Dressed as reindeer, seven rally commissioners crowded around a small table at the end of the Large gym. Scrambling to eat as many hot dogs as possible in 2 minutes, eight students struggled to eat as hundreds of students furiously cheered for their class representatives.

With the holiday season in full swing and the semester coming to an end, the rally commission worked hard to improve their annual holiday rally with new ideas and approaches. One achievement rally commissioners were especially proud of was their grand opening in which rally commissioner Allison Borch, dressed as Santa, was pushed around in a sleigh on the gym floor by the other commissions.

“We decided to go holiday themed for this rally so we made Santa's sleigh," rally commissioner sophomore Risa Carter said. “We threw out some candy canes while Allison was on the sleigh, which helped get people excited.”

The rally continued with many fun games that helped spread the holiday cheer. The commission tried to incorporate some new ideas such as a teachers versus students four-on-four basketball game and the hot dog eating contest.

“We didn’t want to do the activities that we have done multiple times at other rallies,” Carter said. “So we decided on those games to make it more fun and interesting.”

In addition to the new games, they also attempted to include a glow-in-the-dark aspect, which was not as successful.

“The glow-in-the-dark element was tough because we struggled to put glow sticks on as the bands were too small,” Carter said.

After experimenting with the point system at the last rally, the commission made a few changes. Among other things, there were new advisers working the point system and the rule where students had to stay behind a certain line was eliminated.

This holiday rally also introduced the new boys’ dance team. With little time to prepare beforehand, the 14 boys collaborated with the girls’ dance team to create a performance that surpassed their own expectations. The team danced to “dopant beasts,” a Christmas trap song, alongside the girls.

“All we had was a quick one-hour rehearsal on the night before the rally,” dance team captain Nicholas Di said. “But most people on the team had performed in front of the school during Homecoming week so it wasn’t too difficult.”

Di said working with the girls dance team was fun and interesting. But he believes that in the future, the team can do even better by working harder and choreographing their own dances to perform.

“This was a decent debut, but I expect the team to put in more work when preparing in the future and produce even better performances,” Di said.