Its the most wonderful time of the year, Christmas is both a sacred religious holiday and a

worldwide cultural and commercial phenomenon. Christians celebrate Christmas Day as the anniver-

sary of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. Popular customs including exchanging gifts, decorating your

Christmas tree, attending church, sharing meals with family and friends and, waiting for Santa Claus

arrival. December 25 has been a federal holiday in the US since 1870.

In the early 17th century, a wave of religious reform changed the way Christmas was cele-

brated in Europe. When Oliver Cromwell and his Puritan forces took over England in 1645, they

vowed to rid England of decadence and as part of their effort, cancelled Christmas. Popular demand,

Charles II was restored to the throne and, with him, came the return of the popular holiday. The pil-

grims were even more orthodox in their Puritan beliefs than Cromwell. As a result, Christmas was not

a holiday in early America. From 1659 to 1681, the celebration of Christmas was actually outlawed in

Boston. By contrast, in Jamestown settlement, Captain John Smith report-

ed that Christmas was enjoyed by all and passed without incident. After

the American Revolution, English customs fell out of favor, including

Christmas. In fact it wasn’t declared a federal holiday until June 26,

1870. Have a Merry Christmas!

http://www.history.com/topics/christmas/history-of-christmas Kristie Clayton

History of Christmas

Christmas

Christmas is celebrated many ways throughout the world. Even though Christmas is a celebration for Jesus

Christ’s birth, many non-Christians celebrate it also. A lot of people who celebrate Christmas think it’s just about pre-

sents and quality family time. I interviewed a couple of students from the high school to see what they think.

Ryan Thompson, a sophomore at WHS, believes we celebrate Christmas to be around family and friends. To

Ryan Christmas means family, fun, and friends. Ryan celebrates Christmas with his loved ones; they celebrate with

food and presents.

Linsey Alred, a senior at WHS, believes we celebrate Christmas because Jesus’ birthday, and to spend

time with our family. To Linsey Christmas means spending time with loved ones and giving. She celebrates Christ-

mas with her family. They celebrate by putting up the tree, giving presents, and going to her grandmas.

Kymmy Jackson, a freshman at WHS, believes we celebrate Christmas because it’s time for joy and a lot

of family time. Kymmy Christmas means “this is the time for god and when he was born.” She celebrates Christ-

mas with her family. Every Christmas they go look at the Christmas lights and on Christmas Eve they open presents.

—Brooke Bartmann

Inside this issue:

Santa 2

Lincoln Museum 2

Cheerleading Competition 2

Food Drive 3

Holiday Play 3

Early Graduates 4

Hanukkah 4

Volume 1, issue

December 2014

COUGAR TIMES

Winchester Community Unit School District #1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jg7_uQJI7J8

Page 2

Abraham Lincoln Museum

The US History class went to the Abraham Lincoln museum with Mrs. Barnett on December

2, in Springfield, IL. Abraham Lincoln our sixteenth president was born on February 12, 1809. He was

a hard worker as a child he also learned how to read by himself when he was twelve.

Lincoln was married to Mary Todd and they had four children, Robert was the oldest, Ed-

ward and Willie both died of illness and Thomas died of heart failure at age 18. Lincoln’s profession

was being a lawyer and a politician. He served in the military, his branch was the Illinois militia, Lin-

coln was a captain from April 21, 1832 to July 10, 1832. He was in the Black Hawk War, Lincoln was

assassinated by John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865 at Ford’s theatre in Washington D.C.

We visited the Lincoln museum in Springfield. When we were there we saw the bed Abraham

Lincoln died in and then we saw the carriage they rode in. We went to Subway to eat then we left the

museum. We arrived back to the school before 8th hour.

