Like many children, I was infatuated with the holiday season in my youth, probably up until a later age than I would like to admit. My daily ritual was consistent from Black Friday through December 26: spring out of bed, hunt for my Elves on the Shelf (yes, I had two), make it everybody’s business that I loved Christmas, sleep, repeat. I was a child who had so much holiday spirit that I genuinely believed I was an elf—a belief I can blame my mother for fueling.
This holiday spirit lasted for many years, but then I became a middle schooler, and it soon seemed that I had lost the time to fully care about the holiday that I had spent the entire previous year waiting for. By the time high school rolled around, all hope was lost: my personal Claus-o-meter reading could have been a zero.
The personal experiences I have shared are not exclusive to myself. As many people grow older, high school marks a salient shift in the amount of holiday spirit that one possesses, let alone what the holiday season is truly about. High school students are losing their holiday spirit because of the gift-giving holidays becoming increasingly materialistic and packed academic and social schedules that leave no time for feeling the holiday joy.
The two holidays that are most often associated with December are Christmas and Hanukkah, which despite both having religious roots are now more associated with grandiose gifts with even more grandiose price tags. In Christian faith, the celebration of Christmas marks the birth of Jesus Christ, hence its namesake; in Judaism, Hanukkah is celebrated over a course of eight nights to commemorate the miracle of one night’s worth of oil keeping the menorah in the Second Temple lit for eight. The giving and receiving of gifts has been a minor aspect of these holidays since at least the 20th century, but in more recent years, presents have become central to the celebration of Christmas and Hanukkah. With material items taking precedence over the history of the holidays, the spirit behind them gets undermined.
Most high schoolers remember asking for toys for the holidays when they were little. “I used to put toys [on my list], but now all I have on my Christmas list this year is a new set of bedsheets,” said sophomore Eric Matern. Now, middle schoolers have Dyson Airwraps, Sol de Janeiro, and Kendra Scott necklaces on their wish lists; there is no longer a divide between what high schoolers and younger kids want. This lack of a divide marks an era where children are now growing up too fast, and their holiday spirit gets left behind at increasingly younger ages.
The main reason that high school students lose their holiday spirit, however, is the fact that the emphasis that was placed on celebrating the holidays in elementary or even middle school simply does not fit into a high school schedule. December at West End Elementary School was filled with holiday crafts, countdowns to Christmas and Hanukkah, classroom readings of Christmas stories, and days spent watching holiday movies. In our youth, we were exposed to the holidays throughout the entire month of December; there was no span of time where you were not thinking about Christmas or Hanukkah as a kid.
In high school, there is no time for in-school holiday celebration. The most one may receive is a worksheet on quadratics with a candy cane border or a “Happy first night of Hanukkah!” message from a teacher. High school teachers have full curriculums to get through, and two and a half periods spent watching The Polar Express does not exactly fit into that curriculum. This lack of holiday cheer is exacerbated in Advanced Placement courses, where teachers are working through a college-level curriculum to prepare students for exams in May. There is little to no wiggle room to fuel the holiday magic in the classroom, leading to high schoolers’ overall lack of holiday spirit. “We have so much stuff going on that we don’t have time to focus on the holidays on the break. We have to focus on work and school and sports,” Matern expressed. Freshman Connor Buxton relayed similar feelings: “[Students] are so stressed out during the holiday season. There’s so much homework and tests that get crammed in before the break that they’re not able to be festive.”
That is not to say that there is no holiday spirit at LHS. Some students have been listening to Christmas music since November 1, and the Student Government Association (SGA), National Honor Society, and Key Club take initiative throughout the month to up the holiday cheer, whether it be holiday spirit weeks, Candy Cane-grams, or drives that celebrate the spirit of giving. “Usually the week before we go on break, we’ll have spirit days like pajama day and crazy sweater day, and we’ll finalize those as the week gets closer,” shared SGA adviser Brian Donaldson.
While high school students may lose their holiday spirit to the newfound capitalist nature of December holidays and the lack of time able to be allotted to them, they can take advantage of the opportunities given to them to bring back the holiday magic of their childhoods.
