For many students, Winter break is a brief respite from the pressures of high school. For even more students, Winter Break is a time of happiness and festivity with many important holidays from many different cultures happening around this time, the most prominent of which being Christmas. The Holiday of Christmas needs no introduction here, as over a third of the world’s population celebrates it in some capacity, with celebrations varying from religious event to decorating the household to simply spending time with family.
Grace Dreznes, a current freshman at Sunlake High School, and her family are no exception to this. In fact, It’s one of the days their family looks forwards to the most every year,”My mom’s really big into [Christmas].” Dreznes explained, mildly exasperated “She puts up the tree so early, like before Thanksgiving early. It’s mildly annoying. She also plays Christmas music at that time too.”
For most of the break, Ms. Dreznes really just “hung out with my friends” and made her own private preparations for Christmas. She described a tradition she has with her two brothers where they all go to stores like Five Below in order to buy little gifts for people, “We give those out to everyone in an immediate family, like to each other and our parents. ”
While the Dreznes Family has many time honored traditions that have been done year after year without fail, one of their most cherished ones unfortunately couldn’t be done.”Since my nanny’s house got destroyed by the flood during the hurricane [Milton], we had Christmas at our house for like the first time.” But despite this unanticipated change, Ms. Dreznes believes that the day “was good” for everyone in the family.
Dreznes reported being satisfied with all of her Christmas presents this year, although by far her favorite present of that day was the cookbook she received,”I got a cookbook that…had a reference to a series I like, a TikTok series about the fey. It was a cookbook made by the person who created it.” Since getting the book she’s already attempted several different recipes from the book, including a batch of cookies and some hot chocolate which she described as “too Cinnamon-y”
Besides the cookbook, Ms. Dreznes also received several new clothing, including T shirt themed after the popular movie “Wicked” and a set of clothes from Hot Topic, one of her favorite stores. “I got a dress with a corset thing. And it has like a teeth and a bed of flies and mushrooms. And I guess, it’s kinda fairy-ish pattern wise.”
After opening her presents, Dreznes helped prepare a big hearty breakfast with the rest of her family, a tradition in her household ,”I made the pancakes [via pancake mix] but I did not eat them cause I don’t like pancakes like that and my [grandma] and grandpa came over and gave us some Christmas presents and we hung out”
Additionally, Ms.Dreznes celebrated the new year by watch the movie Wicked and doing the classic new year’s activity of stay up till Midnight, a task she purported as easy.” I normally stay up past twelve anyways.”
While Dreznes doesn’t have any big resolutions this year, she is ready for the possibilities the new year will bring and is excited to try more recipes from her Cookbook.
