Along with being a psychology teacher, Justin Morris is a trendstarter. 17 years ago, he created Eureka’s Annual Festive Holiday Sweater Day. This began as something that only his classes participated in. As the years went on, festive sweater day began gaining more traction. Other students and staff began to participate and show off their fun holiday outfits before winter break.
“I started it with my two AP Psychology classes. It was just kind of just for fun, just kind of silly, having this sweater day sort of a thing. And then the next year it spread from my AP classes to my world history classes,” Morris said. “So it was all five of my classes. And then after that the social studies department did it, then other departments and students. So it kind of spread that way.”
Students and staff are encouraged to wear festive sweaters, shirts, and pants to school. The first few years that this spirit day was gaining popularity, finding a festive sweater was much more difficult than it is now. Which caused participation to be much lower in the beginning years.
“When we first started doing the first few years, it was actually really difficult to get a festive holiday sweater because they weren’t as much of a thing,” Morris said. “So people had to go ask their grandparents, or maybe look at a Savers or a Goodwill type store. Now you can get them at Walmart. So I think it’s a lot easier to acquire a sweater or something goofy, like how they have suits and things like that.”
Luke Gentry, social studies teacher, was in Morris’ class in 2012. Gentry has participated in Festive Holiday Sweater day as both a student and a teacher.
“I think as a student, I was more competitive with it, I guess just because there’s more competition amongst the students,” Gentry said. “Whereas a teacher is just kind of like teamwork, because the history department all texts each other about what we’re gonna wear, and we try to somewhat match the theme. When I was a student, you pretty much just did it on your own.”
Students represent different holidays, wear funny costumes, sweaters, pajamas or shirts. Over the years Morris has seen a lot of unique and clever outfits worn by students and fellow staff members.
“I like any of the sweaters where a student incorporates electricity, where they have the lights on or it makes noise,” Morris said. “I had a girl one year that had an iPad screen hanging around her neck like a fireplace screen. It was kind of cool. I just like seeing the creative ideas and goofiness.”
Students at EHS take spirit days and spirit weeks very seriously. Festive sweater day is another opportunity for students to dress up for school, after homecoming spirit week is done. This type of spirit day allows for creativity
“It creates a sense of community among your school. It’s fun when everyone’s buying in and doing kind of the same thing,” Gentry said. “It’s way more fun than just kind of showing up to school, like, oh yeah, we have a week left and but it’s a really fun thing for the whole school to do before winter break”
