Online@ www.nw-tigers.org/the-octagon
Volume 68, Issue 13 December 16, 2016
Polar Express: On Christmas Eve a boy who had been doubting about the existence of Santa Claus goes for a trip on the train called the Polar Express. The train departs for the North Pole every Christmas. On the trip he learns
Elf: As a baby, Bud-dy was accidentally transported to the North Pole where he is raised
to adulthood by Santa’s elves, but he thinks that he doesn’t fit in. So he
travels to New York to find his biological hu-man father.
How the Grinch Stole Christmas: Who doesn't know the movie about the Grinch? It's about a little green man with a small heart who tries to ruin Christmas for Who-ville with help from his little dog Max. In the process, he learns that there is much more to Christmas than presents and food.
Today:
5:45 PM: Boys Basketball JV vs Barron
7:15 PM: Boys
Basketball Var-sity vs Barron
Saturday:
9:30 AM:
Varsi-ty Wrestling Mackey Invita-tional @ NHS
Monday:
7:30 PM: NHS Winter Band Concert
Tuesday:
5:45 PM: Boys
Basketball vs Chetek
5:45 PM: Girls
Basketball JV vs Chetek
7:15 PM: Boys
Basketball Var-sity vs Chetek
7:15 PM: Girls Basketball Var-sity vs Chetek
Thursday:
NHS Choir Tour of Schools
No School: Friday, Dec. 23-Sunday, January 1
Pg. 6 Don’t Be Scrooge
By Donner Achucarro
See ‘Classics’ pg. 5 Bentleyville Tour
of Lights - Bent-leyville opened the week of Thanks-giving and closes down on Dec. 26, with displays that fill up nearly nine semi-trailers.
It takes 900 volun-teers about two months to set up the tour. It takes approximately 45 minutes to wander through the lights and tunnels (more than likely over an hour if you bring small children) while volunteers hand out free hot chocolate, cookies, and popcorn.
Halfway through the tour you can stop and roast marshmallows by the warmth of several bonfires.
There’s also an op-portunity to sit with and talk to Santa. The experi-ence is free, nearby
park-ing is $5.
North Shore Scenic Railroad - Climb aboard the Holiday Train at the landing below Fitger’s in Duluth, MN.
This event has been known as the Polar Ex-press until 2013 when it was renamed the Christ-mas City Express. Each child gets to vis-it wvis-ith Santa before heading back to cookies and cocoa at Fitger’s for only $16/person.
The North Shore Sce-nic Railroad also runs trains from Fitger’s to Bentleyville several
times a time for $6/ person.
Glensheen Historic Es-tate - Duluth’s most fa-mous mansion opens up for holiday tours through January 5 with volun-teers who dress up in period costumes and a self-guided tour that rec-reates a visit that guests would have experienced in 1912.
There is also a por-trait station for families who want a memorable family photo.
By Cupid Fudally
Sr. Editor:
Rudolph Gaare
Jr. Editor:
Blixen Olson
Staff Members: Comet Maki Vixen Goette Dasher Kovaleski Donner Achucarro Prancer Clemmer
Cupid Fudally Snowball Johnson
Dancer McClure Peppermint Taylor
Sugarplum Thul
Advisor:
Mrs. Claus 12/19:
Nathan Copp Tyler Mischke
12/21: Michael Lewis Travis Lewis
12/23: Karsyn Jones Kiana Burhans
12/24:
Jeffery McClure
12/25: Britta Lind Emma Moore
Happy
Birthday!
By Sugarplum ThulMost kids our age re-member getting toys like Littlest Pet Shops, Web-kinz, Bratz, Barbies, Hot Wheels, a Nintendo DS, or a Game Boy for Christmas.
Since then, times have changed and technology has grown into a big-ger, more diverse indus-try, which might explain the toy trends for this Christmas.
From electronic stuffed animals to virtual Play-Doh creations, kids are craving technology centered toys for Christ-mas gifts.
“Hatchimals” have of-ficially been declared the “must-have” toy of the 2016 season. The interac-tive stuffed animal is selling out in stores across the country. The $60 plush bird pecks at its shell until it hatches from the egg. Once free from the shell, the owner needs to nour-ish, cuddle, and talk to the Hatchimal in order for it to properly grow.
