Deck the Halls
With Winter Break on the horizon, NASH students gathered to hang snowflakes by the ceiling with care.
Aris Pastor creating snowflakes for the Gender Equity Series.
December 23, 2021
When NASH students entered school on Monday morning, they were greeted by stunningly decorated hallways, created by the various organizations at NASH. This feat was all thanks to Student Council sponsor Justin Karolski, who also teaches gifted education at NASH, NAI and NACA middle school.
The inspiration to decorate the hallways struck one day in early November when Karolski was online.
“I was scrolling through social media and saw a clip from Elf when they walk into the store and it’s all transformed, and I thought, ‘We could do that on a smaller scale,’” Karolski said.
In the beginning, the idea was for NASH Student Council to simply decorate the cafeteria, but after some contemplation the idea to include other clubs was born.
After receiving approval from NASH principal Dr. Dirda, a message was sent out to all of the building’s clubs. The idea was met with overwhelming support from interested clubs.
Last Friday, many students decorated their designated area for hours after school. Many have been working on these decorations for weeks. In total, there were 20 clubs that decorated 18 hallways.
Some clubs with similar interests decided to share a hallway. Within the language hallway, the French club, German club, and Junior Classical League (Latin club) decided to create murals representing each language.
The German Club features gingerbread houses and snowmen in lederhosen. The French Club did a mural for the predominantly French-speaking Canadian province of Quebec. Magistra Ramsey’s Latin students decorated their portion of the wall in the Classical tradition.
“I wanted to do something related to my curriculum, so I thought of the snowmen as warriors of the Trojan War, Ramsey explained. “We made the Trojan horse a gingerbread horse, so the Greeks are gingerbread people and we have a sign that says ‘Beware of Greeks bearing gifts’ because this is one gift you don’t want to open.”
Throughout NASH, many decorations were planned out by students. One such organization that went above and beyond was National English Honors Society. NEHS had been planning their decorations for three weeks, and the designs were perfect for the English-based club.
“Since we’re part of the English program, our theme was ‘Cuddle up with a good book,’ so all of our snowflakes are made out of book pages and everything is surrounded by winter wonderland type decorations created by NASH artists and other English things like that,” Zoë Tracey, one of the leaders of NEHS, explained.
Unlike NEHS, some groups decided to go the more traditional route. Key Club, a volunteer organization, decided to decorate the hallways with candy canes and peppermints, truly making it a winter wonderland.
So as NASH students walk through the hallways one last time before the end of 2021, they can leave with holiday spirits high and a 10-day break ahead of them.
