Christmas Greetings from the Princess Helena Boarding House
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A fortnight of festive fun got off to a splendid start with the annual boarders’ Sunday afternoon challenge to decorate a particularly impressive school Christmas tree this year. An afternoon of hard work from all the helpers who gathered in the drawing room was rewarded with many compliments on the “tastefully-done” tree the next morning – no mean feat since there were the usual annual hiccups in the proceedings of: broken lights; missing decorations; getting covered in glitter and glue making new decorations; emergency dashes to buy more lights; then finding the original decorations!!!! But all part of the festive fun!!
The weekly bake-offs continued with all year groups competing in a luxurious lemon cake challenge and a festive ‘gingerbread house’ cookie-off, which was definitely the showstopper challenge of the term! The artists in the house pulled out all the stops to make some deliciously creative cookies with plenty of added bling, and their original designs definitely impressed the many judges in the house!!
The next focus was Secret Santa and an expedition to Hitchin and its traditional Christmas market for inspiration - a new experience for some of our boarders from overseas. The avid shoppers returned laden with festive goodies, and the trip itself prompted much interest in festivities and celebrations across the world, and an evening of swapping tales of festive food, traditions and celebrations from Russia, Hong Kong, Spain and France… to name but a few!!
The next event in a busy schedule of festivities was a surprise boarding house Christmas party…the P.A. Hall was transformed into a winter wonderland…complete with fairy lights, glow sticks, bouncy castles and a disco theme. The fun continued throughout the week with a game of boarders’ hide and seek (a favourite for all year groups) and its accompanying laughter, screams and thudding feet filled the school as the teams vied to find the best hiding places…one team managing 30 minutes before being found (although I believe they had some help from a certain member of the boarding team!!!).
Finally, we all took a break from frantic last-minute packing to say our farewells for the holidays with a hilarious game of Christmas pass the parcel (Mrs Penberthy’s special forfeits/challenges edition!!) by the drawing room fire on Thursday evening; a super way to reflect on the term, its highlights, and the memories created together… and looking forward to making many more in 2021!! In the meantime we would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas from us all at P.H.C.B.!!
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