!

My Dominican Christmas

There are many traditions for Christmas from all around the world. I am Dominican and Puerto Rican, but because I live with my Dominican side of the family, I follow these traditions. In my family we gather on Christmas Eve, have a party, with all our family and friends, and food, lots of food.

Just like Thanksgiving, there is a table filled with food, just not turkey. Then there is eating and dancing and we talk about things, telling stories and basically have lots of fun together. Then (and this is my favorite part) at midnight we open presents and laugh, and then go on with the party.

This is my family Christmas tradition. I know it may sound like a lot of other families, but I would not change it for the world.

The Best Time of the Year

Without doubt the best time of the year is Christmas time with the family. My family always gets really excited about Christmas. Everyone gets happy and tries to make everything perfect. We cook all the traditional Christmas foods.

We even make tembleque. Tembleque is a coconut dessert pudding from Puerto Rico. Tembleque is made by cooking coconut milk or coconut cream with milk, salt, cornstarch, and sugar with spices such as cloves, cinnamon, vanilla, and nutmeg.

While we eat we decorate the tree and the rest of the house, making look just beautiful.

As Christmas day finally arrives, with the house looking beautiful, I open my window, just a bit, to smell the cold winter weather. Hopefully the snow has fallen, making my neighborhood look like someone just took a big white blanket and draped it all over.

Since I am the first one up, I wake up my cousin and get her to help me make a wonderful Christmas breakfast. When we go to the kitchen we notice that it is still full from all the foods from the night before, and there is nowhere to make a nice breakfast. So, what else could we do? Yes, we had cereal for Christmas breakfast!

Even with cereal for breakfast Christmas at my house is still my favorite time of year.

Thanksgiving at My Place

I like my family’s Thanksgiving tradition the best because every year we gather at a different family member’s house. This year they all came over to my place. Everyone brings a dish and so my house was full of food! My mother is a great cook. She made some sweets and a cake. When all the people and food are gathered and ready, we all sit down, give thanks to the Lord, and eat.

Posada

On Christmas day my family celebrates, I guess, just like other families. However, on Christmas Eve we do what is known as a Posada. Las Posadas is a nine-day celebration with its origins in Spain, but now it is chiefly celebrated in Mexico and Guatemala. It begins on December 16 and ends on Christmas Eve. Posada is Spanish for “lodging.” The nine days of celebration represents the nine months of Mary carrying Jesus.

This is a Mexican Catholic religious event that my family does every year. I love celebrating the birth of Jesus and on Christmas day getting presents.

A Very Peruvian Christmas

By Valerie Beingolea

While I was born here in the United States, my family is Peruvian. We do most of the regular American Christmas traditions. But, around the holidays I love my Peruvian heritage. We eat a lot of Peruvian food like arroz con pollo (a classic dish of Spain and Latin America, this arroz con pollo recipe is browned chicken cooked with rice, onions, garlic, and tomatoes) and we listen to Peruvian Christmas music. While we do most of the things every American family does, I love that we add our own flavor to the mix.

A Christmas Tradition

My Christmas traditions are not so different from other people. My family eats turkey or chicken together. Depending on the weather, I usually drink iced tea with dinner if it is warm, and if it is cold, I go to the store for milk, and have hot chocolate. We open presents from family and friends and talk and share stories.

The only thing I find hard to do is get gifts for my little cousins. They are really hard to shop for. I have a secret way of getting gift ideas though. I go to their parents amazon accounts and look for things their parents wouldn’t get them and buy it. Then I am the favorite “big cuz.” They always like what I buy them. For example, I have a little cousin, named Kevin, who just loves Yu-Gi-Oh cards. I try to get him a few packs of rare cards, so that he can improve his deck. My cousin and I have our own tradition. We get all the Yu-Gi-Oh cards together, make a deck in less than thirty minutes and then duel. The funny part is that both decks are horrible.

Sometimes I let my little girl cousins dress me up and paint my face. We might go outside and make a snowman (if there is snow). Mostly everyone just has a great time.

Mexican Traditions

My family usually goes to me my aunt’s house for Christmas Eve. When all of the aunts and uncles arrive, we eat as much Mexican food as we can get. Then, we all watch funny family videos in the living room.

When midnight finally arrives, Santa brings present for everyone. When he leaves we open them. My parents always get emotional when they open presents from my aunts and uncles. I like watching them exchange their gifts. It is pretty early in the morning when everyone leaves to go home.

The next day is Christmas Day! We go to the tree and see all the presents and start opening them. After everyone opens all their presents we eat breakfast and then enjoy the rest of the day with family.