A school so merry and bright that Santa comes twice! Saturday, December 7th, Mountain Ridge’s band hosted their annual Santa Breakfast, and a few days later on Monday, December 9th, Santa came back for the annual holiday party!
Mountain Ridge Student Government facilitates an annual holiday party for all of the teachers and their children and grandchildren to come and enjoy the holiday spirit. This year, there were eighteen kids in attendance, with seven different stations to choose between. These stations included pinning the nose on the reindeer, fingerprint painting snowmen on an ornament, writing letters to Santa, decorating cookies, making a reindeer with popsicle sticks, and enjoying some hot chocolate. There are around 2-3 Student Government members at each booth to help the kids.
Normally, the children congregate around the booths with food, as multiple kids come back to the cookie booth to decorate new cookies and pin the nose on the reindeer more than once to get more candy. This year there were more craft booths and finished crafts lined unused tables so the teachers had many items to take home.
This event is one that the Student Government is most proud to have, as it gives back to the Mountain Ridge teachers in real-time. Timothy Rosinbum, the AP United States History teacher and AP European History teacher, spoke highly of the event, saying, “One thing that I like the most about it is how it’s designed to create lots of opportunities and memories for the kids that come to the party–which are usually younger kids–and so the staff member’s kids get to feel a part of Mountain Ridge, meet some of the students, and make some really fun crafts. I think that is really cool.” When asked about this year specifically, Mr Rosinbum said that it was excellent. “This year we got to make a lot of crafts and Santa was awesome, so it was really a great time.”
This annual holiday party also serves as a way for teachers and their children to easily see Santa! Around 6 PM, Santa arrives, with gifts in tow. He gives a gift to each child, with the opportunity for the parents to take pictures of their child with Santa. Children new to the event are always happily surprised to see Santa, and kids who have come before look forward to it, excitedly whispering about when Santa will arrive at the other booths.
Mountain Ridge truly has curated an environment that allows teachers to feel support during and outside of the classroom. This holiday party showcases that. Once again, Mountain Ridge is a school so merry and bright that Santa comes twice!
