resents under a tree, the eight candles of a menorah or sweets fit for a god represent a range of holidays celebrated near                     the end of the year. Each family celebrates for unique reasons, with generations of history behind each story. 

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Hanukkah is a special holiday for senior Em Williams. 

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"I celebrate Hanukkah because my mother and her family are Jewish," Williams said. "My father is not, and neither is his family, but that's a very big tradition toward my mom's side, so we celebrate it every year."

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Hanukkah is a celebration of the Jewish people who escaped persecution.

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"The Jews hid out for eight days before they were able to come out of hiding," Williams said. "We light each candle to celebrate the light that is in our lives, due to the fact that the Jews were able to continue to live, despite all of the persecution that they were possibly about to face."

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Williams wants people to embrace holidays from different cultures and religions.

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"If you just focus on Christian Christmas when there are 30 other holidays that are celebrated in December, then you're really cutting out thousands and millions of people and lifetimes of history," Williams said.

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Williams witnessed her boyfriend, 2015 graduate Cody Blamberg, open up to the idea of different cultures during a combined Hanukkah and Thanksgiving meal last year.

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"We took a moment of silence and I peeped over and I saw that [Blamberg] has joined it," Williams said. "When people are just willing to accept that, it's so awesome. It means a lot to me to show somebody that in such a small community, there are different people, and you'll just never notice that."

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A couple thousand miles to the east, Diwali is a huge celebration in India, which hits home for sophomore Dhyan Thacker.

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"I moved to America from Gujarat, India," Thacker said, "Everybody in India celebrates Diwali. It is a week long celebration where we bring gifts and sweets to each other. It's a tradition, so we continue to celebrate it in America."

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Thacker looks forward to the celebration every year.

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"Diwali is the new year for Gujaratis," Thacker said. "That is when the god Rama came back from a 14-year journey in search of his wife. He had victoriously killed her kidnapper. It has to do with religion, so to me, it's important."

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In 1966, Dr. Maulana Karenga, a professor of black studies at California State University, created a holiday in celebration of the ancient African culture. It was named Kwanzaa. It is a celebration of culture that focuses on seven different principles. Freshman Tyler Dwinell has a unique tie to the holiday.

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"Half of our family is African-American," Dwinnel said. "It goes  back to before the Civil War. This woman was a slave with her tribe, and sold to a man. He married her, and that part of the family kept growing."

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Dwinell was young when he learned more about his family's past. 

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"I found out about that side of my family at a reunion," Dwinell said. "I was about seven when I met my African-American cousin there."

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The Dwinell family did not always celerate Kwanzaa. However, as time passed, they decided to embrace it.

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"We started to celebrate Kwanzaa last year, when my mom really got into it," Dwinell said. "She started discovering herself more, as she likes to say."

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To the family, it is important to keep the story alive.

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"We don't talk about it all the time, but we do make sure to talk about it," Dwinell said. "It's really important to us, because it shows we are proud of our heritage."