Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle all the way, Christmas time has come and gone, and so has Santa’s sleigh.

For most students, the end of the year means going home and spending time with your family, but for those who live on-campus between semesters, what is there to do?

The Vickery House student accommodation, the sprawling block of units located near the Hayman Road bus station, hosted its very first Christmas Party for all on-campus residents to take part in festive season cheer.

The Christmas party, held (suprisingly) on Christmas at 7pm, was organised by Andre Ang, a second-year sports science student recently appointed as senior residential advisor for Vickery House. I sat down with Andre to discuss what it was like to run the event and what challenges he faced while planning and budgeting.

What events do you most enjoy planning?

Every accommodation on campus has different types of activities that the residents become part of. Residents in Vickery House accommodation like food events, hiking, or events that include outdoor activities. I organise quiz nights with food for the people to enjoy.

What significance does Christmas have in your life?

I am actually a Buddhist and don’t celebrate Christmas. I planned this event because my team and manager wanted to plan a communal event due to the unavailability of the other residential advisors (RA). Since there were very few RA’s left in the accommodation to plan events, my manager wanted me to plan a Christmas party as the festive season was around.

What did you like the most while planning the Christmas party?

It was really easy as we did a Christmas quiz at the start of the party. I used the previous activities I had already organised to communicate with the people and make it fun.

What are some ways/ tools that you used to organise the Christmas party?

Some of the tools that I used were from previous events. For example, I had a Candy Cane Treasure Event where I had to buy candy canes, but since there were a lot, I also got to use those in the Christmas event. So, it becomes easy to organise parties like Christmas as we get to use the materials from the earlier events. It is not complicated and planned beforehand by just using the previous event suggestions.

What stressed you while planning the Christmas party?

I was actually worried as this was my first communal event. I haven’t done any communal events before. So, it was my first time cooking for so many people, and I was unsure how much to buy. We generally don’t host communal events in Vickery House. I think this year, it was just the Diwali and Christmas parties. We generally don’t do communal events in Vickery House as it’s so stressful. But what helped me stress less was planning the ingredients and how many people were signed up. As the only duty RA that day, I was scared to handle such a big crowd.

How did you successfully manage the Christmas budget?

For the budget-wise, I didn’t really mind. The budget for communal events is quite big. So, basically, if you want to do a communal event, the manager will send a pre-budgeted sheet according to the sign-ups for the event.

What are the challenges that you faced both before and post-planning this event?

The challenge that I faced before this event was planning the activities, as I wanted them to be fun. I wanted to find activities that are more Christmas-related and engaging. I was fine while managing the event; it was just too long and tiring.

What is your definition of a successful Christmas party?

I think what defines a successful party is that the residents enjoyed themselves and pushed me to host a communal event like the Christmas party again.