The Time I Spread the Holiday Spirit in my Freshman Dorm

You can just do things!

Last year, as a freshman at Stanford, I was lucky enough to be placed into Donner for my freshman housing. While most freshman dorms don't have an explicit theme, Donner seemed to have an unofficial one: community. At Stanford, my life revolved around Donner and the people in it. Yes, I would sleep in the dorm, but I would also eat my meals 100 feet away with my friends, study in the dorm lounge, and spend my weekends relaxing in the courtyard or enjoying the evening in a friend's room. In my first quarter, Donner was a huge part of making Stanford feel like home, and I now look back on those months as some of the best times in my life.

So, just before the holidays, I decided to give back. My friends Kamran, Sam, and I all loved the classic Christmas movie Elf. In it, the protagonist (Buddy) decorates the entirety of the department store in which he works overnight. When employees return the next day, they find themselves in a winter wonderland. As the movie says, "The best way to spread Christmas cheer is by singing loud for all to hear." We all took that to heart and decided it was our job to bring that cheer into our home.

So, we set out on a mission. Stanford's fall quarter is funny: students leave for Thanksgiving break, return for one week of classes, and then take their final exams the following week. After some deliberating, we settled on a date: on Monday morning of that final week, around 1am, we would strike.

Of course, this kind of scheme requires preparation. Our primary goal was to cover the entirety of our dorm in holiday lights, which required explicit measurement. Thanks to Google Earth, we were able to measure the length of our dorm hallways to be around 150ft. Covering three floors in lights, plus the lounge, meant buying over 1500ft of Christmas lights. Luckily, this is quite easy (and not too expensive!) thanks to modern supply chains. We found bulk rolls on Amazon and ordered a bunch.

But of course, the plan wouldn't be complete with just lights. Next on our list was accessory decorations: we decided that the dorm entrance would need to be guarded by two snowmen. They would be joined by a 6 ft inflatable Santa which would live in the lounge. We also ordered some mistletoe; our goal was to… foster dorm relationships. Finally, we decided that in the gift-giving season, everyone ought to have a little present, so we got 60 stockings and 120 candy canes, with the plan of attaching a stocking to each door.

So, just after arriving before break, our plan went into action. After picking up all of our packages, we turned Sam's dorm room into a command center and started unboxing. This proved… difficult given the space constraints, so around 11pm, we moved to the computer cluster, a study room near the dorm's lounge. The element of surprise was paramount here, so we put a sign on the door: "FINALS STUDY SESSION, DO NOT ENTER."

As the clock neared 1am, there was one final step: in addition to our lights, we employed a small army of fellow dorm residents in what can only be described as a snowflake assembly line. Over the course of two hours, we produced more than two hundred hand-designed snowflakes and attached each one to a small string. Thanks to the help of two taller friends (thanks, Sam and Chance!) we hoped to attach each snowflake to the top of the hallway. We had also found a bunch of cheap ornaments which would also hang from the ceiling, hopefully helping the "holiday vibe."

Then, as the clock struck one, it was finally time. Hanging the lights was, frankly, chaos. We had hoped to drape them in a consistent pattern, but this is a lot harder than it seems. If the gaps between your hanging points are too large, then you run out of lights. If they are too small, then you don't have the "string lights" effect. Dialing this in took at least an hour, and since there were three floors (plus the lounge) coordinating meant running up and down stairs. We had also hoped to do this in silence, which, for eight college students high on excitement, is difficult. There were a few instances where dormmates with… interesting sleep schedules wandered back into the dorm. Most were utterly confused, but they all offered us well wishes before heading to bed.

And finally, around 4:45 AM, we finished what we had started weeks ago. While we had originally conceived this as a small secretive project, it truly wouldn't have been possible without a larger group. Huge thanks to Kamran, Sam, Gabby, Michael, Henry, Jag, and Chance who were all instrumental in executing our plan. And thanks to the larger Donner community who made the event so so special. Waking up (after maybe 3 hours of sleep) and seeing everyone's reactions is possibly my favorite memory of all time, and it wouldn't have been the same without them. Thanks as well to our resident fellow Linda and our RAs who put up with our antics. (We did, of course, restore the dorm to its normal state before leaving for winter break).

College is so busy that it's easy to forget that you can just make a crazy plan and then execute on it. Elf-ing our dorm was a lot of work, but the only real sacrifice was one night of lost sleep. I think I carry this mentality through everything I do here at Stanford: this year, my roommate Kamran and I brought a 6ft, live Christmas tree into our dorm. If I'm going to do something, I would rather do it right, and in following this philosophy I've only ever made good memories and built great relationships with the people I love the most.