The \u201cTen with Ken\u201d Holiday Special continues with part 2: Season\u2019s Eatings!\xa0
Every year, baked goods and particularly gingerbread are prominent in higher ed holiday greeting videos. Often, we see students baking together, such as in a best-in-class vid from Wellesley College last year. \xa0More often than not, the bakers are joined by the school mascot, like Azul the Eagle at Florida Gulf Coast University. At Laurentian University, interim president Pierre Zundel made the rounds, spreading holiday cheer and deliciously empty calories around the campus library. At Cape Breton University, the cookies were a family recipe of mascot \u201cthe Caper\u201d. At James Madison University, in Harrisburg Virginia, Duke the Dog likes to bake solo \u2013 but as a result, the cookies were shaped like dog treats!
Decorating gingerbread cookies is an event in and of itself. At William Paterson University, in New Jersey, president Helldobler hosted a cookie decorating party at his home. Stanford University included a life-sized gingerbread house in their holiday video \u2013 with decorations that looked good enough to eat! At Utah\u2019s Dixie State University, president Biff Williams and his family get into a food fight while baking holiday cookies.
Gingerbread often sparks some friendly competition. At Boston University, students from Engineering and Fine Arts were pitted against each other to build the perfect gingerbread house, in an amusing best-in-class video. At the University of the Fraser Valley, culinary arts, indigenous visual art, and engineering push technology even further, creating an award-winning gingerbread house using a laser cutter. The University of Wisconsin \u2013 Milwaukee shared some amusing examples of gingerbread construction fails in another best-in-class video. Several holiday videos included campfire singalongs, like those from Algoma University or Trent University, toasting marshmallows or even making s\u2019mores \u2013 like at Wheaton College in Massachusetts.
Quite a few institutions released recipe-style baking videos, including \u201chigh altitude baking tips\u201d from Colorado State University, and a 350-year-old meat pie recipe from Loughborough University. More metaphorically, the University of Waterloo Faculty of the Environment shared their own secrets for success.
Gathering to share a holiday meal is a powerful ritual, explored in videos from Colorado College, Tarleton State University, the University of Toronto Mississauga, and the University of Windsor. But perhaps the most moving holiday video depicting a campus meal came from the University of Aberdeen. It depicted a student, away from loved ones, baking tarts to contribute to a holiday feast on campus with her friends. The warmth of the group shines through the cold winter night, as they stroll through the Aberdeen campus, and join the tree-lighting ceremony. Definitely a best in class, this was one of the overall besthigher ed holiday videos last year.
This episode contains clips from more than 500 higher ed holiday videos that Ken collected last year. You can find our full collection of 2018 videos on Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLodJ8ParJmYXZ7unDyH9cDK-lwTwGul7B
And we\u2019ve started collecting 2019 higher ed holiday videos at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLodJ8ParJmYXaztYot1vitgTZ5AHfAfJk
If you want to add one, please use this special link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLodJ8ParJmYXaztYot1vitgTZ5AHfAfJk&jct=Tm_lbyblL2ee4fhdD9En0aFVEu-NVg
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Ten with Ken will be back in a few more days with part 3 of our Holiday Special, \u201cWhen the Fur Flies\u201d - featuring parodies of classic films and Christmas carols, multiple mascots, and plenty of wagging puppy dog tails.\xa0 To be sure you don\u2019t miss it, be sure to subscribe at http://eduvation.ca/subscribe/
Meanwhile, if you missed part 1, \u201cMid-Winter Magic,\u201d you can catch it at https://youtu.be/NGWq5-4xWl0