With the winter holiday season just around the corner, teachers and students are gearing up to celebrate with their favorite decorations and partake in their favorite traditions. Whether it is through classic decorations or creative takes on wintry music, RM is ready for the holidays.
This year, Arts teacher Michael McDermott is celebrating Christmas with classic decorations. “A garland that we wrapped around the banister coming down with lights and then the tree and just the stockings,” Mr. McDermott said. “All that typical kind of those accoutrements of Christmas that people like, you know, we have a ton of all that stuff.”
Administrative secretary Laura Hermansdorfer greets the holidays with spirited seasonal decorations every year. “I have two Christmas trees. I have one that has all purple, so it’s all purple eyes, purple ornaments, purple ribbons,” Ms. Hermansdorfer said. “And then I have another, larger tree that has mostly Hallmark ornaments….I’ve been collecting them, my parents collected them when I was younger.” Throughout this year, she has also been collecting ornaments from Target to match her dog, who resembles the store’s mascot. “I decorated a mini tree with all the Target things this year, so that’s actually kind of my favorite thing right now.”
Seasonal decorations are not the only artistic tradition at RM. Every year, Music teacher Peter Perry and his ensembles welcome the holiday season with holiday music for the winter concert. “It’s really fun and festive and, like, a great way to get into the holidays,” freshman Evelyn Plett said. “I really like ‘Frosty Frolic’ because it feels just the right amount of, like, it’s just a fun song to listen to,” senior Sophia Fisher said. “There’s not really anything, like, too hard about it. It’s pretty easy, but it still gets stuck in your head.”
The ensembles’ pieces range from familiar festive tunes to a downright ominous piece following the story of an evil, barbaric version of Santa Claus. “We’ve been doing the ‘Santa the Barbarian’ pieces, which, you know, it’s a very humorous take on, you know, Santa Claus, but also takes some of the, you know, both the holiday tunes and some classical pieces and kind of melds them together in a very creative way,” Dr. Perry said. “[‘Santa the Barbarian’ is] a piece where it has, like, a narration and it combines a bunch of classic pieces and, like, classic holiday music, too,” Plett said. “It’s, like, really funny because it’s super different. And, like, you know, really, really not holiday season spirit.”
The ensembles keep the audience enraptured by capturing the excitement of the holidays in a humorous way while still showcasing students’ musical skills and what they have learned. “We have a limited number of concerts, so I wanted to make sure that when we do take that performance time we’re playing something that’s going to be educational,” Dr. Perry said.
