By Dennis Roy
During the holidays, New Hyde Park Memorial High School has many traditions in which students and staff participate, one of which includes the annual door decorating contest. Each department or teacher decorated either their department or classroom door in any way that they desired. This contest added excitement to NHP around the holidays, bringing out the creativity and the competitive nature of many staffers and students.
“The competitive nature highlights all the festivities we value. The many styles highlight each departments’ individuality in embracing the holiday spirit,” junior Brandon Dampman said.
Many students were excited to see what this year's door decorating contest had in store. Last year, the teachers in each department worked collaboratively. However, this year varied from past years' competitions as teachers had a choice of whether to decorate individually or collaboratively with their department. The doors will be voted on by students and staff via a Google Form on The Chariot website. Some have expressed that the process feels more inclusive and school spirited as opposed to years prior.
“Competition in the school is good because the teachers push each other to do better door decorations and make the school look magical,” senior Joey Hoffer said.
Amidst the students’ anticipation, the teachers showed enthusiasm over their ideas and creativity. Some teachers expressed their desire to show the whole school their holiday spirit.
“I like the autonomy; teachers can do their own thing. Working on the door gives us a break from doing regular lab work, and everybody's working together and everybody’s in a good mood and contributing ideas,” Ms. Gelber said.
In some cases, students helped teachers during the day to complete the idea or design of their door. Throughout the day, students worked with their teachers to finalize the door decorations, which was due on December 20 by the end of the school day.
Source by Areej Zaidi
Mr. Correale and Ms. Dhalla work to complete the decoration of the Special Education Department door.
“I guess at least for me, it’s funnier to do this and you get to work with other students so that’s a really great way to get to know people, and who doesn’t love Christmas? I did not get to do it last year. I wanted to outdo everyone. It’s fun and it gives me something to look forward to,” junior Kaitlyn Pergola said.
Holiday spirit and friendly competition are seen throughout NHP during this time of the year. This is a time where students and staff are looking forward to the upcoming winter break and NHP’s door decorating contest is seen as a nice transition into the new year.
“Helping Ms. Gelber decorate the door was a good transition into the Christmas break because working with other friends on the door and decorating the Christmas tree made the holiday season feel much closer and it made the class more festive and happy,” junior Alexandra Stec said.