Everyone has some sort of holiday tradition. Whether it’s making cookies and delivering them to neighbors, watching your favorite movies, or hanging up stockings above a crackling fireplace, most everybody has at least one valued tradition that they enjoy over the holidays. Families across the world make holidays one of a kind with their own unique family traditions.

Different families have different traditions depending on their cultures. Alex Troilo, a freshman, is Italian and her family celebrates a Christmas full of food. In many Italian families everybody in the family comes together for a large Christmas meal known as the Seven Fishes Dinner, or the Feast of the Seven Fishes, which dates back to the beginning of the Roman Catholic religion. The Seven Fishes Dinner is a very large meal of 7 to 8 different kinds of seafood placed on the dinner table. In some families, they have up to 11 and 12 different seafood dishes! Alex’s family celebrates this on Christmas Eve along with many Italian-American families who celebrate Christmas with this dinner. Besides eating until they have no room for dessert, Alex’s family celebrates the holidays with a form of Secret Santa called Pollyanna. This term for Secret Santa is usually heard in Southeastern Pennsylvania and South Jersey. A typical Pollyanna is an anonymous gift exchange though every family has their own little twist on the activity. Alex and her family celebrate with unique traditions to make the holidays their own.

Freshman Anna Swider, and her family come from Poland. Like Alex they have feast full of Polish entrees and desserts, or in other words, “We just eat a ton of Polish foods,” Anna explains. Anna and her family also celebrate Christmas by hiding a pickle ornament in their tree. This tradition originally comes from Germany and now is a household tradition for many Polish families in the United States. A glass pickle is hidden within the Christmas tree and whoever finds it gets a prize of some sort. The prizes differ from family to family but in Anna’s family whoever finds it opens their gift first. Just like many other families Anna celebrates the holidays by embracing her culture.

While some people are rockin’ around the Christmas tree, many families are playing dreidel and eating latkes. Amanda Newberg, a freshman, and her family celebrate Hanukkah. Food is a common way to celebrate the holidays and Amanda and her family eat Latkes with applesauce. Latkes are essentially potato pancakes that are enjoyed by many Jewish families during Hanukkah. During the holiday season Amanda and her family are usually in sunny Florida with grandparents. Each night of Hanukkah, they light the Menorah and tell the story of Hanukkah while eating chocolate coins, called gelt, and playing dreidel. Amanda’s family loves the spirit of Hanukkah and celebrating it every year together.

Harriton’s families celebrate the holidays in many different ways depending on their cultures and religions. You can feel the cheer in the brisk winter air and see it in the many traditions Harriton’s families hold. Each family makes the holiday season something special!