Christmas Pasts As Told by UPHS Students

A photo of beautiful winter day in Upper Perkiomen Valley by Heather Hamilton.

With the holidays just around the corner, many students have been reminiscing about their Christmas Pasts. Personally, I can still vividly remember the sheer excitement and suspense that lead up to the most anticipated day of the year, the games my siblings and I made of writing lists and guessing gifts, and the eventual relief of knowing exactly what the presents were.

In order to understand other students experiences better, I sent out short surveys via Google Docs, as well as my journalism blog, and interviewed some students in person. Somehow, even though it’s the same holiday people have wildly different memories.

Like many others experiences, for Breana Phelps, a UPHS sophomore, Christmas day usually begins with an early morning start.

“On a typical Christmas day, my family and I wake up early and immediately open up presents”, she said. “We spend the day watching the best Christmas movies, like The Christmas Story!”

Movies seem to be one of the most universal memories among the students, with films like The Polar Express, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Home Alone mentioned in almost every response. Other popular memories of course included opening up presents and decorating the house.

Heather Hamilton, also a sophomore, explained her family’s long-running tradition of holiday house decoration. “Every year we get those little ceramic houses, people, and other decor and make a whole Christmas village with fake snow and lights and it’s beautiful at night”

For the most part, each interview or survey mentioned the fun they have with their family during this time of year. Clearly family customs also greatly influenced their favorite parts of the holiday season.

Sophomore Alysia Englert, expressed one of her most treasured traditions from childhood. “One tradition the kids in my family loved is talking after dinner and dessert,” she said. “The kids got to take all the presents and organize them in piles for different people. I always have loved this, and for some reason we just have so much fun doing it.”

Even though we high schoolers are only a little ways away from our childhoods, it seems like a lifetime ago. Interviewed students often expressed that they missed the magic of their Christmas Pasts. Somehow everything just seemed more exciting then, a new adventure just waiting to happen.

“I remember the first Christmas I had after learning Santa wasn’t real. It took me a while longer to get in the spirit” says Heather, “Childhood Christmases are just much more magical.”

Still I think eventually we will look at these more recent Christmases with the same nostalgia as those of our childhoods. As this year’s Christmas rapidly approaches us, remember to keep that holiday magic alive, your teen will appreciate it.