Yule Ball wraps up holiday week

As a final hurrah for Utah State University’s Holiday Week, USUSA Student Involvement and Leadership planned the second annual Yule Ball. Last year was the first time the ball was held in the TSC, but the event has quickly become an Aggie holiday tradition.  

Ashlynn Smith, traditions director for USUSA, was responsible for planning Holiday Week.   

“When I took the position, I knew I wanted to recreate it, redo it and just make it a new tradition for our school because everyone, you know, there’s so many opportunities to dress up all formal,” Smith said.  

The event is a reference to the Yule Ball that’s thrown in “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.” In the movie, a ball is thrown during the winter season for the students’ enjoyment. 

USUSA added new features to this year’s ball. One of these additions was a 360-degree photo booth.    

“We also decided to do mocktails this year,” Smith said. “It’s just so fun coming up with different drink combinations and then naming them. We named them holiday themed with cute little holiday names.”  

 USUSA works on many campus event weeks, such as Homecoming Week. These eventful weeks are full of USU traditions, but Holiday Week is a special case. 

“We have a ton of awesome things that we do every year,” Smith said. “I would say Holiday Week is the one where we have the most creative freedom.”  

On Dec. 1, the International Lounge in the TSC was full of dressed-up students coming to dance and socialize.  

Dylan Huberty is a sophomore majoring in cloud computing who attended the dance.  

“Dancing was a lot of fun,” Huberty said. “Spending time with Sierra and I guess seeing everybody else with their friends.”  

Sierra Cutter is a sophomore majoring in graphic design who attended the event with Dylan. 

“One way to bring people together and a last hurrah before finals weekend — holidays and everything,” Cutter said. “It’s just a really fun event to blow some stress off.” 

Carter Ottley, USUSA public relations director, promotes USU events.        

“I was talking to some people about a formal dance now compared to before COVID,” Ottley said. “They were saying that it’s super popular now, but it wasn’t as popular before.”  

Students had a lot of questions for Ottley, who was happy to answer.   

“I feel like we definitely received a lot more questions about this event than we do with other ones,” Ottley said. “That means that students were excited and wanted more details so they could make sure they’re dressing the part or they know whether or not they need tickets.”  

Part of the reason USUSA decided to host the event now is because it was the only time before finals and the holiday break. The timing allows for the event to provide stress relief.  

“I remember my freshman year, coming back from Thanksgiving was the worst,” Smith said. “It’s crunch time, you want to be home, you want to celebrate the holidays.” 

The three weeks between Thanksgiving break and Christmas break have been described as difficult by many students on social media. USUSA provides events for students to look forward to during a stressful week.   

“Just to kind of get people excited to come back from Thanksgiving break,” Smith said. “Even though these three weeks are super hard.”