With Christmas around the corner, students and their families honor many traditions. These traditions include: decorating the tree, singing carols door to door, feeding the homeless and getting together with their families on Christmas Eve.

“On Christmas, my family bakes a cake and sings happy birthday to Jesus,” Jordan Houge, ’06, said.

For some students every Christmas is different. Traditions may not be a part of the season, but families still celebrate the reason for the season.

“Other than decorating the tree, we do nothing,” Nick Ramon, ’05, said. “my parents don’t have any traditions to celebrate.”

Some students come from many different places, so they celebrate many different traditions. They may celebrate Christmas one day early, and may or may not eat ham and turkey on Christmas day.

“We go to my grandparents house on Christmas Eve,” Dawn Steele, ’03, said. “While there, we eat a huge meal with traditional rice soup, because we are Norwegian.”

“White elephant” games and secret Santa gifts are games some students play with their whole family on Christmas day. This is a time for the families to have fun with each other and get more gifts.

A white elephant game is played as follows. Everyone participating each brings a present and sets them in the middle of the table. Also on the table is a die. If the player rolls a three or a six, he or she has the privilege to chose one of the presents on the table. Then if another person rolls the same, that person can steal the present if they want it. However they can only steal three times in a game.

“For Christmas we always play the elephant game,” Suyen Milian, ’05, said. “It’s really fun and it’s more presents on Christmas.”

However the biblical Christmas celebration among Christians worldwide is about getting together with family and celebrating the meaning behind Christmas: Christ being born to save us all. For those interested in reading about the Christmas story, pick up a Bible and read Luke chapter two.