Happy holidays, “all of ‘em.”

Combine the magic of Christmas with the innocence and energy of childhood and you never know what you are going to get. In early December, I met with a group of students at the Poland Community School, grades K, 1 and 2, to get their take on all the holiday hoopla.

DC: What holiday do you celebrate?

Shane Yorkey (kindergarten): I actually just celebrate Thanksgiving.

Eben Vye (grade 1): I celebrate all of ‘em.

Payson Delaney Picard (kindergarten): We don’t celebrate Christmas, we just get presents.

Payson, who was wearing a bright blue shirt with silver snowflakes, also informed me: “My shirt is new. I call myself Snowflake Girl.”

The verdict with respect to what they like most about Christmas was unanimous: “We like presents!”

Spencer Cramp (grade 1): I like presents and [just in case Santa’s listening] I want a transformer.

Family and Christianity also got small nods from Tyler Hatch (grade 2): I love the presents and my family; and, Jordyn Kohtala (grade 2): My favorite thing is celebrating God’s birthday and when we get to put the star or the angel on the top of the tree.

They also like food:

Payson: I like those trees that are stuffed with chocolate with the wrappers on top. I llloooovvvveee those! And stuffing! I llloooovvvveeee stuffing!

Jordyn: Mashed potatoes and lots of desserts.

Eben and Akayli Maclean (grade 1) agree: Candy.

Josie Beckwith (grade 1): We eat cake with green frosting and chocolate inside and ice cream because my sister’s birthday is before Christmas.

Ari Miller (grade 1): Chocolate chip cookies… JUST chocolate chip cookies.

Tyler: I don’t really care. I like it all.

Spencer: That’s hard.

Shane: I can’t think.

Payson: Are we missing lunch?

DC: What else do you like about Christmas?

Akayli: I like leaving cookies out for Santa.

DC: What type of cookie does Santa like?

Akayli: Um, chocolate chip.

DC: What’s your favorite type of cookie?

Akayli: Um, chocolate chip.

DC: What do reindeer eat?

Many voices all at once: Carrots, apples, grass, hay, reindeer food and, according to Ari, “seeds ‘cause if they eat other things then they get a stomach ache and then they’ll have to stay home and [Santa] won’t be able to bring people presents.”

Naturally, I wanted to know if anyone had ever tried to catch Santa on Christmas Eve.

(Editor’s note: Read Deborah Conway’s feature story of her interview with Santa Claus which published on December 10. You can find her story, and other HOLIDAY stories, online at www.sunjournal.com/specialsections.)

Jay Hawkes (grade 1): At my old house I woke up at 12 in the afternoon and I saw Santa’s back and then I went back to bed and I was using my tiptoes so he didn’t see me.

Eben: Last Christmas I was hiding behind my movie shelf and he didn’t notice me ‘cause I was so quiet and then I ran and jumped on him and said “grrrr” and he knocked down my Christmas tree.

Jordyn: I’m glad he’s OK!

DC: Were you on the naughty list that year?

Eben: No, because see he already had the presents with him.

Ari: I actually saw him and I sat on his lap and he gave me a candy cane and he told me to put it in my pocket so my dad wouldn’t take it away.

DC: Do you get dressed up at Christmas?

Jay: I dress up like an elf and (as he pretends to choke) this year I’m going to wear a tie.

Jordyn: Sometimes I wear a fancy dress and make-up.

DC: Does your older sister help you?

Jordyn, laughing: No, no, not at all!

Shane: I don’t dress up. I act like an elf and pretend to make cookies.

Also, according to Spencer, “the Grinch has a heart full of green guck and in his brain he has dirty socks because he doesn’t like Christmas” and, just in case you wanted to know, Eben’s Memere has a dog named Max (like the Grinch) and Eben himself has a dog who is “kind of like a cow ‘cause he eats grass.”

As adults, we do not usually follow our stream of consciousness about that snowy Christmas ride, where we get to make up a story as we go along. This year, however, perhaps we should rip a page from that playbook of childhood and follow the Christmas magic wherever it should take us. After all, don’t we have better things to think about other than the fact that all of the ornaments are hanging from the same branch and the Christmas cookies all look like, well, a 6-year-old decorated them?

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