By: Emmy Huebner

We all have holiday traditions that we do with our families such as baking cookies, listening to holiday music, or watching a certain movie every year, but have you ever wondered what other people do for the holidays? Maybe even wondered about what weird traditions some families have? Well here are a few weird holiday traditions! 

  • “My family has an ugly sweater contest and whoever has the best sweater gets a special present!”, says sophomore student, Justin Muth. His family has a sweater contest every year and it brings a little extra holiday fun to the family get-together. Justin says he enjoys getting to see all the funny sweaters everyone wears. 
  • “My aunt takes a bunch of little prizes, like candy and scratch-offs, and wraps them all in saran wrap!”, shares sophomore student Kelsey Hengst. Kelsey’s aunt wraps presents in a ball of saran wrap and then her family sits in a circle, taking turns unwrapping the gift. It is one big ball of saran wrap filled with a bunch of candy and one big gift in the middle. The person to the left of you gets 2 dice and you have until they roll doubles to unwrap your gift. The game gets pretty intense, Kelsey says, but it is so fun and such a great holiday memory! 
  • “My family picks a letter from the alphabet and we buy a gift card and play pass the present!”, says senior student Emma Tiarks. Emma’s family picks a letter from the alphabet and then finds a place that starts with the letter they chose to buy a $5 gift card from. During Emma’s holiday celebration, her family plays pass the present with the gift cards! Emma says it’s so fun seeing how creative people can get with finding places to purchase a gift card from and seeing who wants each gift card. 
  •  “On Christmas, my grandpa gives all us “kids” lottery tickets as presents and we all scratch them off together”, says junior student Gracie Thiel. Gracie likes the fact that it’s simple but very fun to do when you’re with your family. 
  • “My family will order Chinese food for the holidays”, says senior student E Jeninga. Since many other restaurants are not open on holidays, E’s family gets Chinese food for a meal to share together. 

These are a few of the fun and weird holiday traditions some students on campus have. Holidays are special and fun for all who participate in them and bring some extra excitement to life. If you are looking for fun new traditions to start with your family, maybe try out one of these!