Thursday, November 15, 2001

Holiday traditions are worth keeping
John-Mark Day
Skiff Staff

There’s not a lot of tradition around these parts. Sure, we Riff-Ram occasionally, we rub the frog’s nose for luck before a test, we light a tree and the front of Sadler Hall at Christmas so bright it can be seen at the North Pole.

Hold on, nope. We don’t do that anymore.

Because of the expense to the university, the administration has decided to trim the tree lighting budget, and not just the tree. There is just enough money now to put up and light the tree, and not the rest of Sadler.

OK, so there’s a war going on. There are probably more pressing issues to get all bothered about. But this is messing with tradition. Not just tradition, Christmas tradition.

So when 2,000 to 3,000 students show up in front of Sadler on Nov. 28 drinking hot chocolate and singing Christmas carols, and Santa drives Chancellor and Mrs. Ferrari in, they stand on the steps of Sadler, the countdown reaches one and they throw the switch, not much will happen.

A tree will light up, sure. For students who have attended the tree lighting every year since they’ve been here it will be grinchingly anti-climatic.

“Is that it? Where are the lights?”

“Did they forget to plug something in?”

“Who killed Christmas?”

To be fair, the tree lighting is expensive, and Santa is tightening his belt this year. It’s a hard tradition to pull off.

Granted, the tree lighting takes two or three days of Physical Plant manpower to pull off.

Granted, the tree lighting makes it hard for those with offices near the front of Sadler to work.

Granted, the tree lighting has become more about celebrating Order of Omega than about celebrating Christmas (oh wait, that was my problem with the lighting, not the administration’s).

But it’s Christmas. It’s also probably the most popular tradition on campus. Students who show no spirit the rest of the year bleed purple and green around the holidays.

The tree lighting is one of the best-attended tradition events TCU offers, all because of the excitement and spectacle. When those lights go on in front of Sadler, it becomes Christmas. For a place with little snow and a time when visions of dancing sugarplums are replaced by visions of accounting finals, Christmas tradition is important.

The tree lighting is an important way of saying, “Hey, even though this is the most stressful time of the semester for you, cheer up — the holidays are right around the corner. We, as an administrative body of this fine institution, are behind you. And this is how we show it, by putting up lights in the center of campus. Lots and lots of lights. Not just a tree, mind you. We’re behind you too much to let it slide with just lighting a tree. We’re going to blaze up the whole front of Sadler.”

And blaze it does, and support they do. Or did, anyway. Now it won’t be a blaze as much as a blink.

Things may be tight in Frogville this year, money may be sparse, but it’s sad to see such an important tradition fall by the wayside. So come up with a way to light Sadler and not just the tree. The ability was always there in the past, surely it can be there again.

This may not just be the administration’s responsibility. Order of Omega, your name’s on this thing. Make it happen. If you have to buy lights at Wal-Mart and string ‘em up yourself, make it happen. Somebody, make it happen.

Otherwise, how will Santa know how to find TCU?

John-Mark Day is a junior religion and news-editorial journalism major from St. Joseph, Mo. He can be contacted at (j.m.day2@student.tcu.edu).