New York Holidays

It's a familiar sight in December: twinkling lights, silvery tinsel, round shiny bulbs, a gold star, and presents, all on or under a fir or pine tree. Some people have a tradition of dusting off a box and bringing out a tree to assemble. Other families enjoy the annual outing to find the perfect real Christmas tree. But which is better" a real Christmas tree or an artificial one?

The kids drop Santa down the chute, and an evil laugh rises from the darkness. “A poker game we shall play, but you must know, dear Santa, that I do not play fair!” the Oogie Boogie exclaims. This is a scene from The Nightmare Before Christmas. This movie is both scary and joyful. But if you had to choose one, which would it be? Some people say it is a spooky Halloween movie, while other’s say it’s a jolly christmas movie. I believe it’s a Halloween movie. Want to know why? Keep reading, and you will find out.

A huge turkey piping hot on the middle of the table surrounded by stuffing, mash potatoes, cranberry sauce, bread rolls, and corn on the cob. I always thought everyone had the same type of Thanksgiving. Where everyone gets their turkey, drowns the turkey in gravy, and sits down to watch the football game. Too my surprise, that isn’t how it is for my classmates. I realize now that Thanksgiving varies in every household

Damascus, Maryland usually gets 2 days of snow if not less per year. Which is why it’s essential for every kid living in Montgomery County to make the best of their snow day when it actually comes. Snow days are very enjoyable for every kid, but it is sometimes difficult to find what you’re going to do.

La dia de los Muertos dates back to as early as the maya and aztec days, nearly 3,000 years ago. “The Aztecs didn’t fear death. They believed the way a person died determines their type of afterlife.” (Sarah Massey) Families place alters in their homes with favorite foods of the deceased people, sugar skulls with their name on it, special possessions of the loved ones, and Pan de Muerto (bread of the dead). On the altar are four special elements, water, wind, fire, and earth. Candles represent fire, food represents the earth. Halloween dates back to the celt days, about 2,000 years ago. They lived in what now is known as Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. They gathered on October 31st to celebrate the end of the harvest season. The celts believed that spirits roamed the earth on this night. Celts out food out for the spirits, this was the first form of trick or treating. Some dressed up as the dead to scare away the spirits. They carved turnips and put candles in them to make lanterns. This tradition continued when the immigrants came to America, but pumpkins were easier to find so they carved pumpkins. They swapped scary stories and had a big feast. Roman Catholics began to celebrate All Hallows’ day on November 1st, October 31st became All Hallows’ Eve, later shortened to

A normal day can turn into a day filled with icy cold snow and warm hot chocolate just by one call. One call that gives everyone around the school district a sigh of relief that they can curl up back in their comfy beds and sleep for an extra two or more hours. Some may wonder how one call makes everyone’s day so much better: it is because it is a call from the school saying there is no school today due to icy conditions. Upon hearing this one can be sure that their phone will be buzzing with ones friends asking what they are doing today, or maybe one snoozes through all the texts and continues to curl up in one’s warm blankets, with dogs heating ones feet. No matter what one chooses to do there always seems to be a trend as one gets older. This trend is that in the grades kindergarten through fifth grade, children love snow days to stay outside and play; then in grades sixth through ninth, children love snow days to stay inside and watch movies; finally children tenth through twelfth grade, children love snow days to again go outside and play.

Thanksgiving is the best holiday hands down. I’m talking even better than Christmas and Valentine's Day. I love Thanksgiving because it is during the best time of year, there is so much good food, and the meaning and purposes have stayed good and the same over the years. Christmas and Valentine's day are exciting and fun, but the little details make Thanksgiving much better. Its these little details that make the Thanksgiving holiday and season more enjoyable and pleasant.

It’s the season of fall, almost winter. The leaves turn into a mix of all types of orange colors and the change of decor your mom brings to the house to advocate the time of Thanksgiving or the foods you’ve been waiting all year round to just smash your face into. That’s what I think of when Thanksgiving comes to mind! Out of all the holidays: Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years Eve, ETC; my favorite one of all would be Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a time where the problems you had with your cousins,fights with your parents, and even the disconnection between your other family members, when it’s Thanksgiving day though, all those problems are left at the door step.

Holidays are an important part of every culture in the world. They are times of festivity where friends and family gather together to celebrate special events at different points of the year. Oftentimes these affairs aren’t limited to a single day and each country has their own set of specific rituals that they perform to commemorate the occasion. Many holidays also have religious origins that are a mix of Christian and pagan beliefs.

B. Topic Link: The holidays connection to it’s origins have mostly fallen by the wayside, and a number of new American traditions have developed.

Are you thankful for something? Well I am. I’m thankful for a roof over my head, good health, and family. Being thankful is when you express your gratitude and relief to others that do a lot for you. You can show someone you're thankful by doing the littlest things. So this Thanksgiving show someone how thankful you are. It doesn’t even have to be Thanksgiving, you can thank someone anyday. You can show thanks by baking cookies for a loved one, or you could even just tell someone thanks. I hope you take what I just told you, and go thank someone, because it’s not that hard. Now I’m going to tell you what I’m thankful for and why.

Santa Claus is the one thing children believe in unfailingly. I mean, the exact gifts they want for Christmas always appear under the tree overnight, and for a child the only explanation is magic. But in today’s world of over parenting, the

Christmas is my favorite holiday of the year. I love seeing the shinny Christmas lights that decorates my street and the sound of fresh fallen snow on the ground. Christmas reminds me of family, the laughter and loved we shared, and the gifts we gave to each other. My house on Christmas became the center of my joy.

Why spend money that is really needed for other things? Why live uncomfortably? Why be trapped in this hole called a home that belongs to another person? Why not live free and peacefully? When a person rents he or she usually throws away money that could be used to purchase something that belongs to them. Money is not easy to come by so why pay out hundreds toward something that is not benefit to the person paying it out. There is no good explanation for making a decision like this. The best option in a situation like this is to buy a house. Buying a house is a better option than renting an apartment.

Having escaped rule from a tyrannical British government, the United States was founded on ideals of freedom and equality for all people. These fantasies of universal egalitarianism turned out to be merely that: fantasies. American history is full of stories of the oppressed struggling to get the rights they deserve and of the controversy over these issues that consequently ensues. “The Hypocrisy of American Slavery” by Frederick Douglass and “We Shall Overcome” by Lyndon B. Johnson are two speeches made confronting two of these issues. Douglass’s speech, delivered in 1852, condemns the institution of slavery and maintains that slaves are men and are therefore entitled to freedom. Johnson’s speech, on the other hand, was written in 1965 and discussed the civil rights movement. In it, he implored local governments to allow all American citizens, regardless of race, to vote. Despite the significant gap in time between these two addresses, both speakers use similar persuasive techniques, including ethos, pathos, and parallelism, to convince their audience that change needs to be implemented in America.