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BY JAINI SHAHCONTRIBUTING WRITER

The scent of gingerbread cookies and peppermint candy canes fill the air as Campustown transforms its streets to reflect the holiday spirit.

Wearing festive apparel and displaying colorful home decorations isn’t the only way that they’re celebrating, however. The University residence halls have both traditional events and creative programs for students looking to celebrate the holiday season before heading off on Winter Break.

Dan Quock, the residential director of Snyder Hall, assists in the organization of the Dial-A-Carol program, a tradition that began 54 years ago.

“It (the program) started in 1960. There were some students who were walking around campus, in the Ikenberry area, one night, and they said ‘Wouldn’t it be really nice to have a phone line you can call, and just hear some holiday songs being sung?’” he said.

According to Quock, after discussing the idea with an area secretary, she helped get

a phone line activated in the building, and the students began to advertise the number to their fellow residents.

Through the years, the tradition, which began at a small residence hall, ultimately reached a global level.

“Over time, it just grew to where the entire campus could call. Eventually, to anyone in the nation, and now it’s anywhere around the world,” Quock said.

Last year, there were around 4,000 calls, Quock said.

Each year it’s been growing significantly, as students try to figure out more ways to get publicity and get the word out.

This year in particular, one student has even gone as far as tweeting the famed talk show host Ellen DeGeneres on a daily basis about Dial-A-Carol.

The event is one week long, and begins at 12:01 a.m. on Dec. 11, or Reading Day.

The line manned by student volunteers, and is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week until Dec. 17 at 11:59 p.m.

Last year’s biggest request was “Jingle Bells,” reaching approximately five

hundred requests, and “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” was another popular request.

Snyder Hall is not the only hall to have a musical tradition in place. Allen Hall has had an annual week long tradition of holiday celebrations called “Allen Hall-idays.”

Jesus Rory Monroy, a sophomore in LAS, is a second year resident at Allen Hall, located in Urbana.

“It (Allen Hall-idays) starts off with Coffee House, which is our monthly mic night, which kicks off a string of events,” he said.

Along with the musical aspect of holidays, there is also an event tailored to those who like cooking.

“After that, we have Iron Chef, which is where residents are allowed to go in the dining hall, choose ingredients and create a dish. The staff in the dining hall, our RAs and RD will judge who has the best plate,” Monroy said.

Along with these events, some other programs include landscape art (painting), a hall decorating contest, a program advisor benching contest, crafts and a Secret Santa gift exchange.

The key of the programs is to make sure that no one is excluded and that people with different interests are included.

Once the whole week’s festivities are done, there is a formal dance with food and a DJ to celebrate the holidays.

Similar to Allen Hall’s celebrations, Weston Hall has a gift exchange, however, their programs are geared toward discussing different holidays.

Jacob Fleener, senior in LAS, is the multicultural advocate of Weston Hall, located in the Ikenberry Commons.

“We’re going to be doing a White Elephant exchange. From a social justice perspective that I do, I’m going to be doing a conversation about Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Christmas — just different religious events.”

According to Fleener, talking to residents about their holiday celebrations brings together the student community and broadens their perspectives about what other cultures do as well.

Whether students participate in traditional events, cultural discussions, spirited celebrations or programs, Monroy said the holiday season unites students together.

“It’s a good time to be around the people you love,” he said. “I very much enjoy it.”

Jaini can be reached at jgshah2 @dailyillini.com.

Holiday celebrations of resident hall studentsStudents charitably devote free time during !nals week in order to bring holiday cheer to others

Tuesday, December 9, 2014 The Daily Illini | www.DailyIllini.com

The Daily Illini | www.DailyIllini.com Tuesday, December 9, 20143

Editor’s note: This story is a follow-up on “Homeless for the Holidays,” which The Daily Illini published on Dec. 9, 2013.

On Nov. 17, 2013, an EF-4 tornado destroyed more than the buildings and structures of Washington and Gifford, Illinois — it destroyed the lives and memories of the residents who live there.

Although new homes and buildings line the street, the communities of Gifford and Washington are still working to pick up the pieces of their old communities.

Zach Schildt was one Washington resident whose home was destroyed in the storm. For the past year, his family has been living in hotel rooms and a rental home as they wait to move into their new house on Dec. 12.

Schildt said he remembers the look on one of his neighbor’s faces — pure and utter horror— after he saw the destruction the tornado caused. He said he now understands why people suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder years after a disaster occurs, and why they are changed by a storm that seemingly came out of nowhere.

The Schildt family’s house was not started until July due to the demand of contractors in the area. Although Schildt said he is excited about moving back to his old (new) house, he seems unsure how to refer to it. The house plan is completely different from what it was, but the family is looking forward to becoming a part of the neighborhood once again.

