Waking up on the last school day before winter break is the best feeling in the world. A short day, the excitement of no school for a week and teachers not doing anything in their classes, because, screw a lesson plan, a movie is good enough! 

As a freshman still figuring out the high school groove, worry about school work during the break added a gray tint to day. But the moment I walked into the Kennedy foyer, the gray was gone and all I saw was color. Christmas decorations hung from the ceiling, wrapped every handrail and crept their way into the nooks and crannies found throughout Kennedy’s halls. All the teachers were dressed to impress with Christmas suits, sweaters, costumes and, is that Santa Claus? Huge tables lined the main staircase with cups of hot chocolate to start the day off right. For me, it wasn’t just a fun holiday celebration, it was the best day of the year. 

The holiday celebration at Kennedy is an annual celebration that fosters an atmosphere of joy come winter break. It started as a simple day for staff to dress out in their ugliest, scratchiest sweaters to get into the holiday spirit.

“I remember my first year a couple of people were like ‘we should wear ugly sweaters on this day’ and they got their picture taken on the steps and that was it,” Principal Jason Kline said. “I thought that if we liked it, we should let people know we are going to do it.’”

After that point, ugly Christmas sweaters were seen throughout the halls the day before winter break began. The festivities grew when social studies teacher Patrick Cory and former teacher Melissa Marzen took it upon themselves to come to school dressed as Santa and Mrs. Claus, like a Christmas-Halloween.

Not only did the costumes become wilder but the hot chocolate started to be given out in the foyer when cafeteria staff took an active role in the celebration.

“The nice thing is the cafeteria ladies have made the cocoa for me. I buy the cocoa but then they will make it, they’ve got giant cauldrons, like witches’ cauldrons, to make cocoa,” Kline said. 

The Kennedy holiday celebration falls into a unique category of tradition. It creates a sense of community while getting students excited for winter break and the end of first semester.

Middle school is an awkward and scary time trying to find your friends and find yourself. Adding on a class at a high school where everyone is bigger than you, the expectations are way higher, and you cannot make a fool of yourself is even more scary.

Walking into the colorful scene and being handed a hot chocolate as a nervous middle schooler in a high school class was a feeling like no other. The joy of seeing teachers dressed up as different holiday characters and the student body decked out in holiday garb while everyone had a smile plastered on their faces was the best way to not only end the calendar year but also gain comfort in a place I wasn’t fully comfortable.