With the holiday season approaching and people preparing for their yearly holiday traditions, friends come together to enjoy and celebrate these holidays in their own unique ways. The months of October, November and December include many exciting opportunities to unite as a group of friends and spend some quality bonding time together as another way of enjoying the winter holiday season.
The traditions create a buzz in the atmosphere as excitement builds.
“It’s something to look forward to in the winter when it’s cold outside and there’s not much going on,” senior Natalie Finn said.
Being an active member of a tight-knit friend group, Finn shares her favorite holiday tradition: Secret Santa. In Secret Santa, each person is assigned to another one in the group and is required to get that individual a gift.
“[The idea of] gift giving is super fun and I like seeing what each of us can come up with for one another,” Finn said.
Spending time together and unraveling the mystery of what your gift is creates a positive and dynamic environment that keeps the cold and dark winter warm and exciting.
“[This allows friends to] bond with each other and find cool new things about each other,” junior Francis Mansare said.
When diving into the different holiday traditions that friend groups celebrate, it’s important not to miss the infamous Halloween weekend, aka Halloweekend. Different groups focus on different things to do during Halloweekend. Some trick or treat, some watch scary movies, and some throw parties.
During those Halloweekend parties, each person has their own unique costume. Some dress in pairs or do a group costume all together. Experiencing the fun of dressing up together and attending different events lifts the spirits of people during the holiday season.
After October passes and the hype around Homecoming and Halloween has died down, people get excited about celebrating Thanksgiving. A Thanksgiving tradition that friend groups often participate in is Friendsgiving.
“I really like Friendsgiving because it’s just fun and you get to appreciate your friends together,” sophomore Aya Dubnov said.
Sitting around a table and eating good food creates the perfect atmosphere of the holiday spirit. It gives friends a chance to be authentic and pure with each other and celebrate the holiday together in a special way.
There are some holiday friend group traditions that are not technically related to any holidays, like ice skating, pumpkin-patch picking, apple picking and many more. Friends can laugh, have fun and eat all while participating in the endless joy that comes with spending time with your friends.
“[They] give us something fun to do together and I feel like they keep us bonded,” Dubnov said.
The cold season often comes with dread and worry, but when these fun activities are introduced, people get excited for the winter. Once a group of friends has participated in one of these holiday activities, they create a tradition out of it. This way, they can stay positive and happy and celebrate the holidays however they wish to. Their holiday season will be filled with more bliss and delight, knowing that they can enjoy it with their friends.
