Students at Asbury have begun to bring out their winter coats and scarves as the brisk wind blows across campus, preparing for the holidays and the accompanying chilly Kentucky weather. Signs of the forthcoming holidays have swept in with the wind and have been appearing all around campus in anticipation of Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Some of the upcoming events on campus include Johnson Christmas, International Christmas, Songs of the Season and Christmas with the Brown’s during Chapel. A poll of 25 students on campus shows that students prefer Johnson Christmas to the other holiday events sponsored by Asbury and held on campus at 20%, closely followed by Christmas with the Browns at 16%.
Christmas in the Stuce with the Music Department will be on Thursday, Dec. 5 at 11 a.m., Christmas with the Browns will be Friday, Dec. 6 during Chapel and Songs of the Season will be the same day at 7:30 p.m. Some of the other events have not been scheduled yet this semester.
The same 25 students weighed in on the topic of Christmas traditions specific to Wilmore and broader customs, including Wilmore Old-Fashioned Christmas. This annual event in town will be on Saturday, Dec. 7 this year, giving students a break from studying for finals to indulge in Christmas cheer on Main Street. Businesses in town will extend their business hours, holding open houses for people to wander in and out. There will also be the official tree lighting ceremony, live music, food vendors and an art fair. 60% of the students polled said that they had either been in previous years or plan to go this year. The other 40% either replied that they had not been or were dispassionate about the event.
Out of the polled students, three students were indifferent to whether Christmas music should be played before or after Thanksgiving, though the other 22 students were strongly split on the question. 11 answered that they play Christmas music before Thanksgiving (with one student pushing the necessity of listening to the festive music via radio). For those who support Christmas music before Thanksgiving, Joe Bruner spoke for them in Chapel last Friday, Nov. 15 as he proudly stated, “I will turn that stuff on in October!”
The other half of students strongly oppose Christmas music before Thanksgiving, limiting it to the time frame of Black Friday until the end of Christmas festivities.
This split in responses over the timing of Christmas music did not translate to student opinions on the Christmas tree in the Stuce. Only 20% of students believed that the tree, put up on Nov. 7, appeared too early. Because of the structure of time between Thanksgiving and Winter Break, most students loved how early the tree went up.
As Christmas trees go up in the Stuce and Kinlaw Library, students are beginning to think of their own holiday traditions.
Senior Danylo Mikhaluk shared his own family’s traditions. He noted, “For Christmas, we get together, close family and friends, and we either eat sushi or Ukrainian food. Then there’s a presidential address on New Year’s Eve that everybody watches right before the clock strikes midnight.”
The last few weeks of the semester will be filled with expectations of holiday meals and traditions, which will hopefully offset the stress of finals once students return from Thanksgiving. Happy holidays, Asbury!
