Trees peek from between the blinds on corner windows, bright lights twinkle in the darkness and as the holiday season dawns upon Athens, the Tate Student Center continues a tradition of their own — making sure every winter holiday is represented in the decorations on campus.

Tate contacted multiple religious organizations in order to plan its holiday decorations. JESSICA BANES/Staff

In addition to the, “holiday tree” in the center of Tate’s atrium, the center has partnered with several student religious and cultural organizations to make banners representing different fall and winter holidays for hanging in the atrium.

Holidays posted this year include traditional winter holidays such as Hannukah, Kwanzaa and Boxing Day, as well as Diwali, the Chinese New Year, Noah’s Bread Pudding and several Buddhist and Muslim holidays that were celebrated in the past year.

Jan Davis Barham, director of Tate, said she and her administration sent out an “all call” email to religious and cultural groups on campus, asking them to contribute banners. They then passed out a template for organizations to design, printed the banners for free funded by their programming free and posted them in the atrium.

“I just think we have such a diverse representation of students at the University and it’s important to be able to acknowledge and let everyone celebrate in their way, in whatever way that is,” she said. “And we represent that and that’s why we put out the open call.”

The tradition of student banners began last year, when campus religious group called for a more diverse way of decorating and Tate answered.

“Last year it was a new experience, we looked at the University’s data on religiously affiliated students. We looked at what groups and how students affiliated and we made sure there was representation of each of the largest percentages of student affiliations,” Barham said. “It’s important that we allow students to celebrate in a way that’s important to them and not just shut it down for everybody.”

To put up Tate’s holiday decorations, a group of eight volunteers took the Monday during Thanksgiving break to put up the tree, hang banners and place menorahs and other decorative items on the service desks. So far, Barnham said they received positive student reactions.

“I think it’s great they’re trying to include everyone,” said junior Umarah Ali, president of the Muslim Student Association. “Campus is so diverse anyway, so I think it’s really important to show that diversity off and I think holiday decorations are a great way to do that. It’s a good endeavor.”

Tate has received no complaints so far about the holiday tree or other decorations. Ali said she feels that people should be tolerant of all celebrations during the holiday season.

“I don’t understand why people get offended. Everyone’s celebrating their own thing, it just happens to be that America is mostly Christian and so obviously Christmas is going to be a big deal,” she said. “If you go to India or Pakistan, Ramadan is a big deal. It’s just a matter of location.”

Barham said she encourages anyone who feels like their holiday is not represented in Tate to contact her personally, so the center can make and print a banner to put up for students to look at during the holiday season.

She also said she hopes the decorations add some festive cheer for visitors during the Tate’s Center’s extended finals hours and during the day between classes.

“One of the things I think is so awesome, on the first day they’ve been up since everyone’s been back, there’s a good number of people sitting out there in the atrium around the tree and listening to the music and looking at the banners,” Barnham said. “I just think it’s pretty neat to see students engaging with the space as a result of having these decorations up.”

Anyone interested in placing another holiday banner can contact Tate through their website, Facebook page or front desk.