For this assignment I decided to try the interview method. I wanted to try this method because I’ve had the opportunity to interview an adult, but I’ve never interviewed a child before so I wanted to experience this. I tried the interview method with my 11-year old cousin. The interview took place in her room and her older sister was in the room with us as well. Before asking her the questions I told her that I was going to be interviewing her. By using this method, I was trying to understand children’s perspectives about the meaning of Christmas and whether they just associate this holiday with receiving gifts. Therefore, the questions I asked were about Christmas and the holidays meaning.

When I asked my cousin the question, “What do you think about when you hear the word Christmas?” immediately she said, “Presents!” When I asked her if there was a bigger meaning to Christmas, she responded with, “It’s an opportunity to spend time with your family.” Though she said that the bigger meaning of Christmas was to spend time with family, she always reverted back to presents being the most important part of the holiday when answering the questions that followed. By using this method, I was able to get an answer to my question which was that the bigger meaning of Christmas for children is presents and usually they associate Christmas with getting presents. While children think that the most important part of Christmas is receiving presents, they also feel that it is a holiday to spend time with family.

When using this method, I thought that it was easy, but there were times when my cousin did not completely understand the questions asked. When she did not understand the question she looked to her older sister and her sister explained what I was asking. I realized after the interview that the wording I used for the questions might have been difficult for an 11-year old to understand. Along with this, because her sister was in the room it did not give me the opportunity to have the one on one interaction which I expected to have. There were also times where she got distracted, as her sister would make her laugh. I think that if her sister wasn’t in the room with us the interview probably would have went more smoothly. Along with this, I probably should have done the interview earlier in the day as it was done late at night and my cousin was probably tired. If I were to do my own research project, I think I would use this method as I like interacting with children on a one on one level and this method is the good way to understand children’s perspectives and feelings.

Questions:

1. What day of year does Christmas day land on?
2. What do you think about when you hear the word Christmas?
3. Is Christmas only about presents or is there a bigger meaning to it
4. What do you do on Christmas day?
5. So do you think Christmas is more about being with your family or getting presents?
6. So what would happen if your parents did not give you presents?
7. Why do presents matter so much on Christmas then, if it’s more about spending time with family?
8. So then why is Christmas special, if you think it’s more about getting presents then spending time with family?