The holiday season is one of my favorites, and one of the most popular. All around campus the garland, poinsettias, ribbons and lights are out in full display. Starbucks is promoting gingerbread and eggnog lattes while Christmas music floats over the streets. The holiday season is here. Farmville has decorated its signs and lightposts, giving cars a festive Christmas welcome as they drive around town.
Longwood has always impressed me during the holidays. Professors get into the spirit. The whole campus is decorated in a very classic way. It is almost as if in some buildings students and others are taking a time machine back to a time before cell phones, before distractions and before the days of too little time.
With everything going on in the next few weeks of the semester, it can be hard to remember to just relax and take everything in. At Longwood perhaps the most anticipated holiday is the illumination of the huge tree in the middle of Ruffner Hall.
The process of setting up the tree in the middle of Ruffner is quite the task. Every morning, when I walked in the building there was caution tape surrounding the site of the tree. One morning, there were scattered pieces of the tree along with the piping that keeps the tree standing all over the floor.
Entering Ruffner, students were drawn to watch the magnificent tree be set up. It must take a lot of time and energy to put the tree together. Without knowing much, the pieces alone looked like an elaborate puzzle. The tree is built from the bottom up with men going up and down the staircases to work off of the balconies.
I had never really taken the time to actually pay attention to the tree and the decorations put up in Ruffner. I talk mostly about Ruffner because I spend the majority of my days walking in and out of it. The poinsettias have overtaken the building. They surround the tree and act like a barrier to keep people and objects from getting too close. Everywhere you turn you see a wreath or a flower pot.
The decorations bring together the holiday spirit all around campus. They allow students to feel the holidays wherever they go. I am very thankful for the staff who work so hard to put up so many decorations to make students and professors feel more at home. If I have to spend the beginning of the holiday season away from my family, then I am very happy to spend it here at Longwood.
