Festivus
Senior Quinn Bredl celebrates the holidays in a less well-known way. Bredl says, “We call [our holiday tradition] Festivus. We do it on Dec. 23 every single year. It’s the antithetical Christmas.” The goal of the Bredl family’s Festivus is to get away from the materialism and consumerism of Christmas. They do not exchange presents at Festivus.
Bredl continues, “That’s why it’s good. It’s not a materialistic holiday. Christmas is all about consumerism and buying a new this and a new that.”
Bredl’s family still celebrates Christmas in addition to Festivus, but Bredl says, “Our Christmases are pretty light … [Festivus] has helped me see that you can live without getting a new iPad every year.”
While those who celebrate Christmas traditionally have a tree, Festivus has an aluminum pole called the Festivus Pole. Bredl says, “We have an aluminum pole in the backyard that we break out every year just for Dec. 23. That goes in the living room … We have dinner. We call it the Festivus Feast.”
“After dinner, the head of the household, my dad, chooses someone to wrestle. Every year it’s me. He always chooses me because I’m the smallest kid in the house. Whoever he chooses to wrestle has to pin him down. Festivus goes on until you pin him down.”
Over the past four years of his family’s Festivus, Bredl has developed a strategy to take down his father. “He’s a bigger guy so I wait until he gets tired and then I pin him down … That concludes Festivus.”
Chanukah Party
For the past eight years, senior Alison Clark has celebrated the holidays by throwing a Chanukah party for her non-Jewish friends. Clark says, “My mom and I are the only Jewish people at our party.”
As per tradition, Clark serves a lot of food, including traditional Chanukah foods. “We have lots of fried things. We have latkes, doughnuts … we also have brisket.”
Clark shares, “This year, my friend Laurel tried to get Drake to show up. It was ridiculous.”
Popular rapper Drake is Jewish. Senior Laurel Machak explains, “We were lighting the menorah and I started singing ‘The Motto’ by Drake. Legend holds that on the eighth night of Chanukah, if one sings Drake’s ‘The Motto,’ then he will appear in your presence.”
“It didn’t work this year. Everybody has to chant it together in order for it to work,” adds Machak.
Clark concludes, “I enjoy having the party because my friends who don’t normally celebrate Chanukah get to celebrate it with me.”
New Year’s Cake
Freshman Tessa Ulrich rings in the new year with her family by reflecting on the past year in a unique way. Ulrich says, “We decorate a cake or cupcakes with important events that have happened over the year … My mom will usually make the cake, ice it, and then we all decorate it.”
Last New Year’s Eve, Ulrich decorated her cake with a golf ball to represent her time on her school’s team, while her sister decorated her cake with a car, since that was the year she got her driver’s license.
“We’ve been doing [this tradition] for ten years. My mom wanted something that was a different and creative way to look back on the year and reflect.”
The tradition has spanned a decade, but when she was younger, the method of decoration was simpler. “For a while we used cookie cutters because we couldn’t really draw. Now we use gel pens.”
Ulrich says, “It’s a really fun activity to do with all our family. We’ve been doing it for so long, [and] that’s what makes it special.”
Black Friday ‘Bargains’
Senior Travis Kwee and his family have a humourous tradition on Black Friday that started four years ago. Kwee describes, “Every Thanksgiving we always have a laugh about the people who flock to the stores and line up for Black Friday sales even before Thanksgiving is over. So [to] spite all the sales, we avoid all the lines and traffic by walking down to Goodwill and shopping at the only store that does not have discounts. Last year, I found a cool tie for two dollars. We like to spite the traditions of going to shop—with all the consumerism and stores—by getting even cheaper things at Goodwill.”
‘Menorah Man’
English teacher Jim Daniel and his family celebrate Chanukah with the “Menorah Man,” who gives clues to Daniel’s kids about where gifts are hidden around the house. Daniel says, “At our house on Chanukah we do ‘the Menorah Man.’ So every night after they light their candles … my wife takes most of the responsibility and hides all the toys or things around the house that the Menorah man ‘dropped off.’ So it’s a Jewish Santa.”
Musical Christmas
Ever since she was born, freshman Shaye Kenny has celebrated Christmas with her family in a musical fashion. Kenny says, “Every Christmas, we all go to my grandparents’ house and all the grown-ups in my family sing together.This started with my great-grandma. She’d always sing these weird Christmas songs, except some of them [weren’t] even about Christmas. Every year the grown-ups sing like six songs.”
Kenny recalls, “When I was three years old … they made me go up there and sing with them.”
Kenny adds, “I’ve never done anything else for Christmas. It is quite funny to watch. Most of my family aren’t singers. It’s a little bit off, but it’s fun.”
