Elanor Nagle
Staff Reporter
It is often said that there is no place like home for the Holidays and that seems to be the general feeling of McDaniel students. Or at least, there seems to be a strong appreciation of the family aspect of the holiday season.In fact almost every McDaniel student asked said that time with family and close friends is, in at least some ways, what makes up the meaning of the holidays to them. Friends and family certainly mean something to junior Lauren Laker who said her perfect holidays meant, “Being with family and friends and sharing the holiday spirit.”
Come the end of Thanksgiving through New Years day, the Holidays mean decorations everywhere, giant sales and Christmas music that can easily turn obnoxious after forty or fifty plays. There are upsides and downside to the holiday bonanza that happens all over the country. Junior Rachel Held mentioned “the pretty decorations.”
Junior Michelle Karen however talked about the downsides of the constant Holiday fuss. “The holidays mean insanity to me. They mean going places you don’t necessarily want to, listening to Christmas songs over and over and shopping with insane amounts of people. Its pretty much love-filled chaos.”
Like most everything American, the Holiday season means food, food and more food. Starting with the usual spread on Thanksgiving and going onto fudge and pies on Christmas and even the champagne on new Years. The holidays wouldn’t be their Americanized secular selves without the food we shovel into out mouths at every corner. I, for one, am unashamed.
If nothing else, the holidays mean a time to rest after so much work of a long semester as Junior Britt Beachley mentioned, “The holidays mean I have time to sleep, eat turkey, sleep some more and spend time with my family.”
Even over Thanksgiving when the semester isn’t quite over there is still some refuge and a chance to catch up on some last minute papers as Held says, “We get a break. We get to see family. We get extra time to do work. It’s a lot of fun.”
Most importantly the Holidays are a time to have fun! Sophomore Laura Manos-Hey concentrates on that during her breaks; “The holidays for me are a time to get away from the regular routine, to just focus on having a good time.”