As pop tunes are slowly replaced by Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” Christmas festivities start to build up around us and the holiday spirit begins to bloom. Houses lit up in bright displays of color and the familiar scent of Christmas trees fills the atmosphere. mistletoe is hung and stars secured. As the holiday season approaches, let’s take a look at how the MVHS community celebrates this joyous occasion.
ALPHONSA ROSE PHILIP
Sophomore Alphonsa Rose Philip sees celebrating Christmas as a combination of her devotion to Christianity and love for her family. Over the past few years, Philip’s family has fashioned their now-beloved family traditions. To Philip, Christmastime means a chance to make memories with family that she’ll keep with her forever.
One of Philip’s favorite family traditions in December is viewing homes across the Bay Area with Christmas decorations, like holiday lights and front-yard sculptures. Philip’s father, who began the tradition, searches up the beautiful homes online, and takes the family there.
Philip deeply cherishes the tradition, and believes it has helped her connect with her parents.
Another family tradition ties in directly with their Catholicism. When the family travels during Christmastime, they visit other parishes to celebrate the holiday with other Catholics from across the country. While Philip says that these celebrations differ from parish to parish, she enjoys how she gets to take part in and honor the holiday in different ways.
“Our family has a tradition of when we go to a new church, we make three new wishes,” Philip said. “It’s cool seeing how people celebrate Christmas at different churches. I remember when we went to a small church in Utah that was packed on Christmas day, even though they didn’t have a choir, they still had recordings of church songs and were still celebrating to their fullest.”
Catholicism and its influences extends to how Philip honors her friends and family on Christmas. Besides exchanging gifts within her family, Philip treats the holiday as a time of giving, taking the time to spread love to those around her.
“Catholicism is about sharing your religion,” Philip said. “It’s fun seeing their reactions, which is the spirit of Christmas, giving back to the community. Connecting with my religion, and being able to do that with my family, we’re able to create memories and traditions that we can always think of and maybe even pass on later.”
ROBBIE HOFFMAN
U.S. History teacher Robbie Hoffman doesn’t celebrate one Christmas — he celebrates three.
Right after finals, Hoffman takes to the skies alongside his wife and children to join his wife’s family in Montana for Christmas Day. In Montana, Hoffman enjoys spending time in the snow, skiing and sledding with his family, and later enjoys Christmas dinner with family and friends. Hoffman values the opportunity to spend time with his wife’s family, cherishing the memories he’s made with loved ones over the years.
“Christmas is about getting together and celebrating each other,” Hoffman said. “We don’t get to see my wife’s family very often, and hanging out with each other is really important, especially for my kids and my nieces and nephews.”
Before heading to Montana, Hoffman’s family has Christmas traditions and decorations of their own. Every year after Thanksgiving, they travel to the Santa Cruz Mountains to choose their Christmas tree. His family wears matching Christmas pajamas and purchases traditional decorations, like a holiday wreath and decorative lights. This year, they set up a light-up dinosaur in their front yard.
In January, Hoffman celebrates his second Christmas with his brother’s family and their parents. Hoffman spends his third Christmas with his own extended family of aunts and uncles, who come by to give presents to his children. They take the occasional trip to Lake Tahoe to play in the Californian snow, which Hoffman says his son, Riley, especially loves. Hoffman enjoys Christmas because of how much his family enjoys it.
“Being able to celebrate Christmas is very important,” Hoffman said. “It’s our family’s favorite holiday that we celebrate. Having my family all get together is really important for us.”
COURTNEY MASLI
As senior Courtney Masli has grown up, her Christmases have become more and more untraditional. For the past few years, the Masli family has typically spent their Christmases traveling to tropical paradises, which Masli attributes to the growing ages of her and her siblings.
“We typically go to Mexico,” Masli said. “Each year our Christmas celebrations change. When we were younger, we spent more time at home, but as we’ve gotten older, it’s been more traveling. Our Christmases that we’ve spent outside of the country have been pretty unique — we like to go to places with warmer weather.”
Masli spends the days before heading out on the family’s annual trip opening presents. For gifting, all members of the family come together to collectively decide on a gift for one person — a tradition that the Masli family swears by in order to prioritize each family member. Gifting is one of Masli’s favorite Christmas activities, because she’s received some of her most sought-after or touching items, like the viral Lululemon dance studio pants or the Game of Life board game, making her feel an especially close bond with her family during Christmas.
Masli also enjoys putting up Christmas decorations, like her family’s tree and ornaments. When her family isn’t spending time overseas, they get together with extended family in San Francisco and enjoy gift exchanges and Asian cuisines like dim sum.
“Christmas is more of a time where we get together and just hang out,” Masli said. “In my family, we don’t get a lot of opportunities to do that. I think Christmas is the best holiday.”
