The best gifts second-year creative writing student Lui Rogers ever gave to his family members were hand-carved figurines that he made with his grandfather.
“It wasn’t something that I spent money [on, but] it took time to make them,” Rogers said. “I feel like now every time I do Christmas, I don’t want to spend money. … I want to actually do something, to make something.”
In interviews with Campus Current, students recalled their best and worst holiday gifts from over the years.
While Rogers said the best presents are handmade and meaningful, another said the worst gift he ever got was a can of Spam.
Keegan Jarrell, a first-year dental hygienist student, said his father gave him a stocking for Christmas with nothing but a can of Spam in it.
“People like to get me, like, cans of Spam,” Jarrell said. “People think it’s funny.”
Second-year business student Aidan Graham said the funniest gift he ever got was a photograph from his best friend.
“After my parents’ divorce, my friend … gave me a picture of my dad,” Graham said. “And on the back, he wrote a message, which was, ‘Should ask Santa for a better dad, bucko.’ We laughed and then I gave him a Lego set.”
First-year journalism student Remy Browne said her favorite gift, a T-shirt for a band her father played in 30 years ago, was actually given to her brother, but she swiped it from him.
“It was a good gift,” Browne said. “I actually have it now because I stole it.”
Seyja Lactaoen, a second-year elementary education student, said the best gift she ever got is a necklace she wears every day.
“It has my grandmother’s name inscribed on the pendant,” Lactaoen said. “‘Asoa’ is my middle name and that’s my grandma’s real name. [It] means ‘to adorn yourself in jewelry.’”