For Schildt, however, life is different now. He thinks about death now — his death and others. He knows he could have died that day as he ran from a tornado. He knows he could die anytime.

“I’m really lucky I didn’t die that day,” he said. The Schildts, along with other residents of Washington

and Gifford, are not the only ones who have been affected by the tornado’s destruction over the past year. Students and community members in Champaign-Urbana, even those who had never heard of Gifford and Washington, continue to volunteer and aid the recovering communities.

Sister Maryann Schaefer, a member of the pastoral staff at the St. John’s Catholic Newman Center on campus, originally volunteered in Washington, a suburb of Peoria, but soon learned of the damage in Gifford and the lack of volunteers in the small farming community that is only 24 miles away from campus.

While Washington was prominent in the news, she said, campus groups did not realize that there was so much damage in Gifford, a community much closer to home.

“You never saw Gifford in the paper,” she said.Groups from the Newman Center started going to

Gifford on Saturdays to help wherever they could. Although they stopped this past November, they plan

to start back up when the weather gets warmer.“For (the first) two months, we did nothing but clean

cornfields, over 800 acres of cornfield for different farmers,” Schaefer said.

The fields were devastated and full of everything from Christmas decorations, baby clothing, siding of buildings and even a one-hundred dollar bill stuck in the mud, she said.

Schaefer’s “Blue Army,” as they are affectionately called by the residents of Gifford, have painted homes, fixed floors, built a shed, and are even learning to put on a roof.

“We have become a vital part of their rebuilding effort ... They have adopted us as part of their family,” Schaefer said.

Sam Birchenough, a member of the Blue Army and sophomore in Engineering, said he started by going to Gifford to volunteer on “Gifford Saturdays,” and also spent a week in the town on a Gospel Roads trip through the Newman Center.

As a result of this past year’s experiences in Gifford, he said he has grown as a person not only by learning construction skills, but also in his faith in himself, in God and in humanity.

“It has changed my life,” Birchenough said. “The (thing) that is special about Gifford is the people and the attitude and how much they are committed to each other, their faith and the community as a whole,” he said.

Hannah Travis, senior in LAS, also continues to volunteer along with Birchenough. She said working in Gifford is different from other mission trips she’s been on because it is so close to home and it is more personal because of the relationships being built with the community.

“It has been very rewarding because we’ve been able to watch (Gifford) grow back step by step,” she said.

It usually takes communities three years to completely rebuild after a storm, Schaefer said, but Gifford is doing better every day. The fields the volunteers have cleaned were planted in the spring and harvested in the fall, a large step forward for a community who lives off the land.

Additionally, Service and Justice Outreach, a student organization sponsored by Newman, is hosting a Christmas party in Gifford for the children of families who have lost their homes, Schaefer said. There was also giving tree in Newman Hall for volunteers to buy presents for these children to help make their holiday season a little more joyful.

But, perhaps, the Schildt’s are getting the biggest gift of all: a home for the holidays.

Claire can be reached at hettngr2@dailyillini.com.

Gifford, Washington continue to rebuild BY CLAIRE HETTINGER

STAFF WRITER

Residents, volunteers recall destruction of last holiday season

“It has been very rewarding because we’ve been able to watch (Gifford) grow back step by step.”HANNAH TRAVIS

SENIOR IN LAS

PHOTO COURTESY OF ZACH SCHILDTThe Schildt’s home, above, was destroyed last year by the tornado. They will be moving into their new home, below, soon.

4

Chinese New YearChinese New Year is a celebration lasting

15 days and takes place either in January or February, depending on the lunar calendar.

Hui Wang, senior in LAS, described the Chinese New Year as a holiday simi-lar to Christmas but without a religious connotation.

“It’s more like the biggest festival we have, (with) all the families getting togeth-er,” Wang said. “(If family members work) somewhere far from home (they) will come back home to get together.”

Wang explained that fancy dinners and a national television show take place each year. The television program shows a festival with singing, dancing and fireworks, all of which have a traditional meaning behind them.

“There is a monster and the way you do the fireworks is to scare them away,” she said. “And it just means a new start, a new beginning.”

Because Wang is an international stu-dent at the University, she said she hasn’t returned to China for the celebration in a few years. However, she said she remembers everyone wearing red during the festivities.

According to the History Channel’s web-site on Chinese New Year traditions, red envelopes, called “hong bao,” are, “filled with money” and “typically only given to children or unmarried adults with no job.”

Wang described that this money gets placed under the child’s pillow on New Year’s Eve, so that he or she has luck and something to start off the new year.

KwanzaaKwanzaa started in 1966 when Dr. Mau-

lana Karenga was looking for a way to bring African-Americans together after the Watts Riots in Los Angeles. The celebration is sev-en nights long and includes songs, dances storytelling and poetry.

