Members of the Harker community enjoyed winter spirit activities from elf spaghetti to ice fishing in events organized by the Harker Spirit Leadership Team (HSLT) and Student Activities Board (SAB) throughout the week of Dec. 5.

“We always like having winter events because they’re right in the middle of break and finals, which is normally a very stressful time,” HSLT Executive Secretary Arjun Moogimane (11) said. “Our hope was just to help people de-stress, help people have a good time and give them a chance to have a hot chocolate, make a cookie or whatever it is that they enjoy doing.”

In a winter-themed window painting contest lasting from Nov. 28 to Dec. 8, each grade decorated a window of Manzanita Hall according to a festive theme to compete for spirit points. Seniors took inspiration from the movie “Frozen,” juniors from “Penguins in Madagascar,” sophomores from “Ice Age” and frosh from “Snoopy.”

On Tuesday, students and faculty members participated in Ugly Sweater Dress Up Day to win tickets to a raffle. Advisory was extended to an hour for holiday parties, during which members of class council visited each classroom to sing holiday carols and deliver holiday cookies. Advisories could also visit various stations around campus including a petting zoo, a hot cocoa bar and an area for board games.

“I’m in Mrs. Cranston’s advisory, and we watched the first bit of ‘Twilight,’ made donut snowmen and a few of us played a little bit of soccer as well,” Suhana Bhandare (9) said. “Although the extended advisory did cut into a little bit of office hours time, I think that relaxing before finals is also pretty important.”

Gallery • 4 Photos

Ella Yee

Upper school mathematics teacher Jeanette Fernandez adds icing decorations to the faculty gingerbread house during the competition on Tuesday. Faculty and students embellished their creations with pretzels, gumdrops, M&M's and more.

During lunch on Tuesday, representatives from each grade and faculty members built gingerbread houses for spirit points, decorating their creations with frosting, pretzels, gumdrops, M&M’s and more. The junior class came in first place, followed by the frosh, seniors and sophomores.

To conclude the week of celebration, HSLT and SAB hosted Winterfest on Thursday, an annual tradition they started last year. Inside Manzanita Hall, students partook in a movie night featuring “Elf,” with popcorn and hot chocolate served by HSLT members. A spaghetti bar featured traditional marinara sauce as well as toppings inspired by the movie such as Joe-Joe’s cookies, Red Vines and chocolate syrup.

“My favorite part of Winterfest was eating popcorn and watching Elf,” attendee Sidak Sanghari (10) said. “I thought it was really well organized — it united everyone in holiday spirit. I think it’s really great that HSLT is taking time to provide activities for students that relieve finals stress and college application stress that’s going on for seniors. I’m glad our school hosts spirit events that bring everyone together.”

In front of the building, HSLT members led ice fishing, where participants used magnets to capture plastic fish from a kiddie pool, and spun a wheel with prizes such as a $25 Starbucks gift card or a chance to pie seniors Nick Delfino and Zubin Khera.

“It was a huge success, and that’s down to the hard work, the dedication and the creativity of our HSLT,” Director of Student Organizations Eric Kallbrier said. “A lot of our HSLT members didn’t even get to participate in the activities, but they got their joy out of making joy for others. Overall, I’m extremely proud of our team, and very proud of our community for how many people got involved.”