Christmas time here at Canyon High School consists of two things, Cougar Christmas, where students give gifts to less fortunate kids in the community and tons of holiday spirit. To heighten said spirit, Mrs. Lauren Castijella organized the “Twelve Days of Christmas”. The Twelve Days of Christmas are spirit days relating to different holiday themes like Christmas Vacation and ugly sweaters. Mrs. Castijella took a moment out of her day to tell me a little about it.

“So for the dress up days I… looked to see what the surrounding campuses do in the district, and tr[ied] to play off that while creating fun things that both the students and the staff can participate in,” Mrs. Castijella said when asked about how she came up with the ideas. 

“My favorite day is the last day. It’s the Festive Friday, where you wear your most favorite holiday sweater,” Mrs. Castijella explained before explaining what she’ll wear on that day with a very simple, “I have an epic sweater that I wear every single year.” 

While most people may assume at first this is only something students enjoy, going around the halls, it almost seems like the teachers like it more. “I love it; it’s my favorite. This is a very exciting time of the year, and being able to see people participating and the teachers posting on Twitter…,” Mrs. Castijella explained. “We actually do a competition with the teachers: whoever participates the most gets a surprise at the end.” Surprise possibilities range from new Canyon gear all the way to gift cards for food or clothes. 

Everyone has a holiday tradition whether they acknowledge it or not, and Mrs. Castijella explained hers. “I would say going to look at Christmas lights.”

Now that the holiday season has ended and we are now in the 3rd year of the 2020 decade, everyone here at Canyon hopes everyone had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.