How much do you value your family holiday traditions? How might that change when attending college? Natasha Drochner, Drew Swanson, Marquice Ellis, and Stephen Carmont all experienced new traditions while attending Belhaven University. When asked about their childhood holiday traditions, each of them had a unique response since they are from different states and countries.
Marquice Ellis, a sports medicine major, said, “New Years was my favorite. It would be the one day I would be able to stay up past 12 and watch TV.” Ellis is a freshman and was born and raised in Mississippi. Drew Swanson, an English major from Washington, said that during Christmas, “we all would spend Christmas Eve with my dad’s side of the family and then Christmas Day with my mom’s side.” When asked how coming to college has changed how they celebrate the holidays, Ellis said, “it gives me a chance to hang out with a lot of my other friends and experience some of their traditions.” Swanson said, “Thanksgiving has changed because you spend it with friends instead of at home with family.”
Natasha Drochner, a nursing major, grew up in both Germany and Peru. When describing Christmas in Germany, Natasha said, “it’s kinda similar to here except you have Christmas markets and it’s just there’s more traditions.” In Peru the traditions are different because during this time they also celebrate their independence. Drochner said, “There’s a lot of parades and a lot of fireworks… it’s pretty much the same except it’s hot and not cold.” Natasha thought that due to finals week in December, “Most of the buildup has already happened by the time I get there.”
Stephen Carmont, a business major, discussed celebrating Christmas in Northern Ireland with presents and decorations and then, “the day after Christmas is called boxing day, and that’s a second Christmas Day basically, so we have more presents and more food.” He had never celebrated Thanksgiving before coming to Belhaven.
After bringing a diverse group of people together, it was interesting to see the different ways that families celebrate holidays. After coming to college, each student has been able to expand their knowledge of what it’s like to celebrate holidays differently. The holiday season brings people together no matter where they come from. What was it like making your own traditions after moving to college?
For more information on college students during the holidays visit:
https://www.momondo.com/discover/article/christmas-traditions-around-the-world
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Well done, Sophia! You did a great job finding people of all different backgrounds and cultures to be in the videos and to feature in the story. Your footage is well shot and very concise. I really enjoyed the nostalgia from this piece, because holidays are something everyone has a concept of and has certain emotions about.
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Good story Sophia! I loved hearing about all the different cultures and traditions that people have. It’s cool that I can compare and contrast them to mine and my friends. It is tough having to change some traditions to adjust it to school but sometimes people need new traditions.
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Great story, Sophia! I really like that you interviewed people with such diverse backgrounds; we don’t always consider the different traditions other countries have with shared holidays. I also like the element of reader interaction you added at the end, asking about how we all celebrate, it’s a good way to keep your readers interested after they finish reading. My only suggestion might be to get rid of the list of names at the beginning and maybe just say something like “Four students” because you introduce each of them again later in the story.
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Good story Sophia! It was really nice to see all the different cultures represented in your story. Holidays have a special place in everybody’s hearts. Reading this made me think of the differences of my culture and the cultures of my friends. Things definitely change when you get to college but I think that can be a good thing.
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I liked this story a lot Sophia! I think a lot of times people do not realize how coming here and not knowing how to celebrate our holidays can be hard. It was interesting to learn about a few other peoples holidays. I liked how you picked people to feature and you asked them about their experiences with where they have grown up. Very interesting!
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Great story Sophia! It was awesome to read about people from different backgrounds and their family traditions on holidays. Because I live close to school I didn’t have to make my own traditions and I’m really thankful for that! I loved this story Sophia! It hits home for a lot of people!
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Sophia, I personally loved hearing all the different ways these other students have spent their holidays away from school. I have usually only been privy to mine and I don’t really have a lot of friends on campus, so I enjoyed reading more about some of the students that I go to the same college with.
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