With the fall semester coming to an end, many USC students look forward to celebrating the upcoming holidays in their own unique ways.
USC’s cultural diversity means a multitude of different traditions are observed by students on and off campus. While some students are looking forward to the upcoming holidays, some are still savoring their memories from Thanksgiving.
Carly Gottlieb, a junior studying law, history and culture, says her Thanksgiving tradition is to meet up with her twin sister who studies at UC Davis.
“I’m from South Florida, and it’s really expensive to fly down to Florida just for Thanksgiving,” Gottlieb said. “It’s super nice. It’s what we do every year.”
Jennifer Nie, a senior studying cognitive science, celebrated Thanksgiving at her aunt’s house. “We’ll do a Thanksgiving feast, spend an hour playing piano… some people will sing, some people will dance.. and another hour wrapping dumplings,” she said.
Riley Pierce, a sophomore studying business administration, said that he went home to observe the holiday. “Our family and extended family came down to my parents’ house, and we just celebrated together [with] a nice dinner,” Pierce said.
Although students might still have Thanksgiving leftovers in the fridge, plenty are already thinking about the winter holidays. Some students are even preparing for festivities before they head home.
“I was actually just going to go pick some [holiday decorations] up after school today. I kind of want to decorate my apartment,” Nie said. “Maybe [I’ll] buy a mini Christmas tree or something like that and then just celebrate with friends and wear warm clothes”
Dessai says she plans on celebrating with her friends at USC. “I love white elephants and secret Santa,” she said. “Also, my roommates and I want to get [each other] a Christmas card.”
While students are getting ready for the holidays at USC, students are also looking forward to celebrating a variety of traditions with their loved ones during winter break.
Gottlieb celebrates Hanukkah at home with her family, which means she’ll start the festivities on December 8. “I usually just celebrate every night with my family. We also have a family friend that does a holiday party where we make latkes. It’s fun to be around everybody.”
Gottlieb says that her favorite Hanukkah food is potato latkes. “It’s super fried, super bad for you, but they’re delicious… You have to have it with sour cream or applesauce.”
Latkes are a potato dish traditionally eaten during Hannukah, and the oil that latkes are fried in is symbolic in the Jewish faith. According to the Tenement Museum, latkes are a reminder of “when the oil of the menorah in the ransacked Second Temple of Jerusalem was able to stay aflame for eight days even though there was only enough oil for one day.”
Dessai celebrates Christmas with her family by watching the movie “Elf” “every Christmas morning together after we unwrap the presents.”
Nie said that her holiday season centers around food. “The dumpling [wrapping] is the biggest [tradition]. I don’t know why we always do that, but we do this for every holiday,” she said.
Pierce celebrates Christmas with games and dinner. “We usually go to my uncle’s house in San Diego and have all the family come down. As a yearly tradition, one of the older male members of the family has to dress up as Santa for the little kids. I haven’t done that yet, but I might have to do it this year. So let’s see.”