While many families have the same traditions, like receiving new pajamas on Christmas Eve, waking up early on Christmas morning, or attending family Christmas parties, some families also have their own unique Christmas traditions – some even beginning in December.

“One of our biggest traditions starts at the beginning of December,” Senior Hannah Wilkinson said. “We do something called Secret Elf, where we draw someone’s name out of our family, and we do service for them for that month. Then, Christmas Eve, when we’re all sitting around the tree, we have each other guess who was each other’s secret elf and tell them. Then we open up one present, which is always pajamas.”

Christmas Eve is one of the most common days for Christmas traditions, which vary from family to family.

“So Christmas Eve, we have our family over and we have a candlelight dinner,” Senior Hannalee Daw said. “We have rotisserie chicken from Costco.”

“[On Christmas Eve], we do something called The Pie,” Senior Rhett Robinson said. “It’s a box that has strings coming out of it, and each grandchild gets one [string with a gift attached]. It’s always just some little thing, last year we got M&M’s, different kinds of M&M’s. One year we got cans of soda.”

On Christmas morning, many families also have unique traditions and ways to celebrate.

“We always get cold cereal from Santa, so we have cereal in the morning,” Daw said.

“We wake up before my parents get up,” Robinson said. “So we have to go through stockings a bunch of times and sit there really bored.”

Wilkinson said, “On Christmas morning, we wake up our parents, open presents, and have our grandparents down for crepes.”

Whatever the traditions, time spent with family and friends can add to the Christmas season.