Favourite King's Christmas Memories
Hey there future students,
Have you wondered what the most wonderful time of the year is at the most wonderful university of Edmonton? King's is a lively and caring community all year round...but there's something special about the cold in the air and finals fast approaching that really makes the warmth of King's community and events on campus stand out. Here's a list of my personal favourite King's Christmas memories:
Kindness at King’s
It's a common experience during this stressful time of year to see the people around you going the extra mile to show you kindness. You'll probably notice a couple of chocolate bars and anonymous encouraging notes popping up in your student mailbox. Some acts of kindness that really meant the world to me this December was when my RA started knitting a scarf for me to help me survive my first Edmonton winter, and when some friends took me to the pet store down the street to play with the cats that are up for adoption.
Level Drinks
The Level Coffeehouse offers specialty drinks every year during the Christmas season. The Eggnog Steamers are always a crowd favourite, but my go-to is the White Peppermint Mocha. Nothing is better than studying or catching up with friends than with a seasonal Level drink in your hand.
Exam De-stressing
As your schedule fills with study sessions, you'll start to notice that the hallways are filling with hilarious motivational posters. Also Student Life and the Students' Association go out of their way to make December less stressful, whether that's leaving snacks and colouring pages around campus, or providing drop-in study breaks for residents that happen every day, twice a day for an hour. This year's rez study breaks included watching a Christmas movie, drinking eggnog, making play dough, eating breakfast together...and there are still more events to come!
Floor Decorating
One of my favorite festive things to happen in residence is the Floor Decorating Competition. All the floors in the Tower compete to have the best floor decorations and the winners get $100 towards their floor Christmas party. I loved decorating my floor because not only did we blast Christmas Carols in the hallway while hanging candy canes for our Candy Cane Lane theme, but we also went on a field trip together to Dollarama to purchase supplies, which turned into it's own adventure.
Small Group Christmas
This year my small group celebrated Christmas with an adorable Christmas party and gift exchange. Since I wouldn't have crossed paths with the person who's name I pulled for the exchange without my small group, I really enjoyed getting to buy a present for her. Overall it was just great to celebrate Christmas with a group of such caring people.
Sleigh Ride
This year the SA Christmas event included a horse drawn sleigh ride. Do I even need to explain why this was fantastic? They let the riders pet the horses after the ride. It was incredible.
Ugly Christmas Sweaters
This time of the year means that the classes and hallways are being flooded with people wearing terrible Christmas sweaters. This year my Mom mailed me a Christmas Llama sweater, which became a great accessory for all the Christmas events I ended up attending around King's.
King's Choir
Something really amazing about this time of the year is how often King's Choirs perform. I went to the Choir Concert at McDougall United Church and I was completely blown away by how heavenly their performance was. Luckily I got to see the choirs perform again at the first Advent Chapel and later at the Christmas Light Up. The Christmas Light Up was a great opportunity to grab a hot chocolate and candy cane with friends in the cold-but-not-terribly-cold early December weather.
Improvaganza
I found out in early December that King's Improv class puts on a three episode soap-opera show at the end of the semester. This year the story took place in the North Pole in a world where everyone works for Santa, but very few people have actually met Santa. Questions on Santa's very existence, missing reindeer and cookie recipes, and the elf love triangle kept me on the edge of my seat the whole week the show premiered.
These are all of my favourite King's Christmas memories and they make me unbelievably grateful for the amazing community at King's. I hope you find yourself in a community that loves you and showers you in kindness this Christmas season!
Stay Golden,