By Abby Rathbun
Where are you Christmas? Aside from the pre-lit, fiber optic, two-foot-tall tree in my apartment, I can’t seem to find any Christmas on campus, commercial or otherwise.
As my second Christmas of college approaches, I notice no signs anywhere: no trees, no lights, no holiday spirit. I understand that we are all stressed about final papers, exams and projects, but is Christmas in a coma for college students? I hope not.
I was out of town for Light Up Louisville, but the Mayor seemed awfully proud of it. Why does that holiday spirit stop downtown? National attention on Louisville is often focused on the university. Because we have all of this national attention, especially from our sports programs, campus should be spruced up for the holidays.
Jane Ramsey, President Dr. James R. Ramsey’s wife, made it a priority for her husband that our campus be an aesthetically pleasing place. It should be especially beautiful during this time of year, when those finals are weighing us all down and we all need a pick-me-up.
I’m not asking for an installation of Muzak to play trite Christmas carols and holiday songs throughout campus or a Santa’s village. Just some lights around the trees on campus and a few red bows would be fine with me. I understand not all of the faculty members and students at the university are Christian, I’m perfectly okay with a giant menorah and the Kwanzaa candles in the SAC.
A festive spirit would help us all through finals and disappointing football seasons. Even if no decorations were put up around campus, a spirit of Christmas would be nice.
The weight of finals prevents any sort of holiday thoughts. It prevents a true Christmas spirit. No exceptional kindness is shown to each other. No holiday joy is present, except maybe the comeback win over Rutgers University.
Maybe I’ll find Christmas when I go back home for the break; I just wish I could find it here. There’s never too little need for Christmas spirit. Campus ought to be decorated for the holidays, but more importantly we should at least decorate ourselves with holiday spirit.
