Whether you're Christian or Jewish, Italian or Mexican, it's the most wonderful time of the year. And teachers at Centennial Arts Academy echo that sentiment in their classrooms.
Darcy Schaufler, a first-grade teacher at the Gainesville School, said elementary students there learn about different religious celebrations during December. Kids also learn the tenets of everything from Christmas to Kwanzaa and Hanukkah.
Schaufler said holiday lessons this year were based on a "Christmas Around the World" theme, where each class studied the holiday beliefs of various religions and countries.
"Most of my children have one faith, so they bring it up. I acknowledge what they believe, but I don't go too in depth with it because it's such a sensitive subject," she said. "We accept that everybody's different and everybody's good and right. It's important to make the children feel valid about their beliefs."
She said children studied the Christmas witch of Italy called "Old Befana" and learned that the Christmas tree originates in Germany.
Some students learned about Mexico's Christmas traditions, which include a festive piñata party.
Other classes studied the Christmas practices of Sweden and Holland, which involve the lighting of many candles on Christmas Eve to light the way for family and visitors.
And Schaufler said she even taught students about the British and Canadian holiday of Boxing Day, which she describes as a day of tipping people in the service industry, such as letter carriers.
Down the hall, the students in Jennifer Roth's third-grade class learned about Hanukkah.
Last week, Roth's third-graders learned the Hebrew letters on the dreidel.
They learned how to play the classic Hanukkah game and used division and subtraction skills to determine the winner.
Roth, who is the lone Jewish teacher at Centennial Arts Academy, also baked potato latkes for students. She served students the traditional Hanukkah fare coupled with applesauce and taught them the basics of the menorah.
The menorah, she told students, holds nine candles. The central candle, called the shamash, is used to light the other eight candles, which represent the miracle of the eight nights the oil burned in an Old Testament story. In the story, there was only enough oil to typically last one night, Roth explained.
To their delight, she told students how there's eight nights of presents in Hanukkah celebrations, which begin this year on Sunday night.
"I just wanted to share part of me with them," Roth said. "Kids ask me if I'm going to celebrate Christmas, and when I tell them ‘no,' I explain why."
Madison Oliver, one of Roth's third-grade students, said she enjoyed learning about Hanukkah.
"My favorite thing about Hanukkah is when they light the candles and sing songs," Madison said. "Talking about other traditions is good because then you can tell other people about it."
Roth said as a religious minority in the school, she was happy to be asked to share her beliefs with students.
"I feel kind of good about being able to introduce them and make them more aware that not everyone is going to celebrate Christmas," Roth said. "I tied it into we're all different, and that's what makes us unique. If we were all the same that would be boring."