In many households, special holiday objects are passed down from one generation to another.
Jasmin and Kayanna Johnson, ninth-grade twins who attend different high schools in Baltimore City, collectively own a unique Santa Claus dish.
“It?s a round plate and it has his face and hat on it,” Jasmin says.
“One section of the plate is used for cookies and the otherone is used for candy,” Kayanna adds. The girls? grandmother passed the plate on to them when they were seven. The item has been in their family for more than thirty years.
Sarah Williams is a senior at the Baltimore School of Arts. Her holiday is spent with her large family.
“I have ten brothers and sisters. So every Christmas Day, my mom makes this humongous breakfast that could feed a whole army. The fridge is basically emptied out onto the table,” she says.
Most families have yummy holiday desserts and meals prepared from original recipes.
Megan Hoban, an eighth-grader at Arbutus Middle School, enjoys her grandmother?s homemade pie. “We call it Grandma?s Favorite Cherry Pie,” she says.
Dylan Brennan, a sophomore at Western STES, says, “We always have sweet potato casserole that either my mom or my grandmom makes.”
Rachel Abraham, a student at the University of Maryland College Park, enjoys her mother?s homemade Indian dish.
“I love the chicken curry,” she says. “In our family, we mix our traditional Indian culture with the conventional modern Christmas tradition.”
Presents are given in a unique manner for some families. Take the Gentrys, for example.
“We give gifts each day in December, starting on Dec. 1 until about the 28th,” says Marvin Gentry, an eighth-grader at Burleigh Manor Middle School.
Each family is special in that it celebrates the December holidays differently. One aspect of it all, however, is universal: a joyful time spent with loved ones.
