The St. Thomas community gathered Monday as it held the 25th annual tree lighting ceremony in the Anderson Student Center Atrium.
This tree lighting ceremony was quite different compared to last years.
“Last year we had no audience,” Assistant Director of Campus Life Erin Whipkey said. “There was a virtual live stream, which we had a pretty good number of people who viewed it, but obviously it’s way more fun to be in person.”
First-year student Aiden Carlson went to the event for the first time.
“It was cool to see everybody here and how happy everybody is and that it’s the holiday season,” Carlson said.
Before the tree lit up ASC, President Julie Sullivan the community in prayer and Chaplin Neil Ellingson gave a testimonial.
“It’s easy to want to jump over Advent, to forget that this is a time in the Christian tradition where we’re sort of in between getting in touch with the fact that we yearn for light and want more and knowing we need love,” Chaplin Ellingson said.
Ellingson concluded with the thought that the Christian tradition says that light and darkness come together and we see redemptive love in these spots.
“I thought it was a beautiful way to start Advent,”senior Abby Burns said. “I especially liked the testimonial… I thought that was a really beautiful way to set up an event and to prepare our hearts first.”
After the ceremony, students, faculty and community members gathered in Scooters for pictures with Santa and to enjoy apple cider and donuts. Reggie Wright, department of public safety sergeant, was Santa for the event.
“I’ve been doing this since 2018 and there is no fun part, it’s all fun,” Wright said.
Camarae Good can be reached at good4796@stthomas.edu.