Holiday festival is one of the greatest and most giving of all the traditions my high school has to offer. You may be wondering, what is Holiday Festival?   For over 40 years, we have been providing presents to children in need from Paterson, New Jersey.  It is an event in which students sign up and are given information about a child in elementary school who may not be able to receive as many presents this holiday season due to his family’s financial situation.  The child writes down what he or she desires for this holiday season and the student buys presents for the child based off of the list they are given.  A couple weeks later on the day of Holiday Festival, the kids take a bus from their elementary school and take it to our high school and they are filled with a day full of fun.  They first come to their designated classroom first and eat their lunch, and then the student takes his or her kid around for various fun activities.  The child is first brought to our library where he gets to open his presents like it’s Christmas morning.  Then, they can face paint, draw, play in the bouncy house, have their picture taken with Santa, get temporary tattoos, and much more.   Later, the child can pick out and can receive a free book provided by us.  The child is then taken back on the bus and can go home and enjoy all of his presents. 

Overall this is a great experience for both the child and the student because of the joy it can bring throughout this day.  He or she is removed from their problems and can escape to become a kid again.  These kids can have many issues back at home, but here they are given extra presents and can enjoy themselves. 

This year we were all put into a classroom for twenty minutes to meet with our assigned kid and talk to him to get to know each other.  Understanding where the kids are from, they may have difficult living situations, for Patterson is known for being a lower class town with crime. My kid, Ismael, certainly had issues with his family since he talked about his stepdad yelling at him, his dog getting “adopted”, and how he already knew that Santa wasn’t real.  He was only in second grade and this was really sad to hear knowing it wasn’t until I was in fifth grade I found out he wasn’t real.  However, on the day of the event, none of this mattered to him because he was receiving presents, and had a fun day ahead of him.  This is what Holiday Festival has to offer to these kids who are in need.  What was sweet about all of this was all the kids wrote a kind letter to their buddy who talked about how they were thankful for this day and how they hoped we were going to have a good Christmas. Ismael gave me a really sweet letter and I was thankful for him because his letter made my day.  After we talked to each other for the twenty minutes, we went to the library, where I gave him a basketball, a board game, candy, and Legos.  He was really jubilant when I gave him these presents because it seemed like he may not get so many at home.  That’s the reason why we host this event - to give kids a chance to be themselves without their worries back at home. Once he was done opening his presents, we walked to the senior commons room where he was given a big monkey stuffed animal.  He carried it all around the school and you could tell he was the happiest kid in the world.  With his monkey hanging around his neck, he walked around with a smile on his face.  Later, we went near the gym to get books for Ismael.  They said there is no limit on how many books the kids are allowed to get so Ismael got all the SpongeBob books he could find.  Then, we went in the gym and jumped on the bouncy house and later walked over to the cafeteria for arts and crafts.  You could tell he was having such a great time at these activities.  Once the time was up, we walked together outside to the buses and I took his presents up to him and while he was sitting with his friends.  They were all having a blast. 

Although I haven’t heard from Ismael since this event, I know that he definitely had a better holiday season than he would have without Holiday Festival.  The struggles that persist to occur in these poor neighborhoods are why we host this event every year.  We try and create a positive environment for these kids to come and just have fun and enjoy themselves.  I’m proud my school hosts this event because kids like Ismael can celebrate Christmas season with happiness.