To senior Liana Santos, there are only two things that keep her happy in December: holiday spirit and Jesus. She expresses her holiday pride and quirkiness through her light up holiday sweater, which features a reindeer head on the front and a hidden switch to light up its nose. The sweater’s length makes it perfect for Santos to hide the switch and surprise people with the mini light display.
“The sweater’s actually supposed to be for dudes, I found it from Forever 21 Men, but whatever,” Santos said. “I wear stuff like this because I love Christmas. It’s my favorite holiday. I like the expression people get when they see my sweater lights up. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with expressing holiday spirit, and it is the only thing that makes me happy this month; Besides Jesus. I love Jesus.”
Sophomore Shakthi Elangovan wears an ugly christmas sweater to show his excitement for the holidays because he believes it’s one of the easiest things to do to express holiday cheer. His sweater is predominately pine green and features thick white horizontal patterns with smaller red patterns encaged within. For Elangovan, Christmas and the holidays are synonymous with relaxation, family and joy, so when Elangovan wears his Christmas sweater, he is reminded of these values.
“I definitely get more into the holiday spirit when I dress up because the holidays are supposed to be relaxing and more happy time of the year and when I dress up it reminds me of those values,” Elangovan said. “I feel like it’s also spreading the holiday spirit when people see me and that the holidays are overall just about stuff like gift giving and just making people feel better.”
Assistant Principal Michael Martinez’s eccentric and fun loving personality are reflected through his amazing christmas sweater. It features a graphic of Santa Claus riding on a unicorn.
“I’ve heard anywhere from ‘that is the most awesome thing that I’ve ever seen’ to ‘Wow, that is the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen.’” Martinez said. “I got a lot of comments that I need to put lights on it next year so it lit up a bit more so I have some work to do on my sweater. I hope in the context of school, my sweater gives people joy, a chance to laugh. For me it’s just a way to open up conversations and connect with other people. My goal that day was just to make everybody smile, I’m kind of a goofy guy.”
Head of construction Chris Kenny feels particularly passionate about giving during the holiday seasons. His San Francisco 49ers themed ugly christmas sweater gifted to him by his wife reflects this passion. There are panels of snowflakes and other panels of 49er emblems in Mr. Kenny’s sweater.. The colors of his sweater are red and white, conveniently fitting both 49er and christmas themes.
“It is a 49ers Christmas sweater, but it’s considered what do they call it? ‘An ugly sweater’?” Kenny Said “I like feeling the Christmas spirit, I think it’s a great spirit. I buy my wife Christmas sweaters and she wears them a lot. I think it’s puts people in more of a festive mood and reminds you what this season is. [It] reminds everybody it’s the giving season right now. This type of season I just think people give more than they usually do so it’s good to remind people and encourage this spirit.”
