At 5 p.m. tonight there will be four groups dancing, three religions honored, two choirs singing and a reading from Santa.
Attendees will have a chance to take a break from end-of-semester stress and enter a winter wonderland filled with holiday traditions at the annual Candlelight Celebration.
This year’s celebration will feature the University Gospel Choir, Tiger Girls, cheerleaders, Baton Rouge Ballet Theatre, Ballroom Dancing Club, Schola Cantorum, Mike the Tiger and Santa Claus.
Volunteer LSU will also be collecting coats to support WBRZ weathercaster Pat Shingleton’s Coats for Kids drive.
The event, which honors traditions from Kwanzaa, Hanukkah and Christmas, will be held in the Shaver Theatre in the Music and Dramatic Arts Building.
The event will be similar to that of past years, Michelle Spielman, marketing strategist for Communications and University Relations and
Candlelight Celebration coordinator, said as she fixed bright red and gold fabric to a large wooden bin for the coat drive using a hammer and nails.
Spielman said the performances will run for about 40 minutes, and the Christmas tree lighting afterward at Memorial Tower will take about 20 minutes. The event will feature Santa reading “A Cajun Night Before Christmas,” a scene from “The Nutcracker” by Baton Rouge Ballet Theatre, and cookies, coffee and hot chocolate donated by LSU Dining.
“It’s unlike any other Christmas celebration that people experience because it’s a special LSU celebration that you won’t get anywhere else,” Spielman said.
Emaan Abdelbaki, director of marketing for Communications and University Relations, said the event’s sponsors will present a $5,000 check to the general scholarship fund at the event.
As he stood inside the basket of a lift hanging purple ornaments and draping purple fabric from the top of the large tree in front of Memorial Tower, Abdelbaki said the Coca-Cola Santa truck will be on hand tonight, and Chancellor Michael Martin will address attendees at the tree lighting and the University Ambassadors will lead the crowd in singing the alma mater once the tree is lit.
Allison Harrison, music education senior and former president of Hillel at LSU, said the organization for Jewish students will explain and perform holiday traditions of Hanukkah, including lighting a Menorah, during the celebration.
“[The Candlelight Celebration] gets everybody in the holiday spirit, no matter what religion you are,” Harrison said.
This year marks Harrison’s fourth year of involvement with the Candlelight Celebration. She said the event reminds students that the holidays are about more than Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
“It gets you ready for the actual spirit of the holiday and not just presents,” she said.
Alvaro Pereiro, music junior and violinist in the Cantabile String Quartet, said his ensemble will perform “Santa’s Symphony,” a medley of Christmas carols and classical numbers.
Pereiro, who has never attended or participated in the event, said he was invited to join the quartet of graduate students when a friend was unable to play. All four musicians are Spanish speakers and come from South and Central American countries.
“This is my way of giving back to [the University],” Pereiro said.
LSU Staff Senate’s “Holiday on Campus,” open to University students, faculty, staff and their children, will follow the Candlelight Celebration from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the University Recreation Center.
 
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Contact Catherine Parsiola at [email protected]