By Shane Mead | Reporter
Christmas on 5th Street, Baylor’s annual Christmas celebration, takes place this week on Thursday. The celebration begins at 5 p.m. and runs until about 9 p.m.
The event will feature what students and locals of Waco enjoyed in years prior, like local food vendors, activities such as crafts and carriage rides, performances from various Baylor students and the lighting of the Christmas Tree.
“It feels like the end of the semester the second that tree gets lit,” Huntington Beach, Calif., senior Anthony Kumaric said.
With Christmas on 5th Street coming just days before finals begin, it allows for one last celebration at Baylor before students return home for winter break.
This year, Chicago junior Raghav Edara, who is vice president of the Baylor Activities Council, says inclusivity is a large goal for his team.
“That is actually one of our biggest things this year, to make it as inclusive to the Baylor community as much as it is to the Waco community,” Edara said. “Regardless of if you’re a Waco family or if you’re just a Baylor friend group, you feel the same way: in the Christmas spirit.”
According to Edara, this will be done by offering activities ranging from crafts that kids can enjoy to the newest edition to Christmas on 5th — Christmas karaoke in the Bill Daniel Student Center.
As the Christmas lights shine bright and the cannons fill the air with snow, students from all walks of life, even those who are not religiously Christian or don’t celebrate Christmas, can still feel the holiday spirit, Edara said.
“At the end of the day, Christmas is about coming together and being grateful for our friends and family,” Edara said. “I think it’s genuinely just an expression of love and affection between people [through] the season of giving and holidays.”
Another way Edara and the Student Activities Council aim to bring inclusivity to the table is by hosting food vendors primarily of small, local businesses, rather than larger chains.
“We’ve been trying our level best to focus more on local business because we really want the smaller businesses of Waco to come to our events,” Edara said.
As in years prior, all of the merchandise sales from Christmas on Fifth are directly going to fund Unbound Now Waco, a nonprofit organization fighting against human trafficking, Edara said.
“It’s nice that they’re doing whatever they can,” Kumaric said. “With the huge crowd [Baylor is] getting, they might as well put it to a good cause.”
