WKNH brought back its holiday event with a new name and location on the night of Saturday, Dec. 9.
What was formerly called “Rockin Holidays” in previous years went by the name “Jingle Bell NOC” this year.
“It is a recurring event with a new name,” WKNH’s event coordinator and junior Ryan Stone said. “The last two years we called it ‘Rockin Holidays,’ but one of our other e-board members came up with this name last year after we had already planned the event with the other name.”
Rockin Holidays took place outside the student center and inside the Flag Room simultaneously. WKNH’s e-board wanted to move the event’s location to the Night Owl Café and they liked the name WKNH Assistant General Manager and senior Trevor Adams came up with last year.
Stone mentioned how a lot of planning went into the event.
“I have been planning this event since September,” Stone said. “This event has our biggest turnout that we see across the whole year and everyone really likes the holiday events around campus. It is a lot of trying to figure out what we want to do.”
A mixture of holiday music and everyday songs played for people partaking in the event. Patrons listened to the music while painting ornaments and eating food.
The name and location were not the only new things about the event. Pizza was a new addition to the catering. A new “ugly sweater contest” was also supposed to happen, but did not because by the time it was going to take place, only WKNH e-board members were wearing sweaters.
Despite not enough people wearing ugly sweaters, Stone said she thought the event went well and had a good turnout considering everything going on around campus with the busy finals season.
Gift cards were supposed to be awarded to the winner of the ugly sweater contest, but considering nobody won the contest, Stone said the gift cards will be a prize for a future event.
WKNH president and senior Anna Bertolino said the idea came from a past event.
“At our Halloween event this year we did a costume contest with prizes so we wanted to incorporate something similar and we thought an ugly sweater contest would be super fun,” Bertolino said. “There are some funny sweaters out there and it is something people will have fun with.”
Bertolino agreed the event had a good turnout and said the decision to move the event to the NOC was part of a larger goal.
“I think it stemmed from one of our biggest goals this past semester which was to bring back ‘Rock in the NOC,’” Bertolino said. “We also like to do an annual holiday event. So I think we kinda wanted to do ‘Rock in the NOC’ with a twist.”
Patrons expressed their enjoyment of the event, like first-year student Lily Spaneni who said, “I thought it was fun, I had some pizza and I painted an ornament for my mom.”
First-year student Rachel Presbrey was another student who enjoyed her time and stated she was initially drawn by hearing about the food.
“I liked the painting. I thought the music was cute. I like festive things. I think it is important to celebrate during the holidays as a community and come together,” Presbrey said. “I really liked painting, even though I spilled glitter everywhere and I liked seeing other people from my classes or my year.”
Both Spaneni and Presbrey said they encourage more people to come to events like Jingle Bell NOC. Both said the events are more fun when more people attend.
Nico Brazill can be contacted at
nbrazill@kscequinox.com
