As major celebrations such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, and other holidays quickly approach, many families look forward to spending time with their family members, as well as celebrating with their favorite traditions. Other celebrations could include celebrating birthdays, half birthdays, or even national days such as National Maple Syrup Day, which is set to occur on December 17th. Traditions can range anywhere from leaving town and visiting family over break, to more unconventional traditions.

“My untraditional tradition is that I have a big Irish family and most people will go to a bar and grill, they’ll hang out with their family, but there’s so many of us that we end up renting an entire hotel convention center. Upwards of 500 to 800 people show up, and they all bring their own food, drinks, games, and everything. It’s just pretty much a day-long party,” Luke Finnegan, 12, said.

While some have family coming into town, others decide to travel in order to be with family.

“We go down to New Orleans with my mom’s family and we do a boys versus girls football match for Thanksgiving”, Elizabeth Jackson, 11, said.

Students with ethnic backgrounds, or have families in other countries, take traditions from their background and from their family ties, some are more unconventional than others.

“I celebrate thanksgiving twice. In Canada, you celebrate it in October, and here you celebrate it in November, so we just celebrate it twice, so we have turkey twice.” Ximena Prieto, 10, said.

While holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas and Hanukkah are popular, some families take their traditions into birthdays as well.

“Every morning on my birthday, we will have ice cream and pancakes”, Joseph Tumminello, 9, said.

Untraditional traditions make each and every one of us different, as well as separating families from other families.