Freshman Experience

Joseph LaScala: Holiday Spirit

Posted January 5th, 2016

Christmas at the Prep, as you can imagine, is a pretty special thing. The Prep always goes all out and as this is a Catholic school, Christmas is no exception. First of all, the school starts early. I’m not kidding, it was early to mid-November when the main Christmas tree went up. Not only did that go up, but many other decorations went up around the campus. There are Christmas trees all over the Forum and in the hallways of Augustinian Hall, yet surprisingly, there are no trees in the Scarpa Building.

When it comes to the decorations, one of my favorite things is the huge gift boxes that sit on the ledges of the stairs in the Forum. Also, there is one certain tree in the Dining Hall that is special. It looks like a rather ordinary tree, but instead of ornaments on it, the tree has pictures of all the seniors and is appropriately named “The Senior Tree.”

Another one of the fun things that the Prep does at Christmastime is a tree lighting. This year we enjoyed hot chocolate, pretty lights, and social time at the tree lighting. Christmas at the Prep is one of the experiences here that I didn’t expect, and it is something that I wouldn’t see at most other schools. With all of the decorations and festivities, our school really has a nice warm, cozy, holiday feeling— just another one of the awesome things that the Prep does for its students.