Among many symbols is the Seven Can-dles, or “Mishumaa Saba.” Explained by the History Channel, the two purposes behind the candles are to provide light and recre-ate the Sun’s power.

The seven candles represent the Seven Principles of African culture, “which con-tribute to building and reinforcing commu-nity among African-Americans,” according to the Channel’s website. The seven princi-ples are unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative eco-nomics, purpose, creativity and faith. The colors of the candles (red, green and black) represent the colors of African gods and the principles. The single black candle is lit Dec. 26 and represents the principle of unity and the beginning of Kwanzaa.

Overall, the candle-lighting process lasts all seven nights that Kwanzaa is celebrated, and is meant to bring everyone together to discuss the meanings of Kwanzaa.

HanukkahHanukkah is a Jewish celebration that

lasts eight days and begins Dec. 16 this year. The holiday falls on the 25th of the third month “Kislev” within the Hebrew calendar.

Tori Weinstein, junior in LAS, explained that the Menorah is an important symbol in the miracle that occurred long ago, when the Maccabees, the Jewish army that fought against oppression from the Seleucid Greek government, succeeded in the revolution and rededicated the sacred temple. It was cus-tomary to light the Menorah every night in the Jewish temple, but because of the war, there was only enough oil to last one night. However, the oil burned for eight days, just enough time for new oil to be prepared for the Menorah.

“You light the candles to remember each day that the oil lasted longer than it was supposed to,” she said. “So every day that you’re lighting the candles, it’s another day that the light lasted.”

Weinstein also explained that oil takes an important role when it comes to traditional foods. Both Latkes, potato pancakes that are traditionally eaten during Hanukkah, as well as jelly donuts, otherwise known as a “Sufganiyots” in Hebrew, are cooked in oil.

Weinstein said the oil used to fry these foods is another reminder of the Hanuk-kah miracle.

“The importance of frying the food,” she said. “It’s kind of a custom in remember-ing the oil.”

Gift giving has become a tradition that Weinstein said was adopted from the Amer-ican tradition during Christmas. However, it’s customary for children to receive gelt, or chocolate gold coins, from parents and family members.

Las PosadasLas Posadas is a celebration lasting nine

days, which begins Dec. 16, generally in Lat-in America and Mexico. Posada is Spanish meaning “shelter,” which plays a part in the tradition of the holiday.

During Las Posadas, singing and praying is done within neighborhoods and families. Processions with people playing the roles of Mary and Joseph, will enter a different fam-ily member’s home each night.

The number nine, representing the nine days of the holiday, also represents the nine months that Mary carried Jesus, or, alterna-tively, the nine-day journey to Bethlehem.

ChristmasChristmas is a holiday with both religious

and commercial implications. Natalie Novak, junior in Social Work, explained that Christ-mas is the anniversary of Jesus’ birth, which is celebrated on Dec. 25.

Among traditions, candy canes have had a history beginning in 1670. Better Homes and Gardens Magazine said that the tradi-tion begun when a German choirmaster gave sugar sticks to his singers, and “he bent the sticks to resemble shepherd’s crooks.”

Eventually, colors and peppermint flavor-ing were added. The magazine also explained that the white of the cane represents Christ’s purity, while the red stands for his blood.

Novak explained she celebrates the hol-iday by going to a local theater to watch Christmas plays with her family. Figures such as the Nutcracker originated from Tchaikovsky’s ballet, while characters like Frosty the Snowman came about in 1950, in a song created by Jack Nelson and Steve Rollins.

Novak said that the tradition is one that she holds with her family, in order to reflect on being together during the holiday.

“That’s just a time for us to come together and spend family time because Christmas is also about celebrating with the people around you,” she said. “It’s just about remembering and how we should be close with our family ... it’s just a way to reconnect with everybody and catch up.”

Victoria can be reached at vnsnell2 @dailyillini.com.

Holiday traditions across cultures

Some old, some familiar, these holidays bring the festive season to campus

BY VICTORIA SNELLSTAFF WRITER

Tuesday, December 9, 2014 The Daily Illini | www.DailyIllini.com4

The Daily Illini | www.DailyIllini.com Tuesday, December 9, 20145

The Grinch A classic twist on the Dr. Seuss nov-el, this drink brings a spicy kick to a Christmas themed drink from Mixthatdrink.com.

Ingredients:• 2 ounces Midori• ! ounce lemon juice• 1 teaspoon simple syrup

Directions:Combine the ingredients and shake well for a mean green treat! Double the ingredients for multiple drinks to share.

WassailThe word that originally meant to greet someone has now turned into a classic holiday cocktail. Itthing.com has labeled it one of its top ten holiday drinks.

Ingredients:• 1 gallon apple cider• 2 