On December 8, Linganore hosted the annual Lancer Candy Lane, the jolliest event of the year for the community. The event was held in the cafeteria and was created to provide a place for local families to enjoy themselves and get into the holiday spirit. Families can enjoy making crafts, drinking hot chocolate, meeting Santa, and exploring the Secret Santa gift shop.

Parent of several LHS graduates, Michelle Prather, who founded Lancer Candy Lane 13 years ago, said the goal of this event is to create a place where families can celebrate the holiday season for free.

“Every kid should be able to get a picture with Santa,” said Prather.

She said that the most gratifying part of this event is seeing all of the smiles on the children’s faces.

Lancer Candy Lane includes booths with activities run by members of various honor societies. Children who attended the event could make maracas (Spanish Honor Society), paper plate Christmas trees (French and German Honor Societies), Scrabble-tile ornaments (National English Honor Society), paper snowmen (Mu Alpha Theta), as well as picture frames, paper antlers, and decorated cookies (National Honor Society and SGA).

Additionally, children could attend puppet shows produced by the drama department and have their faces painted by members of the Art Honor Society.

Of course, one of the most popular activities is meeting Santa himself.  Student volunteers Madeline Kahler and Devin Wynne both said that seeing Santa was their favorite part of attending Lancer Candy Lane.

Since Lancer Candy Lane is free, most of the supplies are donated by the community. J&P Pizza, McDonald’s, and Home Depot all sponsored this event through the provision of supplies such as hot chocolate cups and woodworking kits. The live Christmas music was provided by SQRRL!, a children’s band led by Doug Segree. This event also couldn’t have happened without the help of Linganore’s many student volunteers.

Junior Madeline Kahler, who volunteered with the National Honor Society, was responsible for helping children decorate cookies. She said that her volunteering experience was “a little hectic, but very fun.” Kahler also said that her favorite part of working the cookie-decorating station is seeing the children happy and excited for Christmas.

Junior Devin Wynne volunteered with the National English Honor Society, the Spanish Honor Society, and the National Honor Society. Wynne helped children assemble maracas, create Scrabble-tile ornaments, and decorate cookies, but she said that helping with the cookies is her favorite part of the experience.

Laria Seyfried, an attendee of Lancer Candy Lane, said her favorite part of the event is the crafts. “Cookies are fine, but you don’t get to keep them afterwards,” said Seyfried. She credits senior Jack Spielman for motivating her to attend this event with his catchy musical advertisement from the daily announcements. Seyfried said, “I had it stuck in my head for three days straight.”