Giant Santas, mistletoe bedeck frats

It's hard to miss the blow-up Santa Claus hanging from a window of the Sigma Chi fraternity house on Locust Walk.

Surrounding houses boast multicolored lights, red-and-green flowers, seasonal ornaments and even presents underneath the tree.

These customs, Penn fraternity brothers say, have been going on for years and are still going strong.

Before their annual Christmas party, Sigma Chi brothers gather to put up holiday decorations in a ritual they call "Sigma Christmas," according to College sophomore James Hannah, who helped organize the event this year with fellow Sigma Chi brother and College senior Drew Matheson.

They cover their house from head to toe, up to the garlands wrapped around the banister, he said.

The overall goal, according to Hannah, is to add some Christmas cheer to the house.

This year, they spent about $300 on decorations, he said.

And Sigma Chi isn't the only house joining in the holiday spirit.

Beta Theta Pi, for instance, also decorates its house for the holidays every year.

With students entering the stressful final-exam period, "it's always nice for people to come back and see the house decorated," said Wharton junior Steven Crowe, Beta's house manager.

Crowe said Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs fire-code regulations prevent his house from putting up a real tree, so they reuse the fake tree they have had for a few years.

The lights and ornaments that the brothers put on the tree are also recycled every year, he added. This practice keeps their costs down to about $150, he said.

But you don't have to celebrate Christmas to get in on the fun.

Some predominantly Jewish fraternities occasionally get in the holiday spirit.

"We did [put up lights] last year," said Wharton junior Austin Pena, president of Tau Epsilon Phi and incoming president of the Interfraternity Council.

Though Tau Epsilon Phi is not officially a Jewish fraternity, its membership at Penn is about 60 percent Jewish.

Pena called the decorations "nondenominational" and likened them to the "snowflakes along Locust Walk."

Often, if a fraternity abstains from decorating, it is not because of religious reasons.

Alpha Epsilon Pi - a nationally Jewish fraternity - for example, devotes December to studying, not to decorating.

"Around the time that we would start decorating, everyone has midterms and finals," Engineering junior and AEPi President Gabe Kopin said. "If we were to spend a good deal of time decorating our fraternity home, the time would conflict with studying time."

Although AEPi does not "take an outwardly religious stance" by putting up Christmas or Hanukkah decorations, Kopin said brothers often celebrate the holidays privately.

"I'm sure guys in the house will light a menorah or sing songs, but that's more personal" than putting up decorations around the house, he said.

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