Youth & Yuletide: Students share their views of the holiday season

MAT-SU -- It's definitely that time of the year again. You know the one, where store owners cheerfully wish their customers Happy Holidays while an aura of merriment consumes the atmosphere. Vibrant colors of Christmas lights decorates houses give a warm glow to the Alaskan darkness. The time of year which children gleefully refer to as their favorite has come upon the Valley.

In little more than a week, families will join together on Christmas Eve to celebrate the holiday with festive decorations and eye-catching wrapping paper. Relatives will rejoice in the time spent with their loved ones, and New Year's resolutions will be pondered. Children will wake in the wee hours of the morning, anticipating the day to come, and wreaths will hang on front doors sprinkled with bits of frost. Seasonal customs and traditions of this celebrated day carry on unchanged over time.

The youth perspective on this holiday is often overlooked, however. What really is the meaning of Christmas to the younger generation? Surprisingly, many people in this generation view Christmas in much the same light as their parents and grandparents do, even though they may celebrate it in somewhat different ways. Some of the Valley youth believe Christmas is a strictly religious holiday. Other teen-agers look upon the holiday as a time for generously giving gifts, and others see it as a day that results in two weeks of freedom from school.

Hannah Drake, a 17-year-old high school junior believes Christmas is a "time to celebrate family and to reflect on Jesus being born." Hannah is in the position, like many younger people these days, of splitting her time and life between two families, as her parents are divorced. A few days before Dec. 25, Hannah will have an early Christmas Eve and Christmas morning at her father's home and with his family.

On the actual Christmas Eve, Hannah will go into Anchorage and eat dinner with her father's family at her grandparents' comfortable abode, where she looks forward to eating her granddad's famous clam chowder. Afterwards, the Drake family will drive back into the Valley for an evening church service. Following the service, very late in the evening, Hannah will drive over to her mother's house and fall asleep, only to awake to another Christmas morning with her other family.

Hannah doesn't mind all of this traveling back and forth, as she has been living in two homes since she was 4 years old. "It is a hassle, but I don't know anything different," Drake said. "This is my lifestyle. Besides, who wouldn't want Christmas twice?"

Hannah likes listening to Christmas music that deals with the actual religious aspects of the holiday, and becomes irritated by the constant repetition of Christmas songs that touch upon the nonreligious, artificial meaning of the holiday, such as "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer."

Adam Berg, a 17-year-old high school senior, has a different perspective on Christmas. Adam thinks of Christmas as a secular, as opposed to religious, holiday.

Regarding the massive amounts of commercialism in the stores and on television advertising for the holiday, Adam remarked, "It is all like fruitcake. No one particularly enjoys it, but it happens to come along every year." Christmas wouldn't be the same without relentless marketing through the media for three months prior to the actual holiday, he said.

Yet, Adam still finds the atmosphere of Christmas exciting and motivating. He feels the most important aspect of Christmas is getting his whole family together. That can be a feat, as he has three adult brothers that live on their own. One tradition in the Berg family is to pile into their '88 Astro Van and scout the Valley for houses covered in Christmas lights. Spending time together with his family is a priority, he said. The activity they take part in can be a simple one; being together is what counts.

Since September, Adam has been working with the Special Santa Program as the coordinator of a bike drive. The Special Santa Program provides Christmas gifts to around 3,000 children, ranging from infancy to age 18. So far, Adam has collected 13 bikes and one scooter to be given as presents to children in need. Aside from bicycles, this year the Special Santa Program is collecting miscellaneous toys, clothing, puzzles, games, and in addition each child will receive one book.

For years, there have been a lot of complaints about Christmas veering away from its original purpose as a religious holiday and becoming too commercial. Yet the commercialism is tolerated, unfailingly, every year. Everyone works hard to adorn their houses and embellish their Christmas trees with a wide variety of decorations, while they sing along to Christmas classics on the radio. You consistently see the stores, having been decorated for numerous days beforehand, filled to the brim with Christmas shoppers the day after Thanksgiving.

Christmas is the ideal time for sharing, spending quality time with old friends, and for rediscovering the importance of family and spirituality. But keeping perspective on the holiday is a necessity. For Christians, it is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. For non-Christians, Christmas is still a concept to be dealt with, and even enjoyed. No matter your spiritual inclination, the universal concepts of peace on earth and goodwill toward men are undeniably worth sharing.

Jesse Tuomi is an 18-year-old Mat-Su senior. To Jesse, spending the holiday season with family and close friends is a necessity. Jesse also uses the holiday to rekindle her faith. "Faith is just as important as family, especially around the holidays," Jesse said.

Every Christmas Eve the Tuomis attend a church service at which Jesse enjoys singing uplifting Christmas carols. Unfortunately, this year her brother is away at college in Montana and won't return home for Christmas. With her brother away at school she expressed nostalgia for the joy of previous Christmases.

Jesse's favorite Christmas memory was created when her father spent 70 hours building her a dollhouse. He proceeded to wrap only its big box and when Jesse, a young tyke, eagerly tore off the wrapping paper on Christmas morning, she found a note and map. She ventured off to a treasure hunt and was most pleased at her eventual discovery.

In dire need of money to purchase quality gifts for her friends and relatives, after finding no desirable job offers, Jesse decided to form her own business through her local high school. This budding young entrepreneur set up a table at lunch with various samples of cookies to sell to the student body for the holiday season.

Sales were going well, and she was making a profit when a couple of administrators noticed what was happening, and shut Jesse down for not having the required business permit to sell on school grounds. Alas, Jesse's lunchtime operation was short lived. But the word has spread! "People have heard about my cookies and I am getting in a lot of orders. I usually end up baking three to four hours a night," Jesse said. "I have made almost $200 in a week and a half."

Christmas is a lot of work for Jesse, who tries to buy gifts for all of her friends and close relatives. "There is so much stuff to do in a short period of time, but I do it because I love it and for the people I care about. It is worth it."

There is a clear pattern that the youth of the Valley see Christmas as a holiday to be spent with family. The essential meaning of Christmas can be debated, but ultimately the holiday calls for people to go about with a cheery demeanor and smiles on their faces.

It is sometimes difficult to remember that this holiday is one of kindness and good will when you're struggling for a parking space in a mall parking lot teemed with eager shoppers, but it's worth the effort. Actions speak louder than words. If adults want their children to appreciate what Christmas is really all about, the best way to do so is by setting an example for them to follow. It is important to step away from the everyday rush and ask yourself what you are doing this holiday season to better the day of somebody you happen to come into contact with.