Being a Santa Clause in Highland Park

In 2015, I started a club that will raise money to provide underprivileged families a Christmas because I love Christmas so much and pretty much want everyone to have non-stop holiday joy. What I am learning is that starting a club is bittersweet. Like my mother tells me “with great power comes great responsibility” which I knew, but I had no idea how much responsibility would come with my club. To explain this better, let’s go back a little bit.

Last year during lunch, my friends and I were sitting down talking about all the different clubs the school offered. As freshman we were overwhelmed by the diversity of the clubs and how many awesome ideas people had. We started brainstorming ideas for clubs that were not created already and half jokingly I said “we should start a club for Christmas!” We all laughed at first then thought… wow that’s actually a great idea. For the next semester and a half we spent our lunches brainstorming ideas for this potential club. We were exuberant to find out that it was approved, but I as president, had no clue what was coming my way.

I picked my four best friends to lead this club with me. While it’s been fun, I’m not sure I would recommend it. The good thing about it is that we all get along very well and have a ton of fun, but it has not been very productive. “Planning meetings” have turned into sleepovers and breakfasts that involve two hours of chitchat and 30 minutes of somewhat productive work.

“The meetings are crazy. The five of us (leaders) have so much fun which is great, but we get off topic a lot, and it’s hard to be productive,” sophomore Julia Peters said.

Another thing I had no idea about was how much planning it would entail. I knew I would have to plan in advance, stay on top of it, all that fun stuff, but I did not know how important it would be. I feel like no matter how many meetings and to-do lists I have, I will never get everything done. Trying to organize fundraisers means contacting the assistant principal, then my sponsor, then telling my co- leaders and the club, then giving everyone job assignments, then contacting the charities, then figuring how we are going to fund it, then advertising it and spending time getting supplies needed… it just goes on. See, this is where the “not picking your best friends to lead the club with you” really comes into play. The ones who are responsible enough can take over certain aspects of the planning and organizing, but your best friend that can barely remember to bring her homework to school is not going to be able to help you here.

All I have talked about so far are the negatives, so let’s talk about some of the great parts of starting a club. One, I am getting to have a lot of control over what happens. I am the one who gets to make the decisions, design the $20 t-shirts, plan events around my time and so on. It has been really neat also seeing so many people that love my idea so much that they devote their time to it. It definitely makes up for some of the other stresses involved. Another thing is that it’s been very fun. While a little hectic, being around my friends a lot and meeting different people has been really great for me and the other club leaders.

“ As a sophomore not involved in a school sport, starting The Christmas Club has really helped me connect to younger and older students in the school,” sophomore Katherine McKinney said.

While the main part of our service projects will be done in November and December, so far the success of the club has made up for all the craziness. On club fair day, we had over 200 people sign up and almost 60 people actively participating in our club. We raised over $300 from t-shirt sales that will go to our fundraising, which was a really great start.

I know that once we start moving forward with the activities planned, the work will have been worth it, but it has been hard waiting for it to come. Knowing how much some people lack and all that I have makes me feel guilty for complaining. Despite all the stress, this work will pay off because we will be able to provide people a happy holiday with their families.