Every year during the holiday season, Bernards High School does a multitude of holiday themed activities to spread spirit and joy. One of which being the holiday door decorating contest between the English teachers, which has become an annual tradition. For the last five years, the English teachers have decorated their classroom doors in an attempt to win a title awarded by students in the school’s Stars Program.
Due to COVID-19, the contest did not occur, however some teachers still decorated their doors to spread the spirit during such difficult times. Luckily, the contest returned for this holiday season, and the English teachers are ecstatic for this friendly competition.
Mrs. O’Brien has run the event all five years, and she said the contest’s initial purpose was to “get the Stars Program more involved in the school community.” The Stars Program judges both the doors and the “Silly Sweaters”, which takes place the day before winter break.
Mrs. Hunkele has been an active participant in the contest since its inception, and she is known for her pop-up style designs for her doors. In 2017, she won the “Most Creative” category for her snowman design. The snowman was made of Dixie Cups, and the snowman had a background made of lights. She said she “usually [tries] to do something 3D that sticks off the door a little bit, but it’s hard because it pulls everything off the door.”
Along with her snowman, she also did a Polar Express-esque train design, which even went as far as decorating lockers that neighbored her room. Another one of her pop-up designs was her snow globe, which she described as “a hula hoop with a big dome on it, like a snow globe with lights in it.”
This year, however, she is feeling like going in a different direction. She said she wants to do something “a little more flat.” When asked why she wanted to make this change, she said, “Time and ability to make it stick to the door and last. Sometimes I would come in, like with the snowman, and it would be down on the ground.”
Mrs. Weltler went with a Chanukah themed door, featuring light blue, dreidel theme wrapping paper background, with a menorah under a section titled “Eight Puns of Chanukah.” The puns reference many aspect of Chanukah and Jewish culture, such as, “Gimmel a break”, referencing the Hebrew letter gimel, which is featured on the dreidel, “Forgelt about it”, referring to chocolate coin known as gelt typically associated with Chanukah, and “Happy Challah Days”, which alludes to a typical Jewish bread known as challah.
This year is the fifth year of the contest, and each year the creativity of the teachers will once again be put on display with new, extravagant designs. It will be nice to see Bernards get back in the holiday spirit, and once again see the English hallway lit up with festive decorations.
