It’s official; the Christmas season is here. As we have sailed into the month of December, the inevitable influx of Christmas music, movies, food, and decorations has arrived. All these serve to aid people in getting into the Christmas spirit, and such spirit is definitely abundant on campus.

Perhaps the most visible demonstration of this spirit is in the decorations various members of the campus community have set up in order to help students, faculty, and staff celebrate the holidays at Saint Anselm College.

Kim Britton, the head of the Grounds Crew in the Physical Plant since 1993 and her crew have had a hand in setting up some of the larger decorations around campus. Though she says that the decorations do not take long to set up, usually done during the three days prior to Thanksgiving Break, they remain central to the campus-wide celebration of the season.

She and her crew take care of the Crèche, the nativity scene that celebrates the birth of Jesus, by Alumni Hall. They also are in charge of the new 14-foot tree that is going up by Alumni Hall this year, and the stringing of lights around the smaller tree by Davison Hall.

The idea of celebrating Christmas using evergreen trees is not new. In fact, this tradition spans hundreds of years, according to History.com, with similar customs celebrating life in the bleak winter with evergreen boughs dating back as far as the Early Romans.

Also according to the site, the Christmas tree as we think of it now is believed to come from the German man Martin Luther, a Protestant Reformer who placed lighted candles in an evergreen tree after being inspired by seeing stars shimmer in an evergreen forest.

Britton says that she likes to keep it simple as far as decorating with her crew is concerned. She especially admires the single candles that light up the windows of Alumni Hall, placed there by the carpentry department during the season.

She said, “Alumni Hall is very calming and quite peaceful to look at during the night, which is really nice especially because I am often here at night doing snow removal.” Candles lit during the holiday season are a traditional symbol in the Christian religion, according to eHow.com, of warding off darkness, guiding the Christ Child, and Christ’s light.

Another essential set of decorations that help the campus community celebrate Christmas are the ones that adorn Davison Hall and the Coffee Shop. This multitude of decorations, and the effort put into setting them up, is completed by Director of Dining Services Rosemary Stackpole and ten other Dining Services employees.

This is Stackpole’s 36^th year at Saint Anselm College, and she certainly has expertise when it comes to such celebrations. “The campus is really so full of Christmas,” she said, and as far as she can remember, Christmas celebrations on campus have always been a big deal.

Her goal when planning the decorative set-up each year is to make it “as homey as possible” for students.

The celebratory decorations put up by Stackpole and her staff his year include twenty-one fresh wreaths, an adornment that has traditions, according to HolidayInsights.com, based in the Christian celebration of everlasting life, as they are usually made of evergreen branches and are in a circular shape.

A long-standing Christmas decoration in Davison Hall has been the toy train that winds around the Christmas tree and variety of gingerbread houses made in the annual competition, another major part of the Christmas celebration at Saint Anselm College.

Stackpole says that the train was included in the decorations for the first time around 1990.

Along with the wreaths and other decorations, sixteen fresh poinsettias are arriving just in time for the annual Christmas Feast.

Stackpole says that her favorite part of Christmas on campus is the annual feast. “I think having those menu items available only during the feast makes it special for the students,” she says, adding, “It is really a thank-you to all of them.”