Christmas Decorations: Most Festive Dorm on Campus

By ​Jillian Mihailovich ‘25

Each Candlelight Term, all of the dorms around campus are festively decorated for the upcoming holiday season. Each dorm has its own distinctive traits. The oldest dorm building on campus, Alumni has the longest history. Meanwhile, Kelter and Gund are the most modern and newly renovated. Despite these differences, each dorm has an equal chance of being the most festive dorm.

With help from Chip Genung ‘25, I initiated a contest across dorms to find out which dorm has the most festive decorations. We went around campus to assess each dorm and we rated each between 1-10, with 10 being the most festive. We ranked the dorm decorations and made notes of honorable mentions.

Unsurprisingly, Gund is our winner. Each year, Gund has consistently outdown itself with decorations. Its decorations emphasize the holiday season, with a lot of red and green. I was immediately impressed when I entered the dorm. Beyond having these fun decorations, the dorm has also installed communal activities such as enlarged coloring pages that everyone can work on together. Additionally, Gund faculty members have graciously supplied “extraordinary” holiday-theme feed for its residents.

Placed in second is Cushing, which gets a bit of an unfair advantage, given it is a building we all use. Cushing is decorated year round and has a welcoming environment, especially around this particular holiday season. Not to mention that we can order warm drinks from the grill to keep us cozy this winter. We gave Cushing a 7/10.

Coming in third place is Kelter. Kelter can not say too much about holiday decorations specifically. Additionally, a special shout out to the personalized birthday parties with lots of streamers and signs that make the dorm a more inviting environment. Kelter gets a 5/10. 

Edge has been described as the most comfortable dorm on campus, with a “homey” vibe to it. There are little decorations, however, there are details that show effort towards the right direction.

Out of the seven dorms on campus, three can use more decorations! First off, Memorial. The wreath outside Memorial marks the end of its decorations. However, don't feel disheartened. There is still a potential comeback with the dorm decorating competition coming up! Similarly, Alumni could also use a bit more decorations. As the freshmen boys dorm, Alumni feels like a special home to many boys on campus. Unfortunately, there are not many decorations in the dorm. Like Alumni, Squibb is also in need of more Christmas decorations.

With a week leading up to Candlelight services, there is still time to decorate! It was a great experience visiting each dorm and we wish all our dorm residents happy holidays!
 
Final Results:
7. Memorial (2/10)
6. Squibb (3/10)
5. Alumni(3/10)
4. Edge  (4/10)
3. Kelter (5/10)
2. Cushing (7/10)
1. Gund (9/10)