By Adrien Quiros’25
On December 17th, 2024, the annual Holiday Dinner at The Frederick Gunn School took place, where students sat with their peers, and enjoyed a great meal in the Holiday Spirit. Later that night were the Secret Snowflake gift exchange and Holiday Concert leaving students feeling jolly as they prepared to leave for Winter break.
Secret Snowflake is a cherished tradition at The Frederick Gunn School, and it’s a great way for students to connect with their peers, have fun, and get a gift! The prefects set up the exchange, assigning a “secret snowflake” to each student. where a gift exchange took place, and each student bought a gift at around $20 for their assigned peer. After the Christmas concert finished, each student went to their assigned person and gave them their festive gift and some of the students went all out and bought extremely pricey and generous gifts, while others bought a simpler gift like a Po Gift Card. The fun and exciting part about this whole activity was trying to find out what your snowflake’s interests are, so not just buying a random gift, but giving a gift that would fit the other person. Secret Snowflake or most known as Secret Santa, has been a tradition since 1971, when philanthropist Larry Dean Stewart, after coming from humble beginnings, became a millionaire and then the first Secret Santa during Christmas Time, he would give 100$ bills all around the streets of the United States. After Larry, it has been a tradition at schools and families all around the world.
In between the Holiday Dinner and the Secret Snowflake, all students went down to TPACC and watched their classmates perform Holiday Overture. The Concert was performed by Gunn students and adjunct musicians, and was conducted by Mr. Castonguay. Classic songs like “White Christmas”, “Christmas Time Is Here”, and “The 12 Days of Christmas” were performed by the Vocal Ensemble, Jazz Band, and Chamber Orchestra.
Sofie Panzer ‘25, one of this year’s prefects, stated that all of the snowflakes were picked randomly and that “it’s really cool for kids who get assigned someone they don’t know” because it gives them an opportunity to get to know someone new. Sofie also revealed that the craziest Secret Snowflake gift she has given was hanging 100 pictures of her Secret Snowflake in his room! This year’s Secret Snowflake and Holiday Concert were really fun for the whole school and brought a great Christmas atmosphere to The Frederick Gunn School!”
