No one claimed we were subtle

I’ve never been one of those people who loves Christmas. Don’t get me wrong I enjoy Christmas and all that the holiday season brings, but I’m just not one of those people that LOVES Christmas. You know who you are. You are the ones that want to get a head start on their shopping in May, and seriously consider playing hooky when the first snow falls. You are also the same people that crank up the holiday jams the second you finish munching on your Halloween candy.

See unlike you festive breed of humans, I’m happy if I get my shopping done more than a week before the big day and my holiday decorations are confined to a little 4 foot, pre-lit tree that takes no more than a half-hour to put up, if I’m dawdling.

As with all of us, there are many moments in life where I just know with every fiber of my being that God must be somewhere in heaven chuckling at me, and I am pretty certain that Christmas time in this job is one of those moments.

As an RD at the college I work for it should be a bullet point in the job description that one must possess an emphatic obsession with Christmas. Just as any good Catholic college, we love Christmas and all that comes with preparing for Jesus’ birthday. We love the parties, food, caroling, church services, ugly sweaters, and decorating…boy do we love the decorating.

In my residence hall alone, our quaint and cozy lounge finds itself home to six trees, garland galore, endless strings of lights, absurd amounts of tinsel, paper snowflakes, boxes upon boxes of ornaments, fake window snow, and don’t forget two nativity sets (both with broken Jesus’). My dorm’s holiday adornments alone fill an entire storage room…wall to wall. We pack it in. To give you a little bit better idea this storage is easily the size of a nice walk in closet, and I’ve downsized on it since starting in this position.

I suppose subtlety never really fit in with the whole deck the halls theme this season seems to foster. Either way I have a dorm full of young women who love Christmas and love decorating for it as well. So if my crazy little lounge filled with fake evergreens and holiday cheer brings them a little piece of home and deeper sense of community then I am happy to do it for them. For a dorm full of happy, peaceful girls means a happy and peaceful RD. I am so blessed.

-Nicole