With the holiday season coming in full swing, Campus Life and Event Services brought some holiday spirit to campus with their first ever Dec the U.C. event on Wednesday, Nov. 28.

Students and other passersby at the University Center had a chance to partake in a variety of holiday-themed events, including decorating Christmas trees, making crafts and listening to holiday music.

Student worker for Campus Life and Event Services Insley Smith said she enjoyed planning and working the event, and it really helped her get into the holiday spirit.

“It was really exciting to get in the Christmas spirit and getting the students excited to be in the Christmas spirit and have a de-stressful event right before finals. It’s been exciting for me too because I got to de-stress myself a little bit,” Smith said.

To add a twist, the event also featured some volunteers from the Missouri Department of Conservation explaining to students the gentle nature of snakes. In the wintertime, snakes may appear around or even in homes to try to get warm. The volunteers’ goal was to show students that snakes are not as harmful as they are made out to be, volunteer Tori Lockwood said.

To demonstrate, the volunteers brought in various types of snakes for students to pet, interact with and learn about.

Dec the U.C. also featured some holiday-themed treats. While sipping on hot chocolate or apple cider, students had the opportunity to create their own gingerbread houses. There were also tables set up with treats for purchase.

Campus Life and Event Services director Michele Irby said she would definitely consider the event a total success.

“We have done versions of this before, but not this. In the past we have done gingerbread decorating competitions, some years we’ve had the steel drum band come play,.” Irby said. “We try to think of students that didn’t get a chance to decorate because they didn’t have a chance to over Thanksgiving or will not be home early enough for Christmas, so we figured we would offer it to students.”