A photo of students at Holiday Ball from the 1993 yearbook The Brief.
By Reinah Lee ’26
The twinkling of the tree illuminates the dining hall as students pile in wearing their themed attire. The sound of chocolate pouring from the fountain and the rapid-fire clicks of a camera shutter going off are drowned out by the DJ’s tunes. This is the biggest all-school dance of the year — Holiday Ball.
The Holiday Ball, commonly referred to as “Hol Ball,” is a special-dress dance that occurs annually on the second Saturday of the winter term in the dining hall. This year, the dance took place on December 9, and the theme was “Plaid and Pearls.”
Coming a long way since 1984, the beloved event has a rich history of tradition, inclusion, and fun. The faces behind the invention of Hol Ball are former Student Activity Center Directors Mr. Jim Yanelli and Ms. Mary Pashley. Recognizing the need for a formal social open to the entire student body, they decided that the festive and upbeat holiday season would make for a most fitting time.
Students have always enjoyed preparing for the dance, displaying their enthusiasm in past issues of The Choate News. In a 2001 article titled “Holiday Ball Dresses: Running the Gauntlet” by Madeline Abrams ’04 and Laura Schaefer ’04, the search for the perfect dress took different students to multiple stores, across the internet, and even inspired them to sew their own. Two years later, Bryan Ko ’05 was pictured in a 2003 issue counting down the days until the event on a calendar.
Though the dance has always been held in the dining hall, the planning committee has experimented with a variety of different activities. For example, a Polaroid picture station was at one point popular for students to create personal keepsakes. However, some traditions have remained; ever since the first Hol Ball, a mistletoe has been hung on the taxidermy Moose head above the main entrance to the dining hall.
In recent years, Director of Student Activities Ms. Alexandra Long has been joined by Assistant Director of Student Activities Ms. Colleen Kazar and the ABM management team to continue the long-lasting tradition of the dance. While the earliest Hol Balls had themes like The Nutcracker and different colors, themes had stopped being incorporated into the dance until Ms. Long revived it in 2019.
Some of the themes Ms. Long has come up with include “Flannel and Frost” and “Sparkle and Shine.” “Comfort and Joy,” and “Warm and Cozy” were the themes for the 2o2o and 2021 Hol Balls respectively, the first of which was held on Zoom because of the pandemic and the second of which was cancelled due to a Covid-19 outbreak on campus.
While ensuring these catchy, slogan-like themes added another layer of fun and helped with the decorative process, Ms. Long also felt it necessary to keep a neutral holiday theme. “I don’t want our themes to be too Christmas-y because it’s all about holidays and wintery,” she said.
Along with this, Ms. Long made a substantial change in the form of equity and inclusion. Previously, entrance to the dance cost up to $12, depending on the time of purchase, and went directly to funding things such as decorations and food. Seeing an issue for students unable to afford the fee, Ms. Long found strategies to fit a free entrance into the budget. “I feel it’s really important that students just be able to come to events without having to worry about a fee,” she said.
One policy that has been implemented is the recycling of Hol Ball decorations every four years to reduce costs and double as an environmentally healthy option. “We can use that [previous year’s] buffalo plaid and come up with another theme,” she said.
With another Hol Ball in the books, students can anticipate the same festive spirit in the balls to come. According to Ms. Long, next year has more surprises to come!