Another popular toy that needs attention from its owner is “Cozmo,” a miniature toy ro-bot. Cozmo can sense where you are, what you are doing, and is also able to play games. The 2.5 inch tall robot comes with an app which features music to match the robot’s specific moods. The robot is able to feel happy, angry, an-noyed, and bored. The moods can be seen by looking at Cozmo’s eyes. Yet another high-tech toy that brings things to life is Play-Doh’s “Touch Studio Set.” The set comes with shape cut-ters that allow the user to make creatures.
Using an IOS app, the Play-Doh creature is able to comes to life on screen as it explores a virtual world.
Coding has also been a high-tech trend lately. This concept is shown in new friendship bracelets made by Jewlbots.
The typical friendship
bracelet is made out of string and bread but these brace-lets are able to send a vi-bration mes-sage from one bracelet to the other for communica-tion, almost like morse code.
The other
popular coding toy is the “Code-A-Pillar” by Fish-er Price. The toy comes with multiple pieces that, when attached together, create a caterpillar. Each piece is associat-ed with a different color, and when the pieces are arranged in different combinations, a variety of noises are emitted. The different combina-tions also make the cater-pillar move in different directions.
Speaking of toys that are moving in different directions, Hasbro just
released a no-cash ver-sion of Monopoly called “Monopoly Ultimate Banking.” The new game features an electronic banking unit that only accepts bank cards as a method of payment for property.
All of these tech toys are popular among kids this holiday season. Whether they are for your siblings or for dona-tion, kids will love the toys wrapped up under the tree.
“Hatchimals” are officially the toy of the season.
This Week in Sports
Wrestling:
Record: (5-1) (3-1 conference)
Tues.: Beat Hayward/Minong 53-21
Girls’ BasketBall:
Record: (4-2) (4-1 conference)
Thurs.: Lost to Bloomer 51-28
Boys’ BasketBall:
Record: (3-1) (2-0 conference)
Tues.: Beat Hayward 64-59
Death toll reaches 6,000 in the Phil-ippine Drug War conducted by President Rodrigo Duterte, who plans to execute (often in the street)
20,000-30,000 more. By Rudolph Gaare
Mother Teresa gains sainthood. Donald Trump is elected president
for 2017-2020
Brazilian president Dilma Rouseff is impeached.
Three earthquakes strike Japan from April to November, ranging
from 6.2-7.0 magnitude. Taiwan elects first (Taiwanese)
female president. Zika Virus reaches U.S. native
mosquitos.
Chris Froome wins 2016 Tour de France.
Pokémon Go launches, causes sensation with new mobile game.
Holocaust survivor and author of
Night Elie Wiesel dies at age 87. Britain leaves the European Union.
More than 100 Russian athletes are banned from Rio Olympics 2016, and
all of Russian athletes are banned from the Paralympics after huge
dop-ing scandal is uncovered.
Two IS militants kill French priest Father Jacques Hamel, age 84, during service, take four others as
hostages.
Protests in Venezuela break out against Nicolas Maduro, “dictator-like” President.
2016 proves to be the deadliest year recorded for anti-LGTBQ+
Christmas is fast ap-proaching, and most of us have at least one per-son that we just can’t fig-ure out what to give them. Here’s a list of ide-as.
Dollar Store Basket. Go to the Dollar Store and buy eight or ten things that remind you of the person, then write on a sticky note for each item, explaining why you bought it. This is a great way to be sweet, or re-mind them of an embar-rassing memory you shared.
Something Homemade. If you have a talent for art or anything else that
can be gifted, use it. The recipient will appreciate the time and effort you put in as well as the final product in and of itself. Food. Everyone appreci-ates a homemade cake or cookies of course, but buying a ton of their fa-vorite candy or snack will go over wonderfully as well. Extra points for creative wrapping! Socks.
Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve never been disap-pointed by a good pair of cute, comfy, or fuzzy socks.
Scented Candles. Who doesn’t want a great smell that you can light on fire? There are even
websites so you can buy “mandles” for the man in your life.
Cute Coffee Mugs. Everyone enjoys some kind of hot beverage, whether it’s coffee, co-coa, or tea. So, a cute travel mug is never a bad idea!
Plants. Succulents are super cute and easy to care for, plus you get to help name them. Great bonding moment.
Bath and Shower Prod-ucts. Baths are a great way to de-stress and warm-up for a while in the winter months. Not everyone will enjoy fizzy bath bombs, but there are more low key options
like bath oils or even just shower gels.
