TableThe Venom is a production Of of Viper Times,Contents located at https://vipertimes.com *Homey Holiday Recipes...Pg.1 By: Jessi Bianco & Kameryn Walker *Winter Family Traditions...Pg.2 By: Lacey Cluff *Christmas Cultural Traditions...Pg.3 By: Gireh Serna & Emily Stregbig *Santa’s Secret is Out...Pg.4 By:Lauren Thibodeaux *Winter Sports...Pg.5 By: Nick Delgado & Emily Wong *Review: Hasselhoff’s ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas’..Pg.6 By: Maia Thompson *Favorite Holiday Flicks...Pg.7 By: Esther Jospeh & Camryn Lizarraga *Top 10 Christmas Songs...Pg.8 By: Noah Weber *Last-Minute Holiday Gifts...Pg.9 By: Anya Schedin & Aleah Rivas *What Does Winter Mean?...Pg.10 By: Jaden Koruba *The Grinch Soundtrack...Pg.11 By: Nevaeh Corehado *Winter Fashion...Pg.12 By:Janice Ochoa *National Ugly Christmas Sweater Day...Pg.13 By: Alina Guerin *Winter Treats Around the World...Pg.14 By: Neele Wasch *Holiday Activites...Pg.15 By:Camila Perdomo & Camilla Nava *Orgin of Santa...Pg.16 By: Bryn Benjamin Design Team... Bryn Benjamin & Gireh Serna Holiday Recipes By Jessi Bianco and Kameryn Walker Potato Latkes Verrado High School senior Hannah Hinton comes from a Jewish family and helps her mom make traditional recipes during the holiday season. One of Hin- ton’s favorite recipes is potato latke, which is a potato cake with bold flavors that is made during the eight days of Hanukkah. Hinton likes to help her mom with this recipe by prepping some vegetables. This recipe is important to Hin- ton because “my mom makes this at least once every Hanukkah and they are one of the only traditionally Jewish foods I like.” Hinton says she associates this recipe with memories of wintertime because “they are really only served during Hanukkah and not any other Jewish holidays I celebrate.” Even though the cooking process can be fun, Hinton says that her favorite part will always be when she finally gets to eat it! Ingredients: 2 large russet potatoes, 1 large onion, 2 large eggs, 1/2 cup all-purpose flour, 2 tsp coarse kosher salt, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp black pepper, oil for frying Holiday Turkey Erin Eisen, a US Government teacher at Verrado High School, makes a turkey with her family that brings holiday joy into their home. It is something that means a lot to her because of its holiday emphasis and the memories it brings. One of those memories is the way her step father prepares the turkey. “When I make this turkey, I use an electric thermometer that will alert me when the turkey is to temperature,” Eisen said. “When my stepdad makes this, he will not use a ther- mometer and without fail, it will be overcooked. It tastes great, but is tough.” Eisen said that her “favorite thing about this recipe is how it makes the house smell. It smells like family gatherings. It smells like eating too much food.” Try ringing in the holiday season with this recipe for you and your family to enjoy! Ingredients: 1 turkey, 2-3 carrots, 2-3 stalks of celery, 1 onion, fresh sage, parsleym rosemary, thyme, zest of 1 lemon, 4-6 cloves of garlic minced, 2 Apple Pie Filling Hawaii native and high school senior Isaiah Patterson shared a de- lectable apple pie filling recipe that he likes to enjoy with his family around the holidays. Patterson said that “this recipe is important to me because it brings the whole family together to enjoy some really good apples.” This is a common theme around the holidays; food re- ally does have great power to unite people. One of his favorite mem- ories with this recipe was “stealing the bowl and running away while stuffing my face before my sisters caught me.” Even for a little kid, these apples are absolutely delicious as long as you don’t get caught! Ingredients: 6-7 green apples sliced, 1 cup sugar, 2 tbsp flour, 2 tbsp cinna- mon, pinch of nutmeg, pinch of salt, 2 tbsp butter By. Lacey Cluff Every group of friends and family has their own unique, annual familial traditions.With nearly 2,000 students at Verrado, there’s a lot of traditions–and a lot of diversity. Librarian and media specialist Sharayah Warren and sophomore Lexi Lovell’s families share a similar winter tradition. Both families open one present on Christmas Eve, which inside, is normally pajamas. Warren also says they put on their newly unwrapped pajamas and watch movies. Senior Skyler Helbert says her family has been practicing a fairly new family tra- dition - Secret Santa. For about three to four years, Helbert’s family have picked the names of one of their siblings and then buys them a gift that they think that sibling will like, using their own money. Some traditions, though, are a bit more adventurous than others. Teacher’s aide and paraprofessional Susan Yost