Blue Umbrella Official Thanksgiving_Christmas Issue-1 | Page 7

Decor at in g t h e
Ch r ist m as Tr ee
By Sam m y C.
Fin din g t h e Righ t
Tr ee
By Rebek ah V.
Every year, my family and I go on an epic
adventure to find the most perfect, beautiful,
and ginormous tree for Christmas. We hop into
my dad?s truck, and drive to our favorite
Christmas tree farm. There, we grab a saw and
cart and then hike out in search for a tree. My
dad, two older brothers, and I usually just walk
along as my mom hunts for ?her ? tree, as we
call it. We end up getting some pretty good
exercise though, walking up and down hills as
my mom searches for a tree. When my mom
officially, in other words, finally, finds a tree, we
all take our designated jobs seriously when it
comes to taking it down. My dad and brothers
take turns sawing it down, while my mom and I
usually stand there and wait to yell ?TIMBER!?
After the tree is down, I team up with a
family member to pull the tree back to get it
shaken and wrapped up. When we arrive back
home, my family sets the tree up in our living
room. After that, while jamming out to some
Christmas music, we decorate the tree with all
our lights and homemade decorations. The
whole family has the best of times in the
fellowship and fun!
In Colombia, Christmas is celebrated a
little bit differently than in the United States.
Christmas is my favorite holiday and it is the
season of my long vacations, just like summer
for America.
With my
family, we
decorate for
Christmas in
the beginning
of November
and we
generally take
away the
decorations
around
mid-January.
Our
Christmas
tree is
synthetic/artificial and we use small stuffed
animals and very unique ornaments to decorate
it. On our Christmas tree, each of us has an
ornament that represents us or a special event
or trip. There is a little bird nest with 4 fake birds
that represents my mom and her three
daughters.
Christmas for us is the night of the 24th,
not the morning of the 25th. We always wait 'til
midnight, the 24th, to open gifts or to hug each
other and say, "Merry Christmas." We prepare
natilla and buñuelos, traditional Colombian
holiday dishes, and we eat white chocolate
covered Oreos.