Celebrating the Holidays With Roommates

By Danielle Wirsansky on December 18, 2016

One of the greatest parts of college is the diversity of people that you get to meet. College is a melting pot of people of different ages, races, interests, majors and religions. You never know who you will meet or who you will become friends with or even who you will room with. College is your opportunity to meet people who are different from you and provide you with an outlet to celebrate those differences.

As the holidays swiftly approach, it is a time to celebrate, especially with your roommates who live with you! But not everyone celebrates the same holiday. There are so many going on this time of year from Christmas to Hanukkah to Kwanza and more. We all need to be respectful of other people whose beliefs may be different from our own and get into the holiday spirit.

Read on to learn some ways to celebrate the holidays with your roommates in a respectful but festive manner!

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Give everyone a corner.

A lot of people like to get into the holiday spirit by decorating. This can be a lot of fun for everyone involved. Not everyone may celebrate the same holiday as you so rather than only decorating for one holiday, why not decorate for all of them? Each holiday can be given its own little space or corner for things like a Christmas tree, a menorah and more!

Do not dictate what holidays can be represented in your apartment and give everyone the chance to get into their own holiday spirit. Use the opportunity to learn about the objects that are relevant to the holidays you are less familiar about and learn about other cultures!

Join in the celebrations.

People like to have holiday celebrations and everyone should be allowed to have one. Sometimes, we can feel uncomfortable when our roommates hold events in shared spaces and invite in people that we do not personally know.

But when the holidays come around, you want to try and be reasonable and allow everyone to enjoy the season. Just because you might not be familiar with the holiday a roommate is celebrating does not mean that you should not allow them to celebrate it. Intolerance is not a good look around the holidays. Use it as a springboard to get out of your comfort zone and celebrate, learn, and enjoy a holiday you are not familiar with. Allow your roommates to have their celebration (within reason). Make a good effort to be involved in it. Meet new people. Be appropriate when being introduced to an outside culture. Have fun!

And if you allow your roommates to celebrate their own holidays then you can surely celebrate your own which is a good tradeoff any day. Use it to include your roommates and teach them about your own culture in a personal way and share the best of your favorite holiday traditions.

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Combine the celebrations.

Another great part of the holidays is the fact that it is a time of year where everyone gathers and is able to celebrate the spirit of the season regardless of what holiday they celebrate. Instead of having separate celebrations, you and your roommates can just combine and have a giant collective holiday bash that celebrates every holiday that you all celebrate.

Each of you can invite your friends and just have a big bash where each holiday is celebrated and acknowledged equally. The more the merrier, right? It can be a great way for all of you to meet new people and learn about new cultures in a low pressure way that helps to honor what the holidays are really about: joy and being together.

Have a roommate potluck.

If you and your roommates are not into big celebrations, you can have a much smaller, more intimate holiday celebration among yourselves. Pick a night to have a family style dinner where each of you is available. Each of you should make a dish to share with the rest of the roommates that is an important element of each holiday your group celebrates. Or you could make food that is holiday specific, one from each of the four main holidays celebrated around the same time: Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanza and Ramadan.

Make it your own holiday celebration. Teach each other about the holiday and individualize and personalize your explanation. Do not just talk generally about the holidays, share what you and your family do. Find ways to combine traditions between the holidays to make unique traditions that you and your roommates will treasure and remember for years to come. Take pictures so that you can remember these times in the future and reflect. Swap gifts, if that is an important part of the holiday for you.

But most of all, enjoy your time together with your roommates and friends to make this holiday season truly memorable.

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