Santa Claus and gifts come to mind when Christmas and children are used in the same sentence.

However, while the jolly old elf and presents were noted, when area students were asked what Christmas means to them, most of their responses reflected a truer reason for the season.

The meaning of Christmas varies from person to person, but the responses from several local elementary students who were posed the question, “What does Christmas mean to you?” showed that more times than not, Christmas was all about family.

What does Christmas mean to you?

 

Brooklynn Ross

Age 6

1st grade, South Park Elementary School

What does Christmas mean to you? It means to me joy and happiness.

What is your Favorite thing about Christmas? Presents, I like giving presents because I love my parents.

 

 

Kaelyn Cooper

Age 6

1st grade, South Park Elementary School

What does Christmas mean to you? Celebrating God’s birthday, opening presents and spending time with my family.

What is your Favorite thing about Christmas?  I like giving presents to my family.

 

 

Kameron White

Age 6

1st grade, South Park Elementary School

What does Christmas mean to you? It’s kind of like Thanksgiving where you can eat cookies and you can open presents and you get to go to your other family’s houses and open more presents.

What is your Favorite thing about Christmas? Eating the cookies.

 

 

Cannon Sumrall

Age 6

1st grade, South Park Elementary School

What does Christmas mean to you? Thanking Santa Claus for the gifts and putting out milk and cookies for him.

What is your Favorite thing about Christmas? Getting gifts.

 

 

 

Paisley Hott

Age 6

1st grade, South Park Elementary School

What does Christmas mean to you? Christmas means kindness and support to others and also, I love Santa and sometimes I give him 10 cookies and warm up his milk and I sometimes leave my name and tell him to enjoy his milk and cookies. It also means presents and kindness, of course. Also, being with your family, eating treats and watching the Grinch and Christmas movies and love… That’s all I know about Christmas – and it is amazing.

What is your Favorite thing about Christmas? Presents and spending time with family.

 

Carter Jackson

Age 7

2nd grade, South Park Elementary School

What does Christmas mean to you? Christmas is about caring and people giving you gifts and other people giving you gifts and people being nice and spending time with your family.

What is your Favorite thing about Christmas? People being nice to you and spending time with your family and giving gifts.

 

 

A’rhiyah Royal

Age 8

2nd grade, South Park Elementary School

What does Christmas mean to you? Presents and opening the presents and playing with them.

What is your Favorite thing about Christmas? When you unwrap the presents.

 

 

Avery Pee

Age 7

2nd grade, South Park Elementary School

What does Christmas mean to you? Christmas means to spread happiness and joy — to make kids happy and that’s when Jesus was born, and it (means to) spread love to the children to have good effort about other people and have joy spread all over the world and Christmas spirit.

What is your Favorite thing about Christmas? Presents.

 

Karson Tapp

Age 8

2nd grade, South Park Elementary School

What does Christmas mean to you? It means seeing my family and everyone gets joy when Christmas Eve is here, and family gets to see each other again because they probably haven’t gotten to see each other in a long time.

What is your Favorite thing about Christmas? To see my family.

 

 

Addiyson Jackson

Age 7

1st grade, South Park Elementary School

What does Christmas mean to you? Christmas means a lot to me. Christmas is my favorite holiday. We celebrate God’s birthday.

What is your favorite thing about Christmas? It’s when God’s birthday comes and I’m really happy for God to have a birthday because he is always taking care of us.

 

 

Aleigha Hardy

Age 9

4th grade, Beechwood Elementary School

What does Christmas mean to you? Christmas means to me family and love for Jesus because Jesus died on the cross for our sins, and he was born on Christmas Day. And for family you would gather around and have fun with your family. And it’s not all about the presents. It’s about the time you spend with family and the love that you give them.

What is your favorite thing about Christmas? My family likes to sing Christmas carols at the end of the day, and we love putting up Christmas lights and I love when we go looking at the Christmas nativity scenes, cause my family is into looking at other lights and other nativity scenes.

 

Mackenzie Opiela-Dickerson

Age 4

Pre-kindergarten Beechwood Elementary School

What does Christmas mean to you? Christmas means lots of joy because I get super good presents and presents mean you are good.

What is your favorite thing about Christmas? Drinking hot chocolate.

 

 

Brycen Jenkins

Age 11

5th grade, Beechwood Elementary School

What does Christmas mean to you? Christmas — Christmas means giving, loving, family. Family is the most important part of Christmas because without it you wouldn’t have any Christmas time, Christmas presents or Christmas money. That’s what it means to me.

What is your favorite thing about Christmas? My favorite thing about Christmas is when a family member I haven’t seen in a really long time that I’ve just made such a deep connection with them comes back for Christmas. That is my favorite part of Christmas because it is such a special moment.

Lillie Townsend

Age 7

1st grade, Beechwood Elementary School

What does Christmas mean to you? Christmas means to me – I like all the presents that Santa and my family give me, but the most part is we get to go to each other’s house and open presents and spend time together and we love it. And we usually bake cookies, and we did that Sunday, and it was fun. We had lots of fun doing it and all my brothers and sisters are going to be there and we are going to open presents and sing carols and have fun and spend time together. And then we gather around our TV and start singing songs and say Bible verses that go with those songs.

What is your favorite thing about Christmas? Presents.

Skyla Johnson

Age 7

2nd grade, Beechwood Elementary School

What does Christmas mean to you? It reminds me of Jesus’ birth, and it reminds me of family, and it just makes me happy to listen to the song my mama sings to me.

What is your favorite thing about Christmas? We get to have presents, and spend time with family.

 

 

Mercy Moore

Age 8

2nd grade, St. Francis

What does Christmas mean to you? Giving and Jesus’ birth.

What is your favorite thing about Christmas? Being with my family and decorating our tree and spending time with them and seeing all my cousins at my grandmother’s house.

 

 

Kobe Henyard

Age 6

Kindergarten, St. Francis

What does Christmas mean to you? Santa Claus is coming, we are going to get presents, we have a Christmas tree, and we are going to have fun.

What is your favorite thing about Christmas? Toys.

 

 

Joe Robert

Age 6

1st grade, St. Francis

What does Christmas mean to you? Presents and golden coins.

What is your favorite thing about Christmas? Everything — except toothbrushes.

 

 

 

Ian Flores

Age 8

3rd grade, St. Francis

What does Christmas mean to you? Christmas means like, family to me. I love it. There is snow. Technically, presents are mostly what I like about Christmas.

What is your favorite thing about Christmas? Presents and getting out of school.

 

 

Reese Lyons

Age 9

4th grade, St. Francis

What does Christmas mean to you? Christmas is one of my favorite holidays and it is the birth of Jesus, and it is about spending time with family. It’s not just about opening gifts. Gifts are for the gift of Jesus that’s why we give gifts and when Jesus was born, he was born for a certain reason, and it was to save us from sins.

What is your favorite thing about Christmas? When I open presents, I never know what I get.