“The Most Wonderful Time of the Year” is the first of eight Christmas articles received in fall of 2023 from Wayne High School students. Three of them were published in The Byway’s most recent December print paper. All will be featured online.
What is the true meaning of Christmas? Christmas is a time of year where we can give back to our loved ones. It’s about seeing our families, getting away from our busy lives to take some time off and have fun. Christmas isn’t always about the gifts and presents, it’s about love, family, and giving. Christmas is one of my most favorite holidays of the year. I love celebrating the holidays with my family.
We always try to donate to one of the children’s hospitals. We also do something similar each year for Young Womens. Each year, we do something called the basket project, and we go around to give the elderly a fruit basket and read them either a scripture or sing them a song. Doing this every year makes me feel really good, and makes me happy to see some of the elderly brighten up and have a smile on their face. Each year we do donate it always warms my heart knowing I made someone happy.
Usually, when we do the basket project, it is with the young men and the young women, but we also do another thing with just the young women. We usually try to make cookies or make gifts for people in our ward. Then we deliver them. Doing this also makes us feel really good because we get to see someone’s face brighten up when they see what we’ve done for them. Giving gifts is a big part of Christmas.
Christmas is one of my favorite holidays because it seems like everyone is a lot happier. Everyone is in the Christmas spirit. I love to see the Christmas decorations go up after Thanksgiving and see the Christmas commercials on the TV. It really gets me in the Christmas mood. We always have a tradition that we go to my grandma’s Christmas Eve night, and we have dinner with our whole family. This is always super fun because we get to catch up with our family that we haven’t seen in a while. Then we drive around town and look at all the Christmas lights and decorations. We go home and then open up one present, which is always pajamas. We watch a movie and then go to bed. The next morning, we wake up and go downstairs to open presents. Then we go back to my grandma’s and open presents there. After that, we go to my other grandma’s house and have a fun time the rest of the day there. Christmas is always such a blast, and I love spending time with my family.
All together, Christmas is supposed to be a time of love and joy. We should be celebrating together with our families and taking a break from our busy lives. We should focus more on the giving part of the holiday rather than the receiving part. People need to be kind to each other and forget all about the rest of the problems in the world. Everyone needs to remember this every year when Christmas comes around.
– by Bree Torgerson (10th) Wayne High School
Feature picture by Kaelyn H. (10) Loa.
Read more from Bree in Thanksgiving: One of My Favorite Holidays.