Many holidays are celebrated here at CHS, but one of the biggest holidays celebrated is Christmas. Many people love Christmas and look forward to it every year. The staple of Christmas that determines when your family starts celebrating is the setup of the Christmas tree.
85 students answered a survey asking when they put up their Christmas tree, and 72.9% of students said they set up their Christmas tree after Thanksgiving. When asked why, most students said either because of their parents’ preference, the long process of getting a real tree, or to keep Thanksgiving and Christmas separate.
Many students in the survey said their parents chose the timing of the tree set-up, and this was their family tradition.
Parents get the time to set up their trees either from what traditions they had as a child, or what traditions they wish they had done.
Freshman Bridget Byington says this about her family tradition:
“I like the time my mom decides; it is before Thanksgiving. It still feels seasonal even if it is not December yet.”
Our valley is surrounded by hills filled with fir trees, sprinkling the hillsides. Many families and students trek out into the woods and chop a tree down, or go to a Christmas tree farm and pick out a tree.
Junior, Grace Hodges, talks about her experience with a real tree. “They [the trees] smell really nice. The only downfall is that we can’t reuse it, so we have to keep going out and getting a new one every year.”
About half of the students who responded to the survey said that they like to keep Thanksgiving and Christmas separate.Thanksgiving is celebrated on the last Thursday of November, while Christmas is celebrated on the 25th of December. This difference is roughly a month’s worth of time, and most families use this time to decorate for Christmas and get a tree.
Senior Ethan Theiss has his opinion on why he likes to wait until after Thanksgiving to set up his Christmas tree:“They are different holidays, and you have to separate different holidays.”
Students from all across the US experience joy and happiness when the feeling of Christmas peeks into their lives. The magic of Christmas starts with a tree.
