Every year, Winter Wonderland returns to Archer with slightly updated activities, music and decorations. However, one aspect remains constant: its focus on celebrating a variety of winter traditions.
This year’s celebration took place Friday, Dec. 13, in the courtyard. Student Council Executive Board member Caroline Collis (’26) said she and other Student Council members worked to improve the annual event while maintaining its original spirit.
“Planning Winter Wonderland involves keeping up the traditions from last year,” Collis said. “It’s all about communication.”
Bella Maduff (’31) said she appreciates the effort Student Council put into representing a diverse array of holidays during Winter Wonderland. She noted that the Student Council programming reflects feedback from the student body.
“It’s probably hard work, and I think they know how much [we] enjoy it,” Maduff said. “It just feels very inclusive.”
Although Pew Research Center found 90% of Americans celebrate Christmas, freshman Arissa Lalani said Archer’s Winter Wonderland celebrates with a focus on inclusivity and diversity, recognizing that not all families observe the same holidays.
“I feel like it’s really nice to see multiple cultures combined into this event. I know there’s a lot of people who celebrate Hanukkah here and a lot of people that celebrate Christmas,” Lalani said. “I like how the spirit events are centered around that.”
Lalani said Winter Wonderland the holiday trivia contest was a valuable learning experience for her, and that it was important for her to see an accurate representation of the student body. However, Lalani also suggested that more holidays, such as Kwanzaa, be included.
“I know Hanukkah and Christmas are the main events that people probably celebrate here, but I know there are other events that people celebrate throughout the year,” Lalani said. “If there are enough people that celebrate those events, then they should somehow integrate those as well.”
Collis said one of her goals was to represent a wider variety of holidays in this year’s Winter Wonderland by integrating more inclusion in already established activities.
“A lot of our activities [provided] openings for a diverse amount of celebration — for instance, in our trivia, we [had] questions from different holidays, and we also [tried] to keep a neutral winter theme so that everybody can feel included in the celebration,” Collis said.”We discourage any strong sways in a certain way.”
Jewish students in the US often feel pressure during the holiday season, as Christmas has become a part of “secular American practice” in schools. Maduff said she experienced less Jewish representation at her previous school, but notices a clear difference at Archer.
“I like that they include Hanukkah, because in my other schools, they really didn’t,” Maduff said.”I enjoy that, since I’m Jewish, and I just like having Christmas around and seeing everyone dressed up.”
Collis said she wants to make more personal impacts on executive board planning and include more of her ideas in the future.
“Usually, what exec does is we’ll change, maybe, two [events] and come up with something new,” Collis said. “It’s an experiment every time, but it’s something we can use in future years.”
![After the ceremony, Natalie Huang ('25), Lily Poon ('25) and Addie Meyers ('25) pose to take a picture. Many seniors took pictures with their family and friends after the ceremony to capture moments during Founders Day. "A moment that I enjoyed is right after Founders Day, when a lot of seniors were taking pictures," Curry said. "They were kind of doing things [to] soak up those last Founders Day memories. Because even if we forget what was said during the speeches, and even if we forget everyone who was in our class, who will forever have those pictures, and those will be cemented memories."](https://archeroracle.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/k-1200x800.jpg)
