Kelsey Mix – Online Editor/Copy Editor
Pinterest helped to inspire Residence Hall Association’s annual event, Winter Wonderland. The event took a different spin from the previous years in that every activity was a creative do-it-yourself project.
Melissa Deroche, senior and vice president of RHA, explained the tradition behind Winter Wonderland. “Every year RHA puts on a Winter Wonderland event around finals,” said Deroche. “It’s a way to get out, relax, socialize, and get away from studying.”
Deroche also elaborated why they chose the Pinterest theme. “We have a bunch of different arts and crafts [centered] around winter time and the holidays,” she said. “A lot of the crafts are edible too.”
Wes Boucher, junior and programming board chairperson of RHA, clarified the major difference between this year and past years’ Winter Wonderlands. “Originally for the event we get vendors in and they provide different activities like giveaways and things like that,” said Boucher. “We changed it up so it’s a craft-themed Wonderland and we took the ideas from Pinterest.”
Students at the event were enjoying the new twist and appreciated the free hot chocolate as well. “I like the DIY hot cocoa bar,” said Hannah Thill, junior public health major. Dunkin Donuts provided four different types of hot chocolate for the event and RHA supplied little additions like marshmallows and candy canes.
Not only were the students having fun, but they were also giving back to the community. “I like how in order to get a shirt, you have to make a card for children in the hospital,” said Thill. Once you decorated and signed a card for a child, you were given a ticket to go get your long-sleeved Winter Wonderland shirt. After receiving your shirt, your ticket was marked and you held onto it until the end of the event when you want to vote on the best gingerbread house.
Boucher explained their mission with the holiday card decorating, “We’re making holiday cards for children at the Smile Center at Yale-New Haven Hospital,” said Boucher. “We felt like that was something really good [and] we wanted to give back a little.”
Along with making cards, students were able to do edible DIY projects as well. “There’s ice cream cone [Christmas] tree making and a gingerbread house making competition,” said Boucher. “You can also make your own snowflakes and cut them out yourself.”
Because this was such a well-thought out event, a lot of planning had to go into this to make it perfect. “There was a lot of logistical planning which we did in our E-board and my programming board,” Boucher said. “We planned how everything was going to run, what we were actually able to do in the time we had and how to best put everything together.”
While students were doing their arts and crafts last Saturday, they were able to watch “How The Grinch Stole Christmas” starting at 6:30 p.m., half an hour after the event started, and it lasted until the end of the event around 9:00 p.m.
The room was filled with holiday music and Christmas cheer as students created their DIY’s and sang along with the tunes. The hard work RHA put into the event paid off because every student coming in had a great time. Twisting up the original Winter Wonderland theme was definitely a hit amongst the participating students.
“I’d like to see more of these events on campus,” said Thill. “It’s very festive and it keeps people here on the weekends.”
