Winter break celebrations at Bryn Mawr

By: Genevieve F. ‘28

As Bryn Mawr students and teachers wrap up 2024 with midterms, they each celebrate the end of the year in a variety of different ways. Winter break, flooded with holidays, traditions, and relaxation, allows Bryn Mawr’s community to experience relaxing with excitement and delight. 

This winter break, 10th grader Joanna Strauss is excited for her family traditions which include yearly trips and holiday celebrations. Usually, Joanna celebrates winter break with a fun family vacation after finishing Bryn Mawr’s midterms. This year, Strauss, her

mother, father, brother, aunt, uncle, and grandparents are all visiting Mexico— a trip she’s eager to begin! While there, she plans to spend quality time with her family and will celebrate the Jewish holiday Hanukkah, which falls between December 25th to January 2nd this year. Joanna celebrates Hanukkah with fun gifts, food, games, and lighting the Menorah. Joanna is very excited for her winter break and will return to school with many stories and new traditions!

Ms. Lahl, the high school dean of Bryn Mawr, is celebrating her first winter break in Baltimore since moving from California! In California, you could find Mrs. Lahl celebrating winter break between her family in Northern California and her husband's family in Southern California. A tradition that stays the same no matter if Mrs. Lahl is in California or Baltimore, is her book Christmas tree. This tree features a variety of books as her Christmas tree, which her husband assembles with books from both his collection and Mrs. Lahl’s. This is Mrs. Lahl's favorite winter break tradition, as she loves books and plans to do reading over break. She also plans on hiking, writing, spending time with her friends, husband, and animals. Winter break is never winter break without the snow, and Mrs Lahl is “Very hopeful that we will have a little bit of snow!”

Senior Ryan Duncan is celebrating winter break this year by going on a long- awaited cruise with her family. This includes a week long trip to the Bahamas, and she is very excited to spend her break with her family. Before Ryan’s break starts, she and her family cut their own Christmas tree after Thanksgiving, and decorate it with colorful lights and festive ornaments. Usually, Ryan spends Christmas with her mom’s family where they have a big party featuring present exchanges and great food. Ryan also spends winter break celebrating Christmas with her dad’s side of the family in Illinois. During the break, Ryan enjoys yearly traditions like eating a special fruit pie patented by her dad, and her cat jumping through the wrapping paper! These traditions are especially important to Ryan this year as this will be the last year celebrating Christmas before she graduates. Though this is her last year at Bryn Mawr, she plans on coming back to celebrate with her family. She also states, “Hopefully I'll be back for thanksgiving convocation.”

We can’t wait until the Bryn Mawr community returns from winter break in 2025 to hear about everyone’s fun experiences. Happy Holidays!