Warm mugs of hot chocolate, the slight chill of morning frost, and bells ringing with joy… Christmas is truly my favourite time of the year. 

“Wait a moment… It’s the beginning of March, not the holiday season!”

That is indeed correct! However, you know as they say, there’s never a better time to talk about Christmas than a quarter into the year! If you have been reading my latest posts, you have likely heard of the “Student Blogging Challenge.” As a part of Student Blogging Challenge Day 9, we are to write a blog post about a holiday or festivity we take part in. 

Holidays are something that people all around the globe celebrate. From Halloween, Thanksgiving, or even your own birthday; these celebrations are a time when people can rejoice together and celebrate our cultural traditions. For this blogging challenge, I will  be discussing a holiday craft and some of my family’s Christmas celebrations. 

I absolutely love celebrating Christmas with my family.  Did you know that Filipinos start celebrating this holiday as early as September? My parents are from the Philippines, and because of such, I always get messages from relatives regarding Christmas during the early months of fall.

Traditionally, my family and I would attend the “midnight mass” that our parish offers. This is a service that is traditionally offered on Christmas Eve. Although we weren’t able to attend last year due to COVID-19 restrictions; these late night masses are likely one of my fondest childhood memories. During this time, the Church is already decorated in an abundance of Christmas decorations. 

The weeks starting late November, leading up to Christmas, are known as Advent in the Liturgical calendar. During this time, there is a tradition of lighting an object known as an Advent wreath. There are four candles on this wreath; three of which are purple and one that is pink. The first candle is lit on the first Sunday of Advent (typically during mass), the second candle is lit a week later, and so on. Oftentimes, there is a white candle at the center of this wreath, which is usually lit on Christmas Eve or Christmas day. Although my family doesn’t have an Advent wreath, I do enjoy watching as the Advent wreath my parish uses gradually lights up over time.

Also, like many others, my family exchanges gifts with one another on Christmas day. Although there isn’t much I can give them due to the fact I’m a minor and anything I want to “buy” for my them is really coming from their own money, I started giving others handmade cards for this holiday. 

This also brings me to today’s other topic: a holiday craft! Around the year 2018, when I actually gained a real interest in arts and crafts, I began crafting Christmas cards for friends and family alike. Even though I don’t actually have photographs of cards I have made in the past for others, I have recorded the making of a few for this blog post! Typically, I would paint the cards, but today I’m using markers due to the fact I ran out of proper “watercolour paper” over quarantine. 

You can watch my video here:

Christmas is a time full of tradition and celebration, for myself and many others. The connection people share through traditional festivities is an important part of our worldview! This also connects to a recent project we completed on Worldview and History. Despite our differences in culture, many societies all around the world celebrate Christmas, and that’s part of why I love this holiday. 

Now that you know Christmas is my favourite holiday, feel free to comment yours!