The spirit of Christmas on Campus

Though the skies were dreary and rain descended on the crowds of people, it was clear nothing was going to dampen the spirits of those in attendance for the 59th annual Christmas on Campus last week. 

Out in the parking lot by Kettering Labs, yellow school buses pulled in, one right after the other, carrying hundreds of children from Dayton Public Schools waiting to be paired up with a UD student to partake in the festivities. 

I was enamored with the atmosphere of it all. This being my very first Christmas on Campus, I didn’t really know what to expect. But thankfully I had two alumni come along with me to give me a better perspective — my parents, Toni Barnett Thompson ’87 and Joe Thompson ’89. 

The trip to campus began as a discussion about how we could get into the Christmas spirit, and my mom threw out the idea about attending Christmas on Campus this year. I knew it would be a special occasion for my parents because they had not been to Christmas on Campus since the early ’90s.

As we began walking toward Humanities Plaza, we passed by Marycrest where my mom lived during her first few years at UD.

“Each floor of Marycrest would be decorated,” she said. “Then when the day arrived, the students would take whoever they [buddied with] there to show them all the decorations on each floor. The kids loved it.”

My parents looked around as we joined in with the crowd gathering around the Christmas tree. We engaged in some small talk, and my mom asked me how my classes were that day, to which I told her it was a University holiday so classes were canceled.

She was not amused.

“Wow! You guys get the whole day off?” she exclaimed. “They never did that for us!”

I asked them both about Christmas on Campus back when they were students. My dad said he came a few times.

“I met up with my friends down at their place,” he said, gesturing in the direction of the student neighborhood. “Then we’d walk over to campus to see what was going on.”

My mom had a different experience.

“I was in the pep band and the choir,” she said. “So I was always more on the entertainment side of it.”

Once the tree was lit, we walked to Kennedy Union as my mom wanted to check out the performances in Boll Theatre. As we walked, my mom gestured to where the tree lighting used to take place in front of KU and how much the courtyard had changed. 

It didn’t take long for one of us to go missing.

“Where did your dad go?” my mom asked. She looked over toward the cookie line, a safe assumption given my dad’s notorious sweet tooth.

“Oh, gosh,” she said. “He butted in line for the cookies.”

Once we got our sugar fix, we took a quick look into the theater where my parents agreed that it looked as though it hadn’t changed all that much. My mom had reminisced earlier about the Christmas shows put on by George Zimmerman, former professor in the music department.

“I don’t think they ever opened up the classrooms on campus for activities,” my mom said as we walked around. “I love that they do that now. It makes sense, it’s definitely grown a lot!”

My dad agreed. “They’ve really done a nice job of adding more buildings and classrooms for activities,” he said.

We made our way to the Science Center where I made an ornament with some of the kids.

“I’m definitely getting a picture of this,” my mom said, my assumption being it would be used later for blackmail.

As the evening wound down and we made our way back to the car, I was reminded of something I heard my dad say to one of my professors who we ran into that evening.

“It’s definitely changed a lot,” he said. “But the spirit of it has stayed the same. The personalities of the kids, the whole campus getting together — it’s awesome.”

It was clear to me that what my dad said is what this event is all about. That is the true spirit of Christmas on Campus.

Have a memory of your Christmas on Campus to share? Email magazine@udayton.edu.