Spread a little holiday cheer!

It is easy to forget that we are entering the holiday season as Princeton students. The three weeks before winter break are the last three weeks of the semester, and this means major stress for all undergraduates. Exams, papers and projects are all crammed into a couple of days. Most people are so busy trying to get everything done that they rarely have a moment to pause and think about the next time they will sleep, let alone what to do to celebrate the holiday season. In this way, the holidays seem to sneak up on us quite abruptly. You put down your head to plow through all the work to be done, and all of the sudden it’s a week before Christmas and you have to fit in all the obligatory holiday traditions and present-shopping in those few days.

It is strange that as we enter the holiday season, it is everyone but college students that have the most time to enjoy it. This seems logically backwards. Kids and teenagers are stuck in school all day, and adults continue on in the 9-to-5 grind. We college students, who are only in class a couple of hours a day, should have more time than anyone else to watch Christmas specials, make gingerbread houses and go caroling. However, it seems that at college we spend less time doing these things than anyone else. A sudden rush of holiday-themed events put on by various organizations around campus this weekend definitely helped to bring the holiday spirit to the forefront of everyone’s mind, but since it’s already Dec. 14, we already missed half of the holiday season.

I am not entreating anyone to watch holiday specials on TV instead of writing a paper or to go make a gingerbread house with an exam happening the next morning. But we should make more of an effort to treat the holidays as a special time. We should not think of the weeks before winter break solely as “the two weeks when I have two papers, a project and a test.” The holidays are a truly magical time of year, no matter what your religious persuasion is. Like Thanksgiving, December is one of the times to count your blessings and value both your family back home and the friends you have made here. The holidays are also a wonderful time to participate in some of the service projects around campus to help those who are less fortunate.

On a lighter note, all those crazy holiday traditions and activities can only be done in the couple of weeks around this time of year. So take a little time to participate in some of them. The holidays fly by so fast that if you wait until winter break to get in the holiday spirit, they will already be over. So take advantage of the couple of weeks left of the holiday season. Go to a holiday event on campus or watch a Christmas special on TV. Sing Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas” in the shower. Wear the tackiest Christmas sweater you can find to class. Hum “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas” when it snows. Just do something to get in the holiday spirit.

Kelsey Zimmerman is a sophomore from Glen Allen, Va. She can be reached at kzimmerm@princeton.edu.