We officially celebrated the Christmas season at Trinity Hall: the most anticipated, wonderful time of the year! Each year, Trinity Hall students look forward to the holiday season with Christmas spirit filling the halls. The two biggest holiday events at Trinity Hall, the Christmas Concert and Trinity Elves, spread joy throughout the school as students prepare for the festive break.
The Trinity Elves, organized by the Core Council, is one of the most anticipated and popular events at Trinity Hall. Trinity Elves is a tradition where each student is assigned a classmate to give three presents throughout the weeks leading up to Christmas. Each student starts by leaving a small gift with a hint about herself. During the second week, students give another small gift with a second hint to help them further identify their secret elf. During the third and final week, each grade gathers together to make their final guesses on who their elf was and exchange gifts.
Behind the joy and magic of Trinity Elves is the effort of the Core Council working to pull the event together.
Cornelia Sweeney ‘26, said, “Leading Trinity Elves is a tedious process, but it is very rewarding. Towards the end of November, I send each student in the grade a link which tells them who they have for their Trinity Elf. This takes time, but it gets me in the holiday spirit. Organizing Trinity Elves is an exciting process because I know how much fun it is for our entire grade to participate in Trinity Elves together. To get girls excited, I make announcements at class meetings, as well as send out encouraging emails. Sometimes, there are mishaps with the links or with gifts being misplaced. The most difficult part is navigating these mistakes so Trinity Elves runs smoothly. However, these mistakes don’t affect the spirit of Trinity Hall during the holiday season. My favorite part about Trinity Elves is the happiness it brings our community. Gift giving is exciting and ends us off on a good note as we head into winter break.”
The Christmas Concert and Tree Lighting is another fundamental event in the Trinity Hall community to commemorate the Christmas season. The concert, which took place on Friday, December 15 had been underway for months, with endless work from both faculty and students. Faculty transformed the Commons into a beautiful stage in which participants could perform joyously in their festive surroundings.
Performers included students from several different clubs and councils, all bringing an assortment of talents together to make the Christmas Concert a success! These performers spent time during lunch and after school to practice either their vocal or instrumental parts. Their hard work was showcased as vocalists and the orchestra put on their best performances in a holly and jolly spirit.
Kate Schweikert ‘26 spoke on why being a participant in the 2023 Christmas Concert was important to her, “Participating is important to me because I love taking part in events with and for the community. More than that, I think it is important to show the power and value of our arts program. By performing fun festive songs everyone knows, the community gets to see our hard work in a fun way. My hope for the concert is that it inspires people to support the arts at Trinity even more, like watching the musical or coffeehouse performances. When we come together and support our community, whether at a sports game or in the audience, we are demonstrating that we care about the sisters we have here. That's why the concert is so important to me.”
Behind all of the musical Christmas magic are the two directors, Mrs. Brancato and Mr. Kabash. The two worked tirelessly to ensure students were able to perform to the best of their abilities.
Faculty member Mrs. Brancato said, “The most challenging part of organizing the event is all the moving parts. We are including students from Choir, Instrumental, Glee Club, world languages classes, music classes and the Arts Council! We are so blessed to have such musically talented and supportive peers! My favorite part of organizing this event is working with our amazing students, and seeing how much they bring to the table. And it really gets me into the Christmas spirit. This is a TEAM effort. Mr. Kabash and myself, Ms. Sobieski, Mrs. Phillips, Mrs. Straine our facilities team, Mrs. Calandrino, Mrs. McAllister and the support of our administration including Mrs. Havens, Mrs. Morreale, and of course Mrs. Kiernan. This event symbolizes the joy of the season, as well as the magic our students bring to life now, and every day!”
Mr. Kabash said, “Congratulations to the performers, and the arts and technical team for presenting to our community such a magical Christmas treat to share together. I am thrilled to be a part of it. My favorite part of organizing it is having such a close up look at everyone's gifts and seeing the joy we all get in supporting one another (and the lights)!”
The Christmas season came and went, but will continue to be the most anticipated time of year within the Trinity Hall community in years to come.