Oh what fun it is to live in a world with free Columbia swag!

The weather might still insist we’re stuck in that awkward, mid-fall phase (fifty degrees in December? what is happening?) but Columbia’s student government is going to push us straight into the colder season anyway. CCSC, SGA, GSSC, ESC and the Blue Key Society are pushing us not on ice skates or sleds, but on the wheels of tradition: the annual Tree Lighting and Yule Log ceremonies are tonight, at 6pm and 7pm, respectively.

As per usual, starting at 5:30 tonight, you’ll be able to get both free hot chocolate and free Columbia swag down on college walk. (But you might want to get there early, for prime beverage-drinking and swag-receiving opportunities.) Then, at 6, there will be performances from a capella groups and competition winners, speeches from the student council presidents, and the countdown to the tree lighting itself. Yes, this is only one tree lighting of many across the country, but Columbia has so few trees, comparatively. Don’t we owe it to our limited exposure to nature to celebrate what few trees we do have? So, go out there. Do it for the trees. Or if you don’t do it for the trees, do it for the free stuff.

Afterward the tree lighting, the festive celebrations will migrate to John Jay for the Yule Log Ceremony, a Columbia tradition that dates back to pre-Revolution King’s College. Yes, Alexander Hamilton might have watched that very same log burn back in the 1770’s. Well, not that very same log, but – a log. In the same building. At least on the same campus. We think it’s exciting, anyway.

Poster design by Sasha Brenman, BC ’16