You walk into the doors of the Point Pleasant Boro lobby and are instantly welcomed by smiling faces and a gorgeous holiday display: Christmas trees, flowers, and Santa’s sleigh filled with presents to the brim. You then walk through the stage doors to the auditorium and are taken away by the decor of earthy garland framing the stage with candles and two pianos centered on stage with vibrant red flowers at the foot of them. Not only did the atmosphere take away the breath of the audience, but the performers of the winter choral concert left them speechless. 

The performers have been preparing for the show for months on end for the one night showing that blew the crowd away, giving everyone in the room memories to cherish.

To quote a senior at the high school about her choral experience, Jackie Murphy said, “performing with these lovely people made me realize that I have found my place at the high school within the arts and they continue to give me memories that I cherish dearly.”

The performance was filled with many holiday favorites, watching the performance you could tell what ones the performers liked the best. During the song “Cool Yule”, the performers all danced as they sang, smiling from ear to ear. You could just see by the emotions on their face how much they truly loved what they were doing.

During “Oba Se Je” they had a senior, Nick Coppola play the drums as they all crowded around him singing. There was an amazing soloist during that same song, Leo DiRiocco, another senior at PPBHS. As he sang, all around him his friends danced, making him smile and the rest of them smiling and holding back giggles as they tried to make each other happy. You could see their friendship shine on the stage. 

The song that stuck out to me the most was “Most Wonderful Time of the Year”, not only is it one of my favorites songs but they way that everyone’s voices blended together was absolutely amazing. I truly wish that they had their own Spotify because I would have listened to them sing that same song on repeat for hours. The way they mixed their voices was beautiful. Even the lighting during the song was great, it was half red and half green, giving the full effect of Christmas right in front of your eyes. At the end of the song a few of the performers came to the front of the stage and slow danced together, it was sweet and so well performed. 

A sophomore at the school, Megan Kulaszewski, told me what they thought about the performances: “The performances are always so high energy and you can really tell that everyone is engaged!” She was completely right about that, every person on stage seemed so happy to be there. 

I asked one of the performers her opinion after the performance on how they did, Alana Kulaszewski, and she explained, “I think our hard work paid off! It was so magical having the tradition again with everyone singing!”

During the show for their final song the director Ms. Villa asked any alumni to come to the stage. Not only did alumni join but friends and family as well. Joining the stage with open arms, the students all hugged their friends and family congratulating them on how great they were doing as they joined the performance themselves. The crowd and performers came together to sing. They all became one, it was a beautiful way to end the night and send us all off for a happy holiday season.

To quote the PPBHS Performing Arts Production of Elf the Musical, “the best way to spread Christmas cheer is by singing loud for all to hear.”