said one of her family tradi- tions was snowmobiling in the backcountry of Colorado and cutting down trees to use during Christmas. Her immediate family has been lumberjacking for the past 25 years. “When I lived in Colorado, we bought really, really rundown snowmo- biles and fixed them up,” Yost said. “And as long as we lived there, we traded them and fixed them... and when we got better snowmobiles, we went to higher places and climbed higher - like 14,000 feet up.” Once, Yost had a near-death experience aboard one of her snowmobiles. “I had to jump off mine one time when the brakes weren’t working. It tumbled down the hill and hit a tree,” Yost said. “[But later,] I realized the brakes were faulty and I got them fixed for free by the manufacturer.” Yost also says another tradition her family has is all the women in her family get together and hang out and make tamales. The tamales 2 mainly consist of pork, but some- times they’re red beef–and the family makes them every year. Christmas Cultural Traditions Around the world people get excited to celebrate the holiday of Christmas each December. Yet, people living in the U.S.A may have only a small viewpoint on just how many countries actually celebrate Christmas. Christmas, is celebrated in about 160 countries worldwide, and many places have their own style of celebrations–while most Guatemalans celebrate Christmas with parades and family dinners, Japanese families often celebrate by eating Kentucky Fired Chicken. While there are a number of Hispanic countries around the world that host celebrations during the Christmas season, Guatemala–located in Central America–has its own unique traditions. Usually, people celebrate Christmas on December 25, but in Guatemala people celebrate the holiday on December 24. On that date each year in Guatemala, there’s parades and small amusement parks to enjoy. Guatema- len high-schooler and 16 year old Levy Garcia enjoys experiencing the festivities out in a public plaza. “Everyone finds a way to help to get the feast ready,” Garcia said. “We all eat and hand out presents during Christmas Eve.” According to Garcia, people in Guatemala also stay up all night just to celebrate and talk about good times in their year. Across the ocean in Europe, a number of other countries also celebrate Christmas–including Germany. They have many different traditions dating back centuries. The Christmas tree is one, and many people also celebrate a feast for Saint Nicholas, where ‘Der Nikolaus‘, or Santa Claus, puts presents into the shoes of children. Christin Ostmann, a sales manager from Germany, participates in the holiday each year. “We have Saint Nikolaus that we celebrate on December 6th.” Ostmann said she also celebrates Christmas Eve on the 24th with her family. Another tradition that is popular across Germany are advent calendars. With 24 slots, each space con- tains a present of some kind. Another well-known tradition are Christmas markets. Christmas foods and decorations are sold here. Glass ornaments, according to Ostman are one of the most popular decorations sold at the markets. And across the Eurasian continent, Christmas is also celebrated in China by some select families. In China, barely anyone actually celebrates Christmas because few Chinese citizens are Christian. Yet in spite of China‘s small Christian population, Christmas is celebrated in large cities with parties. 16 year old, Jiang Chen lives in Wuxi, a town near Shanghai and visits Shanghai yearly to enjoy Christmas with her relatives. “We stay in a hotel for the week and enjoy the big city,“ Chen said. “On Christmas Eve we go into the central and celebrate with strangers while walking around and count down until midnight. Almost like an American New Year‘s“ Christmas is celebrated widely across Japan, although this is a trend that began a few decades ago. In Japan, Christmas also isn’t really considered a religious holiday, and most traditional Japanese Christmas dinners include KFC chicken. In 1974, KFC adverti- sed ‘Kentucky for Christmas!’ and that made them popular for Christmas dinner, according to Haruka Maeda a high school student in Daisen, Japan. “We celebrate Christmas eating chickens and cakes, decorating a Christmas tree, and being given Christmas presents from my family or friends,” Maeda said. “We also go see Christ- mas lights.” Another food that is popular is traditional Christmas cake. It is usually a sponge cake, decorated with strawberries and whip cream. Emily Strebig & Gireh Serna Photo by Lauren Thibodeaux Santa’s Secret is Out By Lauren Thibodeaux Finding out that Santa Clause isn’t truly real can be a huge, heartbreaking milestone for many kids, but that discovery has to happen sooner or later.