Toys. Even though we high schoolers are fewer than five years from be-ing legal adults, that doesn’t mean we won’t enjoy playing board games or receiving toys. Take a trip the the toy store in the Miller Hill Mall and have your friend pick out a gift. I promise, It’ll be a blast. Playlist and letter. Make a playlist of songs that you want your friend to hear or make you think of them. Write a letter explaining each song and what it means to you. This is a great way to be vulnerable and deepen a friendship. By Dasher Kovaleski
At this time of year, holiday traditions vary from country to country and even from house to house. People celebrate the season in many ways, in the days or even weeks before Christmas Day.
Celebrations for many nations include installing and lighting of trees, the hanging of wreaths, hanging of stockings, giving gifts, candy canes, creating Nativity scenes representing the birth of Jesus Christ, going to church, and spending time with family and friends.
It is common to organ-ize a special meal, often consisting of ham or tur-key and a lot of other
fes-tive foods. Normally for these meals people will invite their family and friends over and cele-brate together with the eating of food and the exchange of gifts.
Children, in particu-lar, often receive a lot of gifts from their parents and other relatives and the mythical figure of Santa Claus. Christmas carols may also be sung and stories told about such figures as the Baby Jesus, St Nicholas, Santa Claus, Father Christmas, Christkind or Grandfa-ther Frost.
Some of us celebrate Hanukkah, where on each of the eight nights, a candle is lit in a special menorah (candelabra) called a 'hanukkiah'. There is a special ninth
candle called the 'shammash' or servant candle which is used to light the other candles. Hanukkah is also a time for giving and receiving presents and gifts are of-ten given on each night. Lots of games are played during the time of Ha-nukkah
There are many dif-ferent ways people
cele-brate the Holiday Season and here are a few of the different things people may celebrate.
Diwali is five-day festi-val of lights celebrated by Hindus around the world in the fall
Ramadan is a month of daily fasting during day-By Peppermint Taylor
The musical that has captivated the nation and has broken records across the board is com-ing to Minneapolis. Be-fore you get too excited, this is in the 2018-19 season.
Details like the actual dates, even the months it will be here, will not be released until early 2018. The only reason we have this information so early is the simple fact that Hamilton is the biggest Broadway show in years. A little background: the show was written by Lin Manuel Miranda
who also played the lead role for the first year and a half of the show. He had another hit Broad-way show that was con-siderably less well known called “In the Heights” in which he al-so starred.
Hamilton earned a rec-ord of 16 Tony nomina-tions and garnered 11
wins, plus a Grammy and a Pulitzer Prize for dra-ma. Last month it set an-other record by earning over $3 million in gross box office income in one week. More than any other Broadway show. Ever.
The show is currently running in the Private-Bank Theatre in
Chica-go, Illinois, until January 15 of next year. Then, the tour moves to Los Angeles from August to December. In 2018 the tour venues aren’t com-pletely released yet, but reports say it will be in Minneapolis and in the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., where the Northwestern Tigers Choir stopped for a short tour last summer.
I’m not saying I’m planning my future around going to this show, but the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities just moved way up on my college list. I can’t throw away my shot to see this show.
By Dasher Kovaleski
The Nightmare Before Christmas: Jack Skel-lington which is the main character hates that in his world the same thing is getting celebrated all the time Halloween. So one day he walks into the woods. Magically he find out that there are other trees with different pic-tures of holidays. Each one has its world. He lat-er on walks into the world of Christmas and he falls in love with Christmas.
The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause: Santa invited Jack Frost for Christmas, but Jack wants to be Santa so he gradually takes over the
North Pole.
Die Hard: One of my favorites is this action film that is set on Christmas Eve when a New York police man attends a party. The par-ty gets hijacked by a terrorist group and it is up to John McClane to save the day.
Frosty the Snowman: Happy Birthday, Frosty! Home Alone: It’s Christ-mas Eve and the McCallister family is preparing to leave for Paris, France. However,
Kevin gets left behind to fend for himself against two thieves.
A Charlie Brown Christmas: Christmas is on it way with happiness and cheer. For the fans of the Peanuts comic strip, this is the movie for you. There are many more Christmas movies to start to watch, but theirs are some of the common moves that you will see on TV during Christmas. But here are some you might like to watch out for.
‘Christmas’ Continued Smaller To-Do’s - Spir-it Mountain offers twen-ty-two downhill ski runs and claims to be the Midwest’s largest terrain park. The park also oper-ates the Timber Twister and double-seated Tim-ber Flyer zipline year-round, just beware the weather.
Hit the Edgewater Resort and Waterpark for summertime fun in the winter, with free bus shuttles to and from Bentleyville. All rooms include passes to the wa-terpark pool, lazy river, and slides.
