At the end of every year, the spirit of giving increases as the holidays near.

Everyone has their own way of showing their holiday spirit: through shopping, decorating, and many winter activities.

Some traditions are more common and some are not, but everyone celebrates this time of year in their own unique way.

Dimond Junior Vlad Finko is full of Christmas spirit every year.

He and his family gather at his aunts or his grandma’s house on Christmas Eve.

“We all sit down and eat for about an hour and then we get up and go into the living room, where the tree is set up with all the presents around it, and open all our presents.”

Finko’s family does not follow common tradition by opening presents on Christmas morning.

He said “We can never wait till Christmas morning to open our presents so we always open them Christmas Eve. We do two rounds of opening presents, go back to eating, then back to presents again, until we finally finish eating and opening presents.It usually lasts from 6 to 11 at night.”

So if he opens his presents the night before, then what does his family do on Christmas morning?

“Since we open all our presents the night before we always wake up around nine in the morning on Christmas and go sledding as a family, it’s always a lot of fun.”

Another Christmas enthusiast at Dimond is Junior Samantha Baltierra.

Every morning on Christmas she is awoken by her older sister Jaimee.

“It’s quite annoying how she wakes me up very early but she’s always done that for as long as I can remember. She is the first one up every Christmas morning and is so eager to open presents that she gets us up so early. It got to the point where my parents had to give her a set time to wake them up so they can actually get some sleep.”

I asked Baltierra how her family opens their presents on this exciting morning.

Baltierra said, “We are all eager to open up presents but we can’t do it before our parents wake up. However, we are allowed to look through our stockings.”

For Christmas breakfast every year, Baltierra’s mother makes her famous monkey bread.

“It’s seriously so delicious, our mouths water as soon as we can smell it baking,” she said.

For Christmas dinner, her and her family go over to her aunt and uncle’s house, along with 20 other members of her family, for a Christmas feast.

Baltierra said “It’s as big as Thanksgiving dinner, but without the turkey. We all overeat and complain about it every year.”

Dimond Sophomore Loricelle Juan on Christmas Eve, goes to church with her entire family.

They stay there for about two hours then go to one of her family members’ house.

“Every year it changes whose house we go to. Sometimes it’s my uncles, my grandparents, or even mine.” Juan said, “We have a big Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve instead of on Christmas. Then, we sit around, play games, and watch movies, until 12 o’clock. Once it is midnight, we open all our presents. Afterwards, we have a big onesie sleepover and then wake up the next morning to play with our new gifts.”

Traditions come and go, but these people’s traditions have stayed constant.

Christmas is near and the holiday spirit is increasing.

Everyone has their own way of having a very Merry Christmas.