This time of the year, The Walker School is celebrating the holidays. There are many different ways the faculty and students of The Walker School celebrate the holidays. Many students celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa in their own unique ways and are looking forward to the holiday season. Ms. Valenza celebrates Christmas on Christmas eve with her family by “having a big Italian dinner called seven fish. It’s a big seafood dinner and we always exchange family gifts Christmas eve then on Christmas day, we do the Santa gifts and a regular dinner”. Senior Scott Cohen celebrates the 8 nights of Hanukkah by saying “Hebrew prayers that we chant before we open presents,

A menorah is lit for the celebration of Hanukkah. (photo creds: Google images)

we normally do one present a day. We’ll light the menorah and we’ll sing the prayers and then open the presents”. Hanukkah. Senior Andrew DuBois celebrates the holidays by “On Christmas morning, we get up pretty early and open presents. Our neighbors always make us these really good sticky buns and drop them off out our house”. Mr. Holifield celebrates Christmas by cooking on Christmas morning. “I usually start around 4-4:30 in the morning and I make a huge Christmas breakfast/ brunch. I’ll make a roast, I’ll make ham, I’ll make all types of meat, all types of pastries. We usually try to have breakfast by 9 o’clock so it takes around 4 or 5 hours to make breakfast”. His family used to celebrate Kwanzaa, but stopped a few years ago. Holifield says some rituals that are done during Kwanzaa are “there are seven days starting December 26, the day after Christmas and each day has a meaning or a theme and it’s a Swahili word”. Mr. Holifield says that on

A Kinara is lit to celebrate Kwanzaa. (Photo creds: Google Images)

each day you follow whatever the “theme” of that day is (the theme being the Swahili word). There is also a candle called the Kinara where “each night a different candle is lit. Each candle is a color that represents something. Black represents the people, blood represents the blood we shed for the ancestors, and green represents life. It [Kwanzaa] is really supposed to focus on family, faith and community.”  The reason his family stopped is “the children got older, we have three currently in college, one just graduated last

The Christmas Tree is lit for the celebration of Christmas. (Photo Creds: Google Images)

year. Our kids play sports- we have one kid who plays college football so he’s not coming home for Christmas. So, it became much more difficult since we’re not together and if the theme is supposed to be about family and the family isn’t together, it makes it more difficult”. Senior Ashley Cranfill celebrates Christmas by “Having family over the Sunday before Christmas and we go to Charleston”.