The Federal Way Mirror recently held its first holiday kids contest, asking students in grades kindergarten through 12th grade to express what the holidays mean to them.

Victoria E. Furniss, who attends Illahee Middle School, was selected as the contest’s first place winner.

Emmanuel Musgrove, a Lakota Middle School student, won second place, while fourth-grade Christian Faith School student Maya Deaton won third place.

Each winner received a $50 gift card for The Commons mall and a $25 gift card for Jimmy Mac’s.

Here are the winning entries:

First place

Spending time with the people I love

By Victoria E. Furniss

Illahee Middle School

There were five seconds left. I had less than two simple thread movements left.

I looked over to the progress my opponent had made and when the buzzer went off I hung my head in defeat as she threw her newly made hat across the room and shouted with joy, “I won!”

I then finished the last thread movement and then my opponent and I crossed the room and placed our newly made hats into a large box that was marked “hats for the homeless.”

Fifteen people were seated at a large table. Three generations were seated there. Fall decor was spread across the house; a large turkey, steamed in the center. The smell of potatoes, stuffing, turkey and the faint smell of pumpkin pie danced through the house making each one of the families mouth water.

After a short blessing of the food, we had asked the family question of, “What are you thankful for?” As the question went around, some people had said they were thankful for their kids and others said they were thankful for having food on the table or a roof over their heads. When the question came to me and the table fell silent, I hesitated.

I then looked up from my food and wondered why I ever had hesitated and said, “I am thankful for having a good education because if I wasn’t at the level I am at now, I wouldn’t be able to chase the dreams I have created for myself over the years, let alone make any more.”

“Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way,” we all shouted as we stood outside bundled up in well more than three layers of clothing each. Books in hand, we had never missed a single melody, let alone a word. The memory of doing this year after year helped us in our chorus. The frigid winter frost froze our breath and turned our noses pink. Family and friends surround me. What could possibly have been better?

My friends at school say they love the holidays because of the presents or the cool things that go on sale. But me. Well, that’s a whole other story. The reason I love the holidays is because I love spending time with my family, hanging out with my friends, roasting marshmallows over an open fire and especially dressing up in crazy winter costumes on Christmas morning and delivering presents to all my friends.

I love making hats for the homeless, collecting canned food on Halloween and volunteering at my school Christmas store at lunch. To me, the holidays don’t just mean presents, but it also means family; and, most importantly, it means spending time with the people I love.

Second place

The holidays mean Jesus’ birth, giving gifts

By Emmanuel Musgrove

Lakota Middle School

Emmanuel Musgrove

Christmas to me means many things; but it specifically means celebrating Jesus’ birth, spending time with family and both giving and receiving gifts.

Every Christmas Eve, my family visits my grandmother and our cousins at her house.

We all talk and laugh about the day we’ve been anticipating the whole season. After we have our pre-Christmas dinner, we go to church to sing and celebrate Jesus’ birth. Our pastor gives us a sermon about how Jesus was born in a manger by the most unlikely person: Mary, the virgin.

Christmas, to me, means celebrating the Son who offers us all salvation. After the service, we revisit people who we only get to see once a year. We give hugs and share our excitement about the following day. Once we get home me and my siblings excitedly get into bed, and are barely able to sleep as we think about the present opening that awaits us the following morning.

The morning of Christmas, I hurriedly do all the rituals that are required before we can open presents. Those include: eating breakfast, brushing teeth and making coffee for my parents (my younger brother usually does the last one). After those are done, my parents stall as long as possible to test how excited we are for opening the presents.

Christmas is the moment I get to see the person’s face that I bought a present for light up as they tear off the Christmas wrapping. To be able to nearly feel the same happiness as they did is really inspiring to want to give more. Of course it is also exciting to get the new game you asked for, or a cool new pair of socks, too.

The night of Christmas, my family spends time and opens presents with our non-immediate family. We play fun games such as mafia and charades. Playing mafia is especially enjoyable because some of my family doesn’t really play it right and will play with the wrong

intentions (i.e. cheating), or they will walk in the dark on all fours. Most of my cousins are older than I am, so it is interesting to see how their lives are and what they’ve been doing during the holidays. Christmas, I feel, is a good time to join and converse with family you don’t get to see often.

During Christmas evening, our family does a white elephant gift exchange. For all of those who don’t know what that is, it means that everybody buys a present, then we pick out which present we want (without knowing what it is) in a certain order. After the first person goes, the rules allow you to take a present from someone who has previously went, and they can grab a new one. A present can only be stolen three times. When we play this game with our family, presents can range from between an enormous bag of candy to a gift card to a particular place.

This is usually fun because we get to see what our family thought the rest of us would like and might fight over. Before all the game playing we usually eat a delicious meal that consists of cheesy potatoes, stuffing, sweet potato pie, ham, turkey, apple and pumpkin pie, shrimp, fudge, delicious bread rolls, cheese and crackers and spinach dip.

Those are all the things that Christmas means to me; that includes celebrating Jesus’ birth, giving and receiving gifts and spending time with my family.

Third place

Christmas is about being selfless

By Maya Deaton

Christian Faith School