BY CHLOE TELLER
On the first day of decorating, a crew rose over the trees, with 65,000 lights to fill the campus with glee.
By the eighth day of decorating, everywhere was bright, from Shields to the quad, everything was light.
Photo Credit: Chloe Teller
Welcome to the Stonehill College Christmas wonderland.
“We try to start installing the lights about two weeks before Thanksgiving. This year we started on Monday, November 14th,” said Paul Ricci, director of ground operations.
The effort takes about 10 people to install the lights, and is a job that runs over the course of 8 days.
It takes days to achieve the pristine campus look, because of the fact Stonehill Christmas lights take up a whopping 39 trees on campus, which includes 65,000 white and multicolored lights.
“All lights are LED lights, which are energy efficient,” said Ricci.
The lights were lit the night before Thanksgiving, and are taken down after the Epiphany, which is on January 6.
“The Christmas lights make campus feel happy and welcoming. They are super festive and get everyone in the Christmas spirit,” said sophomore Elise Morrow.
Although they are beautiful to admire, there are some tough challenges the lights face behind the scenes.
“The lights can be difficult during rain events because any exposed wires can shut down if they get wet and the lights go out,” Ricci said.
This year, the campus even built a small dog house to cover up the electrical power box, which you can see on the quad.
Photo Credit: Chloe Teller