The annual Seasonal Celebration was held on the Haverhill campus on Wednesday, Dec. 9.

The Seasonal Celebration is a get-together to commemorate the different holidays that happen in the month of December such as Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. The festivities are enjoyed by many of the faculty, staff, students and their children.

Many volunteers helped out at the event from the baseball team, the Student Senate and faculty from the Student Engagement Center. The baseball team helped out with decorating cookies and the senate helped out with some of the crafts.

Nate Miller, a theater major, worked with the kids making the “snowman soup.” Snowman soup is hot chocolate made into a kit. The children take a scoop of hot chocolate mix and a few marshmallows along with a candy cane for stirring.

Miller said, “I enjoyed helping the kids creating a hot chocolate kit and calling it snowman soup.”

The children at the event were a big fan of Miller, as he was wearing a onesie pajama set that featured Christmas decorations all over it. He wore the pajamas to entertain the kids as he was playing Santa’s elf “Dandy Cane.”

Another project that the children enjoyed taking part in was creating reindeer food for Santa’s reindeer on Christmas Eve. The children added a third of a cup of oats to three teaspoons of red and green glitter. The children then had to whisper a wish into the bag before they sealed it with a ribbon and directions on how to feed the reindeer.

Grant Bellino, a Philosophy major, helped with the reindeer food. “I love the way the kids get to whisper their wish into the reindeer food before they sealed it up,” he said.

Bellino also had children loving him because of his ugly Christmas sweater. They seemed to flock to his project to see what it was all about. One of the parents commented that his was the best outfit, very festive and the nicest ugly Christmas sweater she has seen.

The decorating of gingerbread cookies was a big hit with the children. They got to choose between different frostings and decorations. One student had the idea of turning the gingerbread man upside down and turning it into Rudolph cookies.

A big surprise for the kids was Santa Claus being there and passing out small gift bags and taking free pictures with Santa made it a point to tell the children “to remember he is watching them all year long and they need to behave.”

The food was a big hit with the adults as they served roast pork, mashed potatoes and gravy, along with other snacks such as pastelitos and chips and dip. They served eggnog and sherbet punch to drink, which initially made Ari Chicklis, the assistant coordinator of the student engagement center, a little anxious.

Chicklis said, “I was nervous we would have a left over abundance of eggnog, but it was a hit and was all gone.”

Stay tuned for the many events that will be happening in the upcoming semester put on by the Student Engagement Center.