Great holiday shop-ping takes place at Fitger’s and Canal Park in Duluth. The
Fitger’s complex is made up of lev-els of boutique shopping including a book and toy store, outdoorsy gear store, and fashion. Although, you can find more shops down in Ca-nal Park and great deals especially during the holiday season.
The cold is here and the snow is falling, which means it's time for families to gather and our stomachs to be filled. December brings a wonderful time of the year full of holiday fun, but some are missing the Christmas cheer.
As much as we hate to admit it, a lot of us lack the spirit. If you’re one of those people who are just not getting into the Christmas spirit, here are some things you can
do to enlighten yourself. Buy some lights and decorate the outside of your house. If you're concerned about your electricity bill going up, consider buying LED lights.
Along with the out-side of your home, put some decorations inside. Nothing brings on the holiday spirit more than decorating a Christmas tree. If you don't have the determination to put up your own lights, you could take a trip to see other exciting light
dis-plays such as Bent-leyville.
If you enjoy shopping, get going on your jour-ney and catch those sales. Remember that presents don’t have to be expensive; they can be small gifts that hold spe-cial meaning between you and another.
Sometimes handmade gifts or items that have been passed down through the family that are the most sentimental and meaningful to peo-ple.
Crank up some classic Christmas music and bake some cookies! One thing that could make this tradition even more fun is inviting family and friends over to help. Be-fore the baking event, buy some plain sweaters and different colored felts so you can all make you own festive ugly sweater.
These are a few com-mon known activities to get in the Christmas spir-it! Remember nobody wants a Scrooge around. By Comet Maki
light hours for Muslims that culminates in the holiday of Eid al-Fitr.
Kwanzaa is a seven-day celebration of African heritage and culture.
The Chinese New Year marks the end of winter and the start of spring.
Hanukkah, Ramadan,
Christmas and Kwanzaa are the most well-known winter holidays celebrat-ed in this country, but that doesn't mean they're the only holidays. Other popular winter holidays include these celebra-tions:
Santa Lucia Day, an ancient Swedish festival during which blond-haired girls wear crowns of green leaves studded with lighted candles.
Winter Solstice, the first day of winter and the longest night of the year, is also celebrated with festivals, decorations and ancient ceremonies that honor nature.
Three Kings Day, also known as Epiphany, marks the day the three kings arrived to visit the newborn Christ child. This day is most com-monly marked with fes-tivities in Hispanic coun-tries and cultures.
Yule, a historically pa-gan holiday that origi-nates from Germanic people. It celebrates the “returning of the sun,” after the winter solstice. Yule celebrations pre-dates Christian holiday and tradition by thou-sands of years in Scandi-navia.
The traditions of the Yule log, Yule goat, Yule boar (Sonargöltr) still reflected in the Christmas ham, Yule singing, and others stem from Yule customs, and customs which Simek says "indicates the sig-nificance of the feast in pre-Christian times."
Many of us may cele-brate this holiday season in different ways. We all have different holiday
traditions and I thought it would be interesting to find out about others’ holiday traditions.
Ted Kyle: We always go through every single or-nament in the oror-nament box, and mom and dad explain the history and meaning behind each one. Even though I could probably recite a five paragraph essay on each one, it's one of our more goofy holiday traditions.
Callie Lier: During Thanksgiving and Christ-mas, my family switches
between which
grandma's we will go to. Like if we go to my grandmas on my dad’s side for Thanksgiving, we will go to my grand-mas on my mom's side for Christmas. Then we switch places the next year. Every year we con-tinue to do that so we get the chance to go to each grandma’s. Also on Christmas we invite peo-ple to our house for who-ever wants to come and have a Christmas party.
Jon Morley: Get
help-lessly sick on my aunt’s special raspberry short-bread cookies.
Crystal Taylor: Every year we go to church ser-vice and then the day of Christmas my siblings and I get up at 3:00 a.m. and look under the tree and try to figure out what each present could be. Then after about an hour we go downstairs as qui-etly as possible to have fun until we wake my mom up at 6:00 to open presents. After opening presents we hang out, have fun, and then have a family Christmas dinner.
Yuri Achucarro: We always invite a bunch of family over and have family time.
Jennifer Thul: Every Christmas Eve my fami-ly and I eat oyster soup for dinner.
Alayna Johnson: Every year we open one gift on Christmas Eve and nor-mally it's Christmas pa-jamas to wear the day of Christmas.
