Freshman men and women gathered Nov. 29 during visitation for a Christmas party in the Third North hallway of Mabee Hall.

“The party was called ‘Ridiculously Christmas’ and was put on by some students,” said Trenton Carothers, RA in Mabee and senior mathematics and finance major from Early.

Matt Ruiz, freshman speech pathology major from Brownwood said the party was “a blast” and that about 135 students, both men and women, gathered in the hallway to dance, eat cookies and socialize.

Two freshmen, Heath Beasley, freshman finance major from McKinney, and Hayden Free, freshman marketing major from Midland, who both live in Third North organized the party, Ruiz said. Other students who were involved in the planning were Coleman Stapp, freshman finance major from Decatur, and Cord Dunham, Freshman psychology  major from Keenesburg, Colo.

“I thought it was going to be small, and it turned out to be huge,” Ruiz said. The party was highly publicized over Twitter, and Ruiz said that the hashtag #RidiculouslyChristmas was trending because so many people were talking about the party that began around 9:30 p.m.

“Really, it was wild, for a non-alcoholic, non-drug college party, it was crazy,” Ruiz said. “All we did was walk through the hallways, everybody was dancing, drinking Kool-Aid and eating cookies.” But, dancing and cookies were only part of the celebration.

Ruiz said he ran into a group of men who were headed to Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club to buy supplies for the party and he decided to join. The men pooled their money together and Ruiz estimated that about $400 was spent to fund the decorations, food, and drinks for the party – $84 spent on Kool-Aid Jammers alone.

The hallways were decorated with Christmas lights and there was a formal lighting of the Christmas tree in one of the student’s rooms.

“My favorite part was the Christmas tree because everyone brought their own unique ornament to decorate the tree,” Ruiz said.