Jamilee Rodriguez Castillo & Dany Cruz, Special to The Denisonian & Asst. Sports Editor–
The holiday season at Denison falls right in the middle of finals. With all the stress accumulating from papers, presentations and exams, it is hard to navigate time to enjoy the festivities offered during the holiday season.
Even so, there are still subtle ways of displaying the holiday spirit, such as in Huffman Hall, where their first floor is decorated with a Christmas tree that looks outwards towards the rest of East Quad. The rest of the common room is filled with multi-colored lights and gift wrapping paper on the walls. Even small acts of decoration by the residence halls’ CAs light up a bit of joy, especially in these stressful times.
Some students decorate their own dorms to ensure a festive spirit to come back to even after a hard day. A walk through the residential quads will guarantee at least one spotting of twinkling lights from dorm windows. Even within the confines of their dorms, some people manage to find space for their own small personal Christmas tree.
The student run business in Slayter, Sips, has a winter menu with festive drinks. “Last Christmas” is a toffee nut and caramel latte and “Mistletoe” is a lavender and mint lemonade. This menu will continue until December 17th, just 2 days before residence halls close for winter break.
For students, the final weeks of the fall semester can become hard to juggle, especially for first years who are still acclimating to Denison’s rigorous academics. But, by providing little pockets of celebration to ensure that students are keeping in touch with the festive spirit the load is made a little lighter.
“I don’t consider myself a festive person, but I think Denison has holiday events that make me want to enjoy this season more,” said Kisnell Gonzalez ‘29. “The holiday dinners planned by Denison Hospitality are especially nice because they make me feel more festive in the midst of a busy season.”
Denison clubs and organizations also host a good deal of holiday-themed events during the days leading up to finals week. The Culinary Club is hosting a Cookies and Cocoa event on Dec. 10, where students are invited to enjoy both treats while watching a Christmas-themed movie. The following day, Hoaglin is hosting a Winter De-Stress Fest at the Denison library, encouraging students to come to enjoy snacks and therapy dogs.
On Dec. 12, the Black Student Union, the African and Caribbean Student Association and the National Pan-Hellenic Council are hosting a Kwanzaa Celebration from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. They’ll be teaching about the tradition of Kwanzaa along with a hosting of a Kinara followed by a hearty meal.
Even with these events, and the many more on WhatToDU, some students believe that there aren’t as many events as they wished. Despite Denison’s efforts to be festive during the holiday season in the perspective of some students, more could be done to make this time feel more like the holidays.
“I wish we had more festivities around all festivities,” said Citlalic Baeza Vivian ‘29. “I feel like Denison does more for Halloween than for the holidays.”
Even when there are no more festive events scheduled, red and green lights radiate from Swasey Chapel, inviting students to embrace the holiday spirit.