On Wednesday, December 14th, the MVHS student government hosted an event called “Story with Santa.” During that time, young children enjoyed hot cocoa and coloring before walking over to Santa’s chair, where Santa read them “The Night Before Christmas” by Clement Clarke Moore.

Before the event began, the student government decorated the cafeteria with Christmas lights, paper mache snowflakes, reindeer and fake gift boxes. When families began to arrive, they sat down at the cafeterias tables and the kids began coloring pictures of candy canes, ornaments, Santa and gingerbread men and women. After a few minutes, the student government members began giving out hot chocolate and candy canes. For the next thirty minutes, the kids colored, drank hot chocolate, ate candy canes and talked to Santa about what they would like for Christmas.

 After the children had talked with Santa about what they wanted, they all went into the alcove on the north side of the cafeteria and sat down in a semicircle around him. Once the parents got pictures of the kids, Santa read to them. Once Santa finished reading, the families left with their kids’ drawings.

The invitation for this event was sent to the community two days prior to the event, which meant community attendance was low. This resulted in only four kids and 25 student government members at Story With Santa. 

Micah Gaston, a sophomore and student government member who attended “Story With Santa” said, “I feel that they should do more advertising like some posters at the schools and let people know a week or so in advance.” 

In total, the event was good, and there were good activities planned, but due to a lack of communication there wasn’t a large turnout.