Editorial: Why we like those 3rd grade holiday essays

Talk about it

For decades the Journal has a tradition of asking local third-grade children to write brief essays related to the winter holidays. Our local teachers have been very helpful in making sure this gets done under their classroom supervision.

The third-grade responses are published over several weeks in December on these pages.

This year was no different. The students could respond to one of two questions that we asked:

1) If you had all the money in the world but could only buy one holiday gift, what would that gift be and who would you give it to?

2) Describe what you and your family do to prepare for and celebrate the holiday season.

We hope Journal readers have enjoyed browsing through the pages that have featured these essays. The variety of the responses makes for lively, entertaining, practical and even wise reading. Rather arbitrarily, we turn the spotlight on just a few of the many heartwarming highlights:

--I would give a donation to Children’s Hospitals and Clinics…The hospital takes care of little babies and kids. They took care of me when I was sick and broke my arm…

--If I could only get one thing, it would be a job for my Uncle Karl, because a few months ago, he got laid off. I was so worried about him. I want to get him a job because I love him and he is raising two kids.

--If I could only buy one present, I would buy my mom a brand new green Challenger. Her old car is busted up. Her light does not work that good and she’s the best mom ever!

--My grandpa is the funniest person in the whole world. I would get him a golden retriever because he has no one to be with him when he is home and retired.

--On Christmas Eve we put some cookies out on a plate for Santa. We also put some carrots out for Santa’s reindeer. My mom gets the manger scene from downstairs in a big bucket. My brother and I put out the manger scene and sometimes my sister, Neva, tries to break it. We don’t put out Baby Jesus until Christmas.

--I would get my dad slippers. Gofers slippers because he loves hockey and the ones he has right now are trash and I love him so much because he takes care of me and feeds me healthy things and watches the gofers play. The slippers are going to have goldy gopher on the front and look fabasas.

--My dance teacher, Miss Megan broke her dance shoes. And she teaches about four classes. And socks won’t help. Also how would you like to go bare footed? So if I had all the money in the world I would buy Miss Megan new dance shoes.

--An essay from Halle Olson, Westside Elementary, embodies what many of the third graders expressed about the Christmas/holiday spirit. First, Halle wrote of her compassion for a friend whose eyeglasses were missing a screw. Halle wanted to buy the friend a new pair of glasses – red ones that would come with a box of little screws. She ended her essay by expressing the simple joy that symbolizes this time of year: I’m just happy to write this story. I love River Falls. I love this planet.

The Journal’s online poll question is this: Keeping the St. Croix County nursing home afloat has been controversial. Should county taxpayers keep supporting it?

Early returns suggested a slight edge for those voting no. What do you think? Cast your vote by going to www.riverfallsjournal.com.

A new poll question is posted each Friday.

Tags: opinion, editorials, k12, family