‘Tis The Season

The fireplace is burning, lights are shining bright, and holiday cheer is everywhere you go: it’s Christmas!

For junior Brianna Hazelton, the holiday season is something she holds very near and dear to her heart. Each year she spends Christmas day with her family, soaking up every last second of time she has with her loved ones. “Just going to my family’s house and seeing everyone [is my favorite part],” states Hazelton.

The Hazelton’s switch up the holiday each year by spending every other Christmas with family on either the paternal or maternal side. With warmth in her voice and a smile on her face, Hazelton sets the scene by describing the atmosphere brought about by the time of year. “Our food is probably the best thing on earth,” she claims, “and usually in the background there’s Christmas music and people laughing.”

Although she enjoys the time with family every year, she confessed, “I kind of like going to my dad’s side a little better because there are more kids. With my mom’s side there is no one but older teenage girls; so I’d rather be with the kids instead of hearing people talk about everything that’s going on in the world.”

Before the families come together in the evening, the Hazeltons start their day by waking up at their leisure; waiting for one another to begin opening presents. With a note of sarcasm, Hazelton claims her younger sister always makes Christmas morning a ‘great time.’ Hazelton says, “She’ll try to open my presents. She’ll try to be sneaky and be like, ‘Oh look at what mom got me.’ ”

For Hazelton the holidays are almost perfect, but one thing she wishes she could change is the amount of family she gets to spend it with. “Because my grandparents aren’t here, I wish I could go down to the cemetery and say hi to them because I don’t usually go and they mean a lot to me,” Hazelton regretfully shares. Still thinking of others, she also claims she wishes she could drive her friends around to see the Christmas lights.

Hazelton and her friends like to celebrate ‘friendsmas’ during the break by getting together and exchanging gifts to show their love and appreciation for one another. Later on they tend to get together once more and go out to brunch to catch up and talk about all they’ve done. “It’s usually really fun,” Hazelton explains, “because we don’t get to see eachother for like 2 days when we’re always [normally] all connected.”

Wrapping up her thoughts about the holidays, Hazelton claims, “I think I feel better as a person by giving gifts instead of receiving because I like seeing other people happy [more] than myself being happy. I’d rather have people have a big smile on their face thinking I did that.”