“My family and I get a tree every year. We have a holiday tradition where we play remixes of holiday songs on the way there and back, and at home we name the tree something cute. I also have to carry the entire tree by myself!”

Lola Cortez ’22

“Every year I go to El Paso for Christmas to see my family, and my grandma always makes her homemade tamales. She makes her own masa and renders the fat, so it’s all made completely from scratch and they are so good!”

Sophie Ramirez ’22

“No one in my family is allowed to listen to any Christmas music until the drive home from Thanksgiving dinner, when we collectively blast it on the radio.”

CC Mesa ’22

“My family and I like to make Borscht together for the holidays! It brings us together and it’s a great way to connect with our Ukrainian heritage.”

Raffaella Rubenstein ’21

“My family celebrates Hanukkah, and one of my favorite holiday traditions is eating and making latkes, which are fried potato pancakes. Another one of my favorite traditions during Hanukkah is playing dreidel, which is a spinning-top game. Whoever lands the top on the Hebrew letter gimel gets all of the gelt, which is chocolate coins.”

Will Rudensella ’21

“My favorite holiday tradition is skiing with my friends on Christmas Day. We all dress up as something, like a snowman, Santa or reindeer, or just put on our favorite jersey and ski from sunrise to sunset. Every year I make so many great memories from that day on the mountain, and I look forward to it all year long.”

Jack Rosenberg ’23