Thirty Days Until…Christmas in November?

26 November 2011Rachael K and Cherrie K

Though the irritating heavens have stubbornly refused to bestow the campus with snow (except for tantalizing us with a 5.6673 second “snow fall” one morning last week, where flimsy “snowflakes” promptly dissolved into slush the moment they hit the ground), the nippy chills have caused several to coax out those snuggly sweaters and wooly socks napping in the back corner of their wardrobe. Winter, so far, has been downright wet, but there is –as always— a flame of hope amidst a miserable chill. The colder it gets, the closer Brentwood inches towards the one seasonal holiday everyone is just itching to reach: Christmas. This sounds like the beginning of a wintry December, yes?

Except for the fact that it’s November.

Winter is stretching her icy arms over the island: temperatures have dropped (a steep drop, like one off the edge of a cliff), daylight has shortened, and the nightfall chills are creeping in earlier and earlier with each passing day. It doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to crack the code that winter, and the holidays that accompany it, with bursting boxes of Christmas decorations hauled out of basement hibernation, are rapidly soaring through the skies on the back of a sleigh. 

Here at Brentwood, students and teachers alike enjoy beginning the holiday season a couple of weeks before the official day. At Brentwood, the premature onset of winter is—let’s just say— ridiculously obvious. November, though not normally affiliated with winter holidays, is actually a prime month for scheduling winter decorating parties, and organizing special holiday events. Brentwood’s early showcase of wintry decor allows decorations to shine for a full month before students toboggan off for break.

Already, a majestic tree—reportedly eighteen feet tall— has been ordered for Crooks Hall, the silhouette of Mackenzie radiates blue at nightfall, Whittall has donned large red ribbons on its outer walls, Mrs. Martin – one of the Hope House duty staff –baked gingerbread men cookies for all of us, and the Winter’s Eve Concert is a happy memory. Murmurings of candy canes, cards, gifts, secret Santas, advent calendars, and end-of-the-year dinners are in the air – along with the comforting waft of chocolate and cinnamon. In the laundry facilities, ornaments hang from the ceiling, the doors are literally covered in wrapping paper, and lights twine throughout the room. Going to laundry is like stepping into a present – trust me, having your laundry done for you is a wonderful gift – and now, entering the laundry room is akin to stepping inside a winter wonderland. 

Since Sunday, the Christmas glow has been infectious. Storefronts are now being sheathed beneath rows of shiny bulbs, some exhibiting rainbow colors, and others displaying the soft, classic, yellow glow, revolutionizing the atmosphere from one of normalcy to one of holiday brilliance. 

In Allard House, the October scarecrows were replaced with Nutcracker men, the pumpkins replaced with silver tinsel. Mistletoe was mounted, wreaths were hung, and a couple of small trees were decorated and lit…honestly, an all around Christmas make-over commenced.

On the same day, Mrs. Healy and Privett House graciously invited the Hope girls over to their Christmas decorating party. With tasty cookies and pots of delicious hot chocolate brewing in the corner under Mr. Healy’s vigilant eye, and an (artificial) fire blazing on a television screen, their invitation was impossible to resist.

When not drinking hot chocolate and munching glorious Christmas food in the Privett upper common room, both the Privett boys and Hope girls adorned the tree, hung stockings over the ‘fireplace’, coiled glittery tinsel around the staircase railings, and strung the glowing lights high on the hallway walls. Palms slapped stick-on snowflakes to the windows (take that, deaf heaven, who denies us our deserved blanket of snow!), and fingers dipped in bright paint pots to squiggle artistic reindeers and lopsided Christmas trees all over the Privett windows.

Santa Claus is coming to town, ladies and gentlemen – so, let’s all embrace mid-November as the start to December. Now is the time to get into the holiday cheer. The congregating of friends and family is really what is essential to the holidays, right? So the actual month in which this starts, really, is an inconsequential detail. November is the new December – this is not a drill. 

Now…if only it would snow!

Cherrie K and Rachael K