By Lily Wheadon  

  The French Club is gearing up for the holiday season with plans to do some traditional French holiday activities to help club members bond.

  Since the exchange, the club has held a meeting where all club members were able to make crepes using club advisor Deidra Boucher’s crepe maker. This was the club’s first official meeting, as the first few were all focused around planning or doing activities with the exchange students.

  These individual meetings have allowed for more club bonding to occur, which is especially valuable for the many freshmen in the club. 

  To foster more club bonding, the French club officers have been planning a party full of French club traditions and holiday food and drink.  Like most previous years, the club will do a bûche de noël decorating competition. A bûche de noël is the French word for a yule log, and the officers plan to buy multiple pre-made yule logs from a local supermarket along with frosting and candies so that each club member can decorate their own. After the decorating is done, club members vote for their favorite bûche de noël (other than their own), and the winner receives a small prize.

  Holiday meetings usually have more food related activities, including seasonal beverages. This year, the officers plan to bring eggnog and hot chocolate to the meeting in order to get the club more into the holiday spirit.

  “It’s very festive,” said club advisor Deidra Boucher. “We usually have food and drinks.”

  Another French holiday tradition that the club puts their own spin on is placing candies and other small gifts into shoes by the fireplace, similar to the American Christmas tradition of hanging stockings on the mantle. The club usually practices this tradition in a unique, modified way.

  “Last year, we made origami shoes and put them out, and then the next day Madame Boucher put candy in them, and we got candy when we got our shoes,” said secretary Mia Maddaleni. “That was really fun.”

  The return of the French exchange program has allowed for the club members to learn about more specific holiday customs, including the amount of time that the French usually spend at the table during Christmas dinner. Most French families spend about six hours just sitting around the table and eating, in contrast with the relatively short meals that most Americans share around the holidays.

  “France is relatively similar to the United States in the sense that both are considered to be Western, developed countries, but there are still common practices and traditions that we could never imagine as Americans,” said club president Athena Golovchenko. “I can hardly get my family to sit still for an hour and a half, let alone six.”

  The officers are eager to celebrate with current members and interested students alike, and they are happy to welcome any interested students, as they have more exciting things planned for the upcoming months.

  With a variety of French holiday traditions to be explored, the French club has a plethora of activities to offer at their annual holiday celebration.