A holiday filled with cultural traditions

It was a cold day outside. Mom was cooking tamales and other delicious Mexican foods. My dog was running around the house with her Christmas outfit. Everyone was desperate to open the presents at 12:00 a.m., including me.

I dressed myself as the Virgin Mary for the posada my family celebrates every year. A posada represents when Mary was pregnant with baby Jesus and knocked at several homes and finally found someone that let her in to give birth to Jesus.

Our house was full during Christmas because all of my uncles, aunts and cousins come to our house for the delicious traditional food my mom cooks, and to spend time with the family.

My mom sets up a giant Nativity set in the garage with hay, animals, a barn, the three wise men and artificial plants, which all represents the city of Bethlehem, where baby Jesus was born. My family and I lay a baby Jesus made of porcelain in the barn to celebrate the birth of Jesus. After that, we all enjoy our Christmas feast, which consists of tamales, atole, bunuelos, and other foods and desserts my aunts bring. Then my mom gives all of the children goodie bags. We all love goodie bags.

Like all procrastinators, my sisters and I are finishing wrapping presents, and trying to get them under the tree before its time to open the Christmas gifts. Every Christmas, we have over twenty five gifts, and that's not including the ones my aunts and uncles bring.

While the kids are destroying things around the house and shaking the presents to try and figure out what's inside the boxes, all of my aunts and uncles gather around the table and talk about how much they spent. They also talk about how the year went, and when we're going to Mexico.

Every year, we also do a Secret Santa gift exchange in our family. At the end of our Thanksgiving dinner, we put pieces of paper with names in a cup, and then draw a name out. Whoever name you get, you have to buy a gift for that person. As we all are anxious for the clock to strike 12:00, and five minutes seem like fifteen minutes. The clock finally strikes 12:00, we all gather in the family room where the Christmas tree and gifts are, and give each other a hug and say Merry Christmas. After, we try to guess who got who in the Secret Santa gift exchange, and pass out the gifts to each other. Everyone laughs as they enjoy opening their presents. The kids are then exhausted and all go to sleep. They awake early in the morning to the Santa Claus presents and the delicious smell of ginger bread cookies my mom baked. We all much up our cookies as we opened our gifts from Santa Claus. I could tell my mother and father are happy by the looks on their faces. They know we all had a great Christmas. So, that's Christmas with my family.

Deyanira Nava
Lodi
Age 11