We have entered the month of October. By entering this 10th month of the year, we have been thrown into an onslaught of holidays and festivities. We will soon bring out our pumpkins and candy corn, replace them with an absurd amount of turkey and potatoes come November and, finally, swap out the turkeys and cornucopias for large pine trees, elves and candy canes.
As college students with limited budgets and less-than appealing dorm rooms, the holidays present us with a challenge: How do we express our holiday spirit given our restricted resources? How do we prevent college from crushing our holiday spirit?
The options are plentiful:
- Purchase miniature pumpkins! They only cost a buck or two and will make for fabulous decor atop your air conditioning unit. Invite your suitemates, roommates or hallmates to do the same. Have a pumpkin decorating party!
- Watch scary movies. Watch Christmas movies. Watch The Nightmare Before Christmas.
- Change your standard studying soundtrack to holiday-themed music: spooky sounds, The Monster Mash, Auld Lang Syne, Jingle Bells, etc.
- Set up a “Secret Santa” game with your pals. Set a price limit of $5-10. Take it (not) seriously.
- Eat candy corn.
- Eat candy canes.
- Tell people that the weight you have gained in the past few weeks was intentional: you have a Santa Claus gig coming up in December.
- Tell people that the bags under your eyes are not from a lack of sleep, but are actually an integral part of your Halloween costume. Duh.
- Decorate your dorm with cobwebs and plastic spiders. Unless, of course, your dorm has already been supplied with the real versions of the items, free of charge.
- Decorate your dorm with a miniature Christmas tree. Joaquin has left large branches lying around the sidewalks; grab ‘em while they’re hot!
- Sing Christmas carols to every dorm room in your entire residence hall. Make sure to visit everyone individually to give them that personalized holiday feeling.
- Drink UNC Blue Hot Chocolate!
- Routinely perform a “snow dance” before going to bed to increase the chances of classes being cancelled in the morning. This may involve flushing ice cubes down the toilet, sleeping with your shirt on backwards, placing a wooden spoon under your pillow and other various items. The exact formula for snow has not yet been determined.
- Wish a “Happy Heeloween” to all of your fellow Tar Heels.
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