The myth is that Saint Nicholas, more commonly known as Santa Claus, makes gifts with his elfs all year long before Christmas and flies around on his sleigh pulled by magic reindeer.  Santa delivers gifts to the whole world entering their houses through a chimney and places the presents under the Christmas tree. 

 A Christmas tree is displayed in your house and you decorate it with all kinds of lights and ornaments.  Some other activities we do are making cookies on Christmas Eve to welcome Santa Claus, hanging up stockings(very large socks), and stuffing them with little toys and candy.  On Christmas morning, children unwrap their presents.  If a child is “naughty” they get coal, and if a child is “nice” they get presents.  Christmas music is a common way to spread cheer and be festive.  There are people called carolers and they come to your house and sing.  The food during Christmas isn’t that specific, it's just hearty.  

When I was a kid I made cookies for Santa and did all of the traditional things for kids to do during this time.  I had an Elf on the Shelf which was an elf doll that my parents used to move around the house every morning for me and my sister to find.  I grew out of Santa pretty young so now I just go present shopping with my mom and I wrap the gifts.  We still put up a tree and decorate it.  My mom likes to celebrate as much as possible so she feels closer to home.  

My mom’s side of the family is Filipino so they celebrate for the whole month of December.  Manila is covered in lights and there are fireworks.  My family there makes a bunch of food and gets together for family time.  

New year is a winter tradition that we celebrate here in the United States. On New Year's Eve, which is December 31st, we celebrate by staying up to watch, on the tv or irl, ball drop in Times Square in New York when the clock hits 12 pm. 

Many people also count down for the last 10 seconds of the year local time. 

For food we don't really have a certain type of food but for drinks it's another story. The adults drink champagne and kids normally drink  apple cider. And after the ball dropped we set off a lot of fireworks. 

The colors of new years is black and gold, then we stay up for a little longer after 12. Some people stay up til the sun rises, then we go to bed and wake up pretty late in the morning. 

Many people have big parties. On New year's day everyone gets the day off from work.

We do this as a decoration and because people who celebrate Christmas leave presents for their children underneath it, but you can read more about that from Mckenzy. This is about the tree. We decorate the trees with lights and ornaments that can be in different colors, shapes, and sizes. On the top of these trees commonly there is one decoration usually bigger than the rest on the very top of the tree called a tree topper this also can be a lot of different things but commonly a star or an angel. There are also outdoor public trees, the biggest alive one in the United States being in Ferndale, these also being wrapped in lights, ornaments and a lot of different things that different people decorate with. There are different types of trees. Some people have trees that were cut down and some people use plastic fake trees too. 

One winter tradition we have in Petrolia is the winter solstice bonfire, which we have up on a mountain next to the ocean. 

The winter solstice is the shortest day of the year. The summer solstice is the longest day of the year.

A bonfire is a really big fire and the one at the solstice is usually about 3 meters across and 4 meters high.

At the solstice bonfire, one thing we do is sing songs about the solstice.

We write what good things we want in the new year on pieces of paper which we tie to a tree. Then we throw the tree in the fire.

We all stand in a circle around the bonfire and spit into a basket all the bad things that we want to go away in the new year. After that we throw the basket in the fire.

We also eat mussels that we harvest at the beach. 

Many people across the United States celebrate solstice in different ways.

This year, my family and I went to my grandparents house to celebrate Thanksgiving. We had roast beef instead of Turkey, because we aren’t big fans of the meat. My grandma and my sister baked pies, and we had lots of food.

At the craft fair we make ornaments that people can buy to decorate.

By Aviva

Hanukkah is a Jewish tradition celebrating the eight nights that a small jar of oil ( that would only burn for one night usually ) burned.

We celebrate this holiday because it was a miracle that a small jar of oil burned for eight nights instead of one. 

Here in the Mattole Valley we have a party at my aunt's, Ocean, house and everyone's invited. The party is for one night of Hanukkah. 

( Hanukkah lasts for eight nights. Every night we light a candle on the menorah.) 

The menorah is a candle holder for eight candles ( plus one to light the other eight.)

We eat specific foods for Hanukkah like challah ( an egg bread ) and latkes ( potato pancakes). 

We also play a game called dreidel. It's where we take turns spinning the dreidel (or a sipping top). On each side there is a symbol. The symbols mean different things. Here are the instructions 

Setup

1. All players sit around the playing area.

2. The chocolate gelt are divided equally among all players.

3. Players take turns spinning the dreidel; the player with the highest spin has the first turn. (Nun is highest, then Gimmel, Hey, and Shin.) If there is a tie, the two who tied spin again.

4. Everyone puts one piece of the gelt into the pot.

5. Play moves clockwise.

To Play:

Each player begins with an equal number of game gelt (usually 10–15). 

At the beginning of each round, every participant puts one game gelt into the center "pot". Every player puts one in the pot after every turn.

Each player spins the dreidel once during their turn. Depending on which side is facing up when the dreidel stops spinning, the player either gives or takes game gelt from the pot.

If the dreidel lands on a...

NUN - נ

If נ (nun) is facing up, the player does nothing. The person to the left spins.

GIMMEL - ג

You get to take the whole pot!

Everyone, including the spinner, puts another gelt into the pot, and the person to the left spins.

HEY - ה

The player gets half of the gelt in the pot. (If there are an odd number of gelt in the pot, the player takes half the pot rounded up to the nearest whole number.)

SHIN - ש

Sorry! You now have to put another gelt into the pot. 

Gelt (chocolate coins) 

Also big cities in the united states make big deals like 10ft tall menorahs  

Hanukkah is a great holiday tradition. There is food, games, family and friends. I hope you learned about Hanukkah and had fun. Bye.

Aviva