By Dalton Krueger

Volume 1, issue 3

Santa Claus

Every year in December, stories of a man sliding down chimneys and

flying over cities with his sled and reindeer, delivering gifts to the homes of the

good children. The man we’ve never seen but love so much, Santa Claus. Santa

Claus also known as Saint Nicholas, Father Christmas or Kris Kringle is a figure

with legendary, historical and folkloric origins, who in many Western cultures, is

said to bring gifts to children on December 24, the night before Christmas. In

some European countries children receive their presents on St. Nicholas' Day,

December 6th. Santa Claus is generally described as a joyful man with a white-

beard and sometimes with glasses. Santa also wears a red coat with a white col-

lar and cuffs, white-cuffed red pants, black leather belt and boots and he carries a

bag full of gifts. Since the 20th century, the 1934 song "Santa Claus Is Coming

to Town", Santa Claus has been believed to make a list of children throughout

the world, categorizing them according to their behavior. He is commonly por-

trayed as living at the North Pole and saying "ho ho ho" often.

Katelyn Chavez

Cheerleading Competition I interviewed the cheerleaders coach, Mrs. McLaughlin. The co-coach is Brittany Pe-

terson. She told me that the IHSA started cheerleading as an official sport during the 2005-

2006 school year with the first competition being in January of 2006. The competition for

state is held in Bloomington, Illinois. The sectional level of the competition is held at many

different schools. There are many schools that compete in the small varsity teams. There are

as many as 110 schools in our level. But only 25 of the 110 will compete at state.

The competition will be held Saturdays and Sundays starting the 23rd of November –December. State is held on the

3rd and 4th of January in Springfield, Illinois. She told me that a cheer competition is where cheer teams put together a routine

and perform it in front of judges who score them. The teams are only allowed 12 cheerleaders on the floor with four backup

players dressed. The music for their routine can only be one minute and thirty seconds but they have to perform for three

minutes.

Cougar Times

The Winchester FFA is hosting the 2nd annual shoe drive. Rachel Sellars is on the committee and I asked

questions to her about the shoe drive. My first question for her was “Who thought of the idea to do the shoe col-

lection?” Her response was, “Mr. Barnett brought the idea to us last year. He learned it from a meeting and we

ran with it.” Another question I asked her was “What kind of shoes do you need? She said, “Any and all shoes are

accepted.” Then I asked “When are you shipping them?” She said, “The shoe drive ends December 5 th. We will

ship them within the next week after that.” Next I asked where do all the shoes go. Her response was, “Shoes go

to places like Haiti, Kenya, and South American countries.” Next question I asked was why are you doing the

shoe project? She replied, “Our FFA does activities for our Program of Activities. The Shoe Drive is part of our

Community Development. Community Development involves doing activities to help build our community and us.” My final

question to Rachel is how did you get the shoes to the certain places? She said, “We take them to Salem Luther-

an in Jacksonville, and they transport them from there.” The shoe drive ends December 5th hurry up and bring

your shoes.

Also, the FFA members were selling fruit from November 3rd – November 12th. I said “Joey Baird how

many boxes have you sold?” he said “I sold about 10-11 boxes of fruit.” I ask Mr. Bryan Barnett questions

about how the fruit sales work. The first question I asked him was “How well did you do on fruit sales?” He

said, “2013-632 boxes, 2nd highest total in 9 years & 2014- 542 boxes, 4th highest in 9 years.” The next question

I asked him was “What kind of stuff do you sell?” he said, “Apples, oranges, pineapples, or mixed fruit boxes.”

The next question was “When does it all comes in?” and he said “The 2nd week of December." My final question was “How do the

students sell the fruit?” he replied, “Asking family and friends. It is really sells itself, people always look forward to the holiday

fruit sale.” They do this every year for the holiday season.

Kristie Clayton

Page 3

The Holiday

Play

FFA Shoe Drive and Fruit Sales

Dec. 6th & 7th at WHS was the

annual holiday play, which was “Stoking Stuffers” by Geff Mayer. Stoking Stuffers is a series of holiday

scenes complete with elves, reindeer, and Santa Claus. Our school is honored to have Mrs. Kuchy as the

director, Taylor Lashmett the student director, and Tom Welch the technical director for this year’s play.

Mrs. Kuchy has been working for the drama club for 3 years now. She loves the amount of students whom

involve themselves in the program. Overall, Mrs. Kuchy loves working with the students, watching them

develop confidence, and see the finished product. She thinks it’s very rewarding. In the 3 years Mrs.

