In December, there’s no mistaking the holiday cheer on campus. After they return from Thanksgiving break, students deck the halls with twinkling lights and pockets of colorful decorations. Spelled out in strung lights, a giant “F” announces the Forbes boys’ abode. Ribbons wrap the pillars of Wolcott House like a gift. The festive energy around School reminds students that winter break is near, and holiday traditions in each house bring students together to celebrate the season with their family away from home.
The girls of Millet House create their own unique traditions each year, including the Ugly Ornament contest and gingerbread cookie decorating. There is also the annual “Cakes for Flakes” event. The girls cut and hang paper snowflakes from the common room ceiling, and the “family” installing the most snowflakes wins a Red Velvet cake. The individual cutting the most snowflakes is crowned the “Snowflake Queen.”
In the week before winter break, Hathaway House girls stage their important event: the holiday dinner—with fancy dress and linens—where their dining hall staff are honored guests. Each senior girl also invites one guest to the dinner, and these “guests” serve the hosts! After dinner, the guests perform a song, story, poem or another creative piece that honors the senior who invited them. In honor of Nan Lee, a former Hathaway house head, the Lee Award is given to “the girl who most expresses the generosity of spirit and the art of gentle persuasion to help create a caring community at Hathaway.” The night ends with homemade desserts and songs around the piano.
Wolcott House boys are not to be outdone. On the last evening before break the boys dress up in holiday formal wear and enjoy an hour with h’oeuvres, sparkling cider, and conversation with house faculty families before heading out to escort the girls of Hallowell to the holiday dinner. (The Hallowell girls, dressed in their finest, have begun with appetizers and mulled cider hosted by their house head.) The boys then return to the dorm to practice their caroling songs—with which all Milton’s boarding boys will serenade the girls’ houses one by one. After caroling, Wolcott boys gather in their common room to watch Dr. Seuss’s “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and enjoy a much-deserved feast.
