At Brown University, twinkling lights illuminate the campus’s main green from windows in the surrounding buildings before students leave for winter break, freshman Julianna Bradley said. After the first snowfall, the school closes a main road through campus, and students ski down the street. Many students also go sledding on stolen trays from the dining hall, she said.
Columbia University embraces the darkness of winter by lighting the trees that surround its entranceway. In a tradition dating back to the Revolutionary War, students carry a yule log and sing seasonal carols around campus following the lighting, according to the Columbia University website.
At Cornell University, students developed their own tradition for celebrating. For the tradition of “traying,” students take a tray from the dining hall and sled down a campus hill on it, sophomore Mark McConnell said.
Harvard University upperclassmen attend winter holiday dinners with their residential houses late in December. In Lowell House, house members eat Yule Dinner by a fireplace, the room lined with Christmas trees, house member and junior Caroline Leahy said. Other houses hold formal dinners or holiday parties, and the school’s finals clubs also host events before winter break.
The University of Pennsylvania held a winter festival celebration in the university’s student center before winter break, sophomore Allison Higgins said. The event offered free food and a photo booth but was not a weekend-long event like Homecoming and Spring Fling, respectively Penn’s fall and spring big weekends, she said.
In the early 1970s, Princeton University started a tradition called the “Nude Olympics,” though it ended in 1999 due to safety concerns. Every year, hundreds of students would run nude around campus, performing activities ranging from snowball fights to calisthenics.
To celebrate the winter season, Yale University holds a freshman holiday dinner before winter break, which has included momentous ice sculptures, gingerbread houses, prime rib and more elaborate foods, along with themed decorations, according to the Yale Daily News. Upperclassmen have smaller dinners in their residential colleges, sophomore Christina Bradley said.
