Christmas stories from USFSP students
As finals come to an end and dormitories become vacant, many students head home to family and friends to take part in their favorite holiday traditions
Austin Consigny, junior, mass communications
Tom Hank’s voice bellows out in a dark room. The only illumination comes from a television screen and the Christmas tree’s dangling lights.
“All aboard!” he says, while the Consigny family sits together snuggled up in their pajamas, sipping cups of hot cocoa.
It’s become a holiday tradition – this small pajama Polar Express watch party – wearing their pj’s to match the children in the movie.
The house is already decorated: Ornaments dangling from the Christmas tree, stockings on door knobs, and the smell of peppermint and poinsettia in the air.
Austin is glad his family started this tradition.
“It’s something we can do together as a family, something we can bring others into,” he says.
Caitlyn Boberg, senior, health science
It’s a bright Florida December afternoon, a light breeze is the only reminder that winter is here. Inside a Hallmark store, Caitlyn searches for an ornament to give to her brother.
She finds a Santa dressed in ESPN clothing, looking chum.
On Christmas Eve they sit together and exchange small boxes. Her brother, Ryan, opens his first and smiles.
Then it’s Caitlyn’s turn. She loves to bake and beams when she sees the small cake mixer.
They place the ornaments on the tree before bed. The new hang with the old, all treasured mementos of Christmas’ past, exchanged between siblings.
Nicole Messina, senior, psychology
Nicole is surrounded by emerald green trees.
She leads a young couple through the thicket, helping them search for the perfect Christmas tree. A few, one in a hundred maybe, come packaged with a bit of snow from up north. A rare sight in Florida.
Nicole’s job for the day is to show customers the collection of trees with her brother, Mikey. Their father trims the trunks before sending them off to customers.
All their hard work pays off when Mikey’s boy scout troop, funded by the proceeds, goes on a camping trip every February.
Jamie Doerschuck, junior, entrepreneurship
The smell of freshly baked cookies lingers in the air while the Doerschuck family decorates their tree.
The ornaments aren’t new, some more than 20 years old, and are remnants from holiday memories that now don the house.
There are paper chains -– tattered, but still linked together – from when her parents were only dating.
Sometimes, Jamie argues with her father about which Stars Wars ornaments she gets to place, but these disputes are settled swiftly by her mother, the final judge.
The night before Christmas, Jamie is given two presents to open. The first is always a new set of Christmas-themed pajamas that she changes into before bed.
The second is chosen by her mother, a gifted gifter, who elects a present that fits the mood. It’s never the best one – that one is saved for Christmas morning.
When Jamie goes to sleep, her parents set up the stockings that were knit by her great-grandmother.
Everyone has their own stocking, even the dog.
But his wasn’t made by grandma.
