Holiday spirit may be the key to taking home the gold at the Outrageously Odd Holiday Olympics, hosted by the Homegrown Planning team of the University Activities Organization.
The event is holiday-themed with seven activities, five of which are a competition for the olympics.
The competitive events include a race to decorate a tree the fastest, name that holiday song, a paper snowflake competition, holiday trivia and a cookie decorating competition. The winner of these events will receive prizes sponsored by Apple and the University Bookstore, which will be equivalent to gold, silver and bronze medals.
Organizations and offices around campus were also encouraged to turn a three foot decorated tree into the UAO office to be displayed at the Odd Olympics. At the end of the event, participants will judge the trees and name a winner. The winner will receive a “cookie party” from the Cookie Jar.
The Office of Campus Activities, Recreational Sports and the Technology office have already turned in their trees, Homegrown Events Director Catherine Lewis said. She also said UAO will not be decorating a tree because both of their trees are out on loan.
Although students will be competing for prizes, the purpose of this event is to bring the holiday spirit out while finals stresses are high.
“Everyone is stressed out from school, this gives them an opportunity to get away from it,” Lewis said. “We want students to have fun, they don’t have to compete.”
“This provides a nice break for students to relax and prepare for the holidays,” Homegrown Programming team member Brandy Rosebrock said.
Freshman Jessica Gallagher said she is ready for a break, and holiday activities are the best way to do so.
“I normally do holiday activities with family, so it will be fun to do with others,” she said. Her favorite activity is cookie decorating.
The idea to infuse students with holiday spirit came from the Homegrown Programming team of UAO, which is one many teams in UAO.
“We want to think of ideas that are unique and can be built from the ground up,” Rosebrock said.
The Outrageously Odd Holiday Olympics was inspired by an olympic event hosted by Michigan State University. Lewis said she wanted to take that idea and put a holiday spin on it.
The event will be today from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Union tables.
“I hope everyone can come,” Rosebrock said.
