“Deck the Halls have been going on for decades, we couldn’t do it last year because we didn’t feel it was safe,” said winter carnival advisor Ellyn Whitten-Smith. After not being able to deck the halls during the 2020 holiday season, student council was able to bring it back this year. 

Although the student council was able to bring back Deck the Halls this year, they have had to put a few extra rules in. Each class is only allowed 20 participants each day, not including their class advisor, and they must sign up ahead of time. Another aspect that changed was kids are not allowed to scoot around to hang out or visit other halls. 

Even though they had to limit the numbers of participants this year, Calie Ellis ‘25 said, “I feel like we have just enough people that everyone has something to do and no one is just walking around lost.” Along with Ellis, junior Josh Keiser said, “Too few is better than too many.”

When it comes to strategizing, sophomore Jack Boone said, “One of the most important things you can do is just be unique.” But Piper Galipeau who has had experience with deck the halls before said, “We’re getting the hard stuff out of the way first, and then we’ll move on to the more basic things.”

One of the big changes compared to the last deck the halls is not having the community walk through. “I was just really concerned about it,” said Whitten-Smith,”Because of all the different people that come in, our number one priority is keeping our students safe, and I just can’t ensure that with a community walk through.” 

At this moment, when the presence of COVID-19 is at its strongest in our community, students appreciated a chance for a large-scale and more “normal” Winter Carnival event. “It was pretty legendary,” said Lariah Langley ’25, “That we are part of the group that got to kind of bring back Deck the Halls.”

Updated December 14:

Official Results, from PIHS Alumni Judges:

1st) Juniors

2nd) Seniors

3rd) Sophomores

4th) Freshmen

The results from the classes voting for who they thought should come in second:

• Freshmen: Minecraft

• Sophomores: Wizard of Oz

• Juniors: Christmas in New York

• Seniors: Christmas in New York

Overall Winter Carnival rankings thus far:

1st) Juniors

2nd) Seniors

3rd) Sophomores

4th) Freshmen