Kuchy has been doing this, so far her favorite play would have to be Annie Jr. There are two plays every

year, the holiday play and the musical, Mrs. Kuchy likes the holiday play more because its playful and

isn’t as stressful.

Kayden Savage

Hanukkah

I’m doing my paper on Hanukkah. Hanukkah or Chanukah is an eight day Jewish celebration. It started

during the second century B.C. of the second Temple in Jerusalem, where according to legend, Jews had risen up

against their Greek – Syrian oppressors in the Maccabean Revolt. It starts on the 25th of the Jewish month of Kislev, which coincides with late

November-late December on the secular calendar. According to Jewish laws, Hanukkah is one of the less important Jewish holidays. However,

Hanukkah has become much more popular in modern practice because of its proximity to Christmas.

Every year it is customary to commemorate the miracle of the Hanukkah oil by lighting candles on a hanukkiyah. The hanukkiyah is

lit every night for eight nights. Because Hanukkah celebrates the miracle of oil, it is traditional to eat fried foods. Such as latkes and sufganiyot

during the holiday. Latkes are pancakes made out of potatoes and onions, which are fried in oil and then served with applesauce. Sufganiyot

are jelly-filled donuts that are fried and sometimes dusted with confectioners’ sugar before eating.

http://judaism.about.com/od/holidays/a/hanukkah.htm

Cole Hoots

Early Graduates

To graduate early you must meet certain qualifications. Those qualifications are; you have to have all twenty-six credits. You must fill out an early graduation application. Go to the September School Board meeting and ask permission to graduate early, and write a statement of why you want to graduate early and what your plans are after you graduate. This year there are seven people who are going to graduate early, six seniors and one junior. Those students are Spencer Newman, Derek Haverfield, Joey Baird, Joseph Hamilton, Danielle Suhre, Colton Fearneyhough, and Haylee Zachary.

I asked Junior Danielle Suhre some questions about her graduating early. I asked her ‘What made you want to grad-uate early?’ and her reply was, “I knew I had enough credits and I’m just ready to go straight to college.” Another question was ‘What do you think are some cons of graduating early?’ and she said, “You miss certain things. Like for me, I miss senior year, for others, they may miss prom or sports.” In ten years Danielle sees herself working as a physical therapist and starting a family. “If I could redo any year it would be freshman year, I would worry about school more than friends and relationships,” Said Danielle. She said her dream college is St. Ambrose University because she got a large scholarship. And she will most like-

ly attend it. When I asked her if she thought high school prepares you for collage, she said, “Sort of, certain things will most likely be to-tally different.” The most creative excuse that she has used to get out of homework was “I have to work late.” I also asked her what the strangest advice her parents have told her was and she said, “It doesn’t matter who your friends are, it’ll change in the future.” The last thing I asked her was ‘do you think you will keep in touch with all of your friends’ and she said, “I don’t know for sure. I might cross some people’s path from time to time.” “The one memory I am going to remember from my time I had here at WHS is all my experience as an FFA member!”

I also asked Senior Joseph Hamilton some questions about him graduating early. When I asked him why he want-

ed to graduate early and he said, “To get out of here.” I asked him what he thought where some pros and cons of graduating

early and his reply was, “There are no cons and the pros are that I’m getting out of here.” “There is no bad thing about being

a senior and be best thing is being on top for a year.” Joseph said when I asked him what he though was the worst and best

thing about being a senior. In ten years he seems himself as a farming. “If I could redo any year it would be my freshman

year” Said Joseph. He doesn’t have a dream college and he won’t be attending one. When I asked him if he though high

school prepares you for collage he said, “No.” I asked him if he though seniors should go to college right after high school and his reply

was “NO, everyone needs a break.” Two things he would tell the underclassmen to do are “don’t be a baby, and party and have fun!” “One

memory that I will remember from going to school at WHS is water ballooning Ms. Fairfield!” Kaylie Horrer