Christmas memories, wishes fill students' thoughts

SANDPOINT — Forget sugar plums and Christmas specials, the real memories of the holiday season have little to do with presents but with friends and family.

For the second year, Waldorf School students share their favorite Christmas memories as well as their wishes for the holiday season.

For some, their favorite Christmas centers around snowball fights or performing in a ballet recital. For others, its gathering with family to continue special traditions that make the holiday special.

Below are the students’ wishes and Christmas stories:

Second grade:

Samuel — My favorite part about Christmas is having snow at my house and a tree in my room.

Addison — My favorite thing is that sometimes we go to Red Lodge and I get to see my friends and family and open presents.

Mathew — My favorite Christmas memory was when we went to San Diego and had lots of fun.

Mesa — I’m happy to go to Santa Cruz for Christmas.

Kenna — I look into my stocking. I like snowball fights.

Lucci — I like to go skiing and I was in the Jazzy Nutcracker.

Eliza — My Christmas memory is candy cane hunting.

Fiona — I’m in the Jazzy Nutcracker. This year I was in the snowflakes and the Chinese.

Stella — My favorite thing is going to my Grandma’s Christmas party and we stay up late to sit by the campfire and we have a snowball fight

Caspian — My favorite thing is going skiing.

Tyler — I like to go to Minnesota to visit my cousins.

Mathis — Every Christmas we go to my grandparents house for breakfast.

Third grade:

Abby — I want for Christmas my two dogs, Sammy and Gretta, back. They died this summer and I was very sad and I do not want anything else. Love, Abby.

Kaysia — One of my favorite Christmas’s was when I used to go to my grandma’s house in Orlando, Florida. It was fun. But now I don’t because she moved to Nashville, Tennessee.

Nina, age 8 — My favorite holiday is Christmas because I was born two days after Christmas. What I want for Christmas is an American Girl Doll and a camera.

Alana, age 9 — What I want for Christmas is an iPhone because I like to play video games, to listen to songs and to call people.

Lakota, age 8 — I am excited about my uncle coming for Christmas. I haven’t seen him in a long time. He has been in the army for twenty years.

Maren, age 8 — I was born the day after Christmas. I don’t remember it but my mom tells me she and my dad got to take me home in a Christmas stocking.

Seventh grade:

Gabrielle  — Dear Santa,  All I wish for Christmas is for you to listen to this story that I have to tell you. So, last night before I went to sleep, I was wondering if I was going to be on your good list because my big brother told me that I had been really bad this year and I can’t think of what I did wrong.

Love, Gabby P.S. I really want one of those new dollies. Bye Bye?

Kyle — I wish I could go back to a time where I wondered if Santa Claus really existed.

Audry  — Wish upon the Christmas Star, that led the three wise men to Jesus. My wish for the Christmas Star is for all the world to be at peace, and every one joyful at Christmas.

Cooper  — I wish I could get it. If I got it, I would stare at it for a full five minutes, not once blinking or taking my eyes off it, taking in the sleekness of it and only imagining the speed and height it could get. But it costs $175 — so much money. Oh well, I’ll just have to wait for a better offer on a remote control helicopter.

Brady  — For Christmas I want…well, I do not really want it to be Christmas right now. I am sick of Christmas and it has not even happened, which is surprising, because usually I can stand it at lest until Christmas is over. It was a few weeks back in the airport, I tell you, they must have played “We wish you a Merry Christmas” about a hundred times and that was Thanksgiving!

Kelsey  — Mia sat up in bed and stared out at the snow; which was illuminated by the porch light for the briefest moment before swirling back into darkness. She wondered, for what seemed like the hundredth time, if Santa would bring her the beautiful blue sled she so desperately wanted. She wished and wished, but in the end, the lateness and the curiosity were too much for her 6-year-old brain, and she sank back into slumber.

Rachel  — Why can’t it be the thought of Christmas that counts? Why does it have to be the present that make children smile?  I hope that as the years go by I will be more and more able to do this.

Alani  — If it’s cold outside, then why isn’t is snowing?  It’s Christmas time, yet I can still see the ground. I wish there was snow. So much snow, it wouldn’t melt until June.

Ruby  — White snow blankets the frosted earth, I find myself wondering if there will be spring again. But in the present, I am wishing for a white Christmas, filled with joy, and it appears to be so!

Pilar  — I wonder, will the snow be falling, will the fire be burning, will Santa have come?  Will I be able to savor every bite of the traditional moist, egg and sausage concoction in the company of my family?  This is my idea of a wonderful Christmas and I hope that this coming Christmas won’t be too different.

Eighth grade:

Maya — “My Wish” — Arica warmed her chilly fingers by the fire. She thoughtfully imagined the polar bear she had asked Santa for Christmas and wondered if mommy and daddy would allow him to sleep in her room.

Cole — “Powder.” It was Christmas. I wondered when it is going to dump snow so I can ski deep powder. The magnificent feeling of the deep powder spraying in my face. I wondered when it will come.

Mala — “Snow.” I really wish for the wonderous snow to stay with us for eternity. The snow that falls upon the ground brings joy and happiness to my heart. When it snows on Christmas, it feels like all of my cares drift away, as I plop into the cold, fluffy, powdery snow. I love the snow on Christmas time.

Ellie — “Christmas  Wishes.” This Christmas I have asked for a new sweatshirt, a camera and a few other things. Then I began to wonder, what to children in Africa ask for?  What do immensely wealthy children ask for if theyb already have everything they could possibly with for?  I wonder what poor children ask for and the lengths pa,ents go to to supply those gifts?

Lillie — “Christmas.” I wish millions of sparkling snowflakes would fall from the sky and cover our ski mountain. Christmas would be a day of skiing, a day of skiing to our hearts content.

Tristian — “Wonderland.” It was three days ‘till Christmas and it still hadn’t snowed. Eight year old Rose sighed in disappointment, what was the point of a dry Christmas?  That night as shw lay in bed, she wished it would snow overnight; as she sropped off to sleep, delicate snowflakes fell from the starry night sky; turning the world into a wonderland of white.

Robert —“Snowless African Christmas.” Little 6-year-old Suzie sat wondering how Santa would get there without a blanket of snow. But every Christmas eve he’d made it somehow to their little clay village on the African plains where her parents were doctors, and their efforts were not in vain.

Brittany — “A Child’s Dream Present.” I wonder what it would be like to be a toy soldier or any toy a child would dream for Christmas, having all the little kids eyes gazing upon mine, walking by, asking their parents if they could buy me, throwing a fit when they couldn’t.

Katie — “A family.” Alice sat alone on the small park bench, shivering under her think quilt. Her thoughts were on the small family across the busy cobblestone street in their warm home. Alice began to wonder, “why aren’t all families together?”  She thought, “why isn’t mine?”  Whe looked up at the dark sky and was greeted by falling snow. “I wish for a family,” she began. “Dear Santa, I wish for a family.”  Being finished, she wrapped her quilt about her and began to walk away.

Jake R. — I gaze out the window and wonder how long it will be before I will be able to ski the whol of Schweitzer Mountain without worrying about ruining my skis on the large amount of exposed debris. I hope this will occur before Christmas.

Jacob S. — “My life in a miniature Plastic Christmas Village.” I wonder what life would be like in a Christmas village, blankets upon blankets of thick fluffy white sheets all year round. It would be a small town, a candy shop, a mill, a church, a grocery store, maybe a hotel, a carousel and several houses. Ice skating every day on the same boring pond, our programmed paths going round and round in circles. Large faces peering down upon us, screwing up our lives, clumsy children’s hands coming down in a path of destruction. Clumsy figures re-gluing heads, fixing houses, and breaking legs. And then the dreaded day will come and into the garbage we go!

Sara  — I wish I could time travel for Christmas. I wonder if I’d see myself as an actor if I went into the future and how things are changed. I wonder if people will even look human anymore if I go to 2102 or sometime?  I wonder if some of us will be able to be on other planets without an astronaut suit and live? I wonder if I could change the past and still be that way when I come back to this time; or if I could do something to this time; or if I could do something in the future in 2023 and when I get back and go there again (but this time without a time machine) I’d see my past self and talk to her.

Julian —“Cave.” Supposing you were having Christmas in a cave. No fancy shiny glass bobbles. No electric lights. Only you, in your care, with the snow falling outside. Or maybe you live in the desert and there is no snow. What then?  Could you still be happy and joyful with the Christmas spirit?