SMU students pose for a picture in front of the Christmas tree Sunday night after the Celebration of Lights ceremony held on the steps of Dallas Hall. (John Schreiber)

As more than 138,000 lights in the main quad switched on, flooding the area with incandescence, hundreds of students, alumni, faculty, staff and friends of the school applauded. For SMU, the 2007 holiday season has officially started.

This year’s Celebration of Lights, which took place on Dec. 2, was the 30th in the school’s history. The festivities were steeped in tradition and all were welcome to celebrate. With Christmas music playing before the beginning of festivities, the area was slowly flooded with hundreds of attendees, each with a candle in hand as the school welcomed the season of light. The program featured live caroling and musical performances, featuring the gospel choir, Voices of Inspiration, the Christmas Quartet, and soloists Lauren Debussy, Marie Gailey, and Elias Hendricks. The friendly, candle-lit atmosphere impressed many, including lecturer J. Michael Cruz, who described the setting as one of “social solidarity, one of camaraderie- certainly the ‘spirit’ of Christmas.”

“As soon as the music started, the atmosphere was amped up. A general feeling of Christmas closing in went round the students… the carols were great and everybody singing along made the experience worthwhile,” freshman Jake Fields said.

The audience was led in the singing of Christmas carols in between speeches by Student Foundation President Abigail Hoak, Student Foundation Campus Events Chair Shelby Reeves, University Chaplain Dr. William Finnin, who delivered the invocation and SMU President R. Gerald Turner read the Christmas story from the Gospel of Luke in the New Testament, fulfilling the traditional role of the university president at the celebration. The Student Foundation has put on the Celebration of Lights every year.

For many it was their first year attending the event. Fields described it as “excellent,” adding that he “was expecting an overly long ceremony but it was just right. Dallas Hall looked amazing!”

Electric luminarias were put in place this year to light the path to the steps of Dallas Hall without posing a fire danger.

“I don’t see any reason why I wouldn’t go back. For the most part I enjoyed myself. Sure, I’ll go back next year,” sophomore Cameron Wilkinson said.

The Student Foundation also works with the Caesar Chavez Learning Center to support 65 young children from the Dallas Independent School District, providing the children with a night of celebration and song, as well as a present in a reception after the celebration. For the rest of the students attending, there is usually hot chocolate and cookies provided in a reception after the celebration.

This year, however, that reception did not live up its reputation. The confusion started when the reception was announced in the program as being in the Hughes-Trigg Ballroom and announced onstage as being in the Varsity. Students migrated to Hughes-Trigg only to find confusion and a packed crowd of over 150 students waiting for hot chocolate and cookies. After the news began to spread that four boxes of cookies had been ordered, or roughly four dozen cookies, many decided to leave.

“After the celebration ended, I went to get some hot chocolate and cookies, only to find a huge line,” Fields said. “I expected as much but when I found out that the ballroom was being used for other purposes with less people despite it being the largest area, I was angry. The Varsity is a lot smaller, and the amount of people meant that it took a long time to get to the refreshments. After standing in line for 15 minutes, there were no drinks or food left! …More drinks and food were needed and the ballroom or another big area should be used in the future.”

Junior Samantha Colletti described the reception in Hughes-Trigg as her least favorite part of the night. “I was disappointed that the hot chocolate and cookies ran out. I also missed having the afterparty in the HT Ballroom. The Varsity was too small for the crowd. I really missed the backdrop where you and your friends could get your picture taken too.”

Despite the frustrations of the evening, the future of the event looks bright.

“Of course I will come back. It was great to see friends and other students coming together to celebrate the coming of the Christmas season,” Fields said.