The night of Friday, Dec. 6, at Tiffany Loop, crowds of people lined up in anticipation, eagerly waiting to pet animals, drink hot chocolate, build gingerbread houses, decorate cookies and play with some arts and crafts.
The occasion? Everyone was there for Tradition — Seattle Pacific University’s Christmas celebration.
Tradition is a student-led event at SPU, first held in the late 1980s. Tradition has historically been hosted by the Student Union Board, with it taking place during the first week of December. However during 2020, SPU’s academic calendar was shifted to accommodate for covid restrictions. Under the new calendar, Thanksgiving and winter break were merged into one massive break, leaving Tradition outside the academic year.
With 2024 being the first year of the event being back, Madalynn Stark, a senior majoring in environmental justice and a coordinator for the Outdoor Recreation Program, was thrilled to partner up with the Student Union Board to help hold Tradition.
“This is the first time since the pandemic we’ve had a shorter winter break,” Stark said. “We had a really wonderful turnout this year, which we were really excited about. Because all of the students that had experienced Tradition before had graduated, it was a first for everyone besides faculty.”
One such faculty member that remembers Tradition is Dr. Jeff Jordan, the vice president for student life. Jordan has been at SPU since 2004 and was also an undergraduate residence life coordinator from 1985 to 1989 when Tradition first started. According to Jordan, Tradition has taken many forms over the years since it first began.
“There used to be a group called the SPU Singers, and they would do a lot of singing, and then roast marshmallows and have cookies and hot chocolate,” Jordan said. “There were times they brought in live reindeer. They had people come in with crafts who were doing glass figurines and stuff like that.”
Jeremy Ocampo, a junior-year student at SPU majoring in computer science, was surprised by the petting zoo feature at Tradition.
“When I first came here, I was not expecting to see animals. Like, I was not expecting to see a pony or goats or bunnies here,” Ocampo said.
Old Santa Claus himself also made an appearance at the event all the way from the north pole, with his own tent for attendees to take pictures and sit on his lap.
With Christmas only a few weeks away, many people asked Santa what they wanted for Christmas and whether they were on his nice or naughty list this year.
Santa Claus, however, already knew who was going to be on his naughty and nice lists.
“I specialize in reading people. I know if they’re not naughty or nice, immediately. I know immediately. Like, he’s naughty, nice, nice, definitely naughty. I just know immediately. Real, just like emotional reader of people. Man of the people,” Santa said.
Although Mrs. Claus could not make it to the event, Santa instead brought a handy elf with him to help out and take pictures. Tammy the Tall Elf was excited to personally come out and help out her boss Santa all by herself.
“You know, my world, it’s all about building toys. Santa, gotta get them ready all-year round, and all-year round it’s my life. It’s all I do. All you do is build toys,” Tammy said. “It really is all about Christmas, and I don’t celebrate any other holidays. My one tradition is Christmas. I can only celebrate that.”
Being a Christian university, Christmas represents one of the most important holidays for SPU’s campus — the birth of Jesus Christ. Now that SPU is on the regular academic calendar, where Thanksgiving and Christmas have two separate breaks, the President of SPU, Deana L. Porterfield is grateful students can finally get to see SPU’s celebration of this important Christian holiday.
“[Christmas] is one of the holidays that we as a Christian university get to reflect the light and the love of Jesus Christ beyond our campus,” Porterfield said.
With finals finishing up for classes across campus, Tradition brought students together and allowed them to bond on their shared experiences of the Christmas season and the end of the autumn quarter.
To Sophia Barros, a freshman student majoring in business administration/international business, Tradition was a much needed event for student life.
“[Tradition is] nice for the older students, because, especially for seniors, they didn’t have that their whole college experience, and it’s a good way for them to finish their last year, and it’s good for freshmen,” Barros said. “It’s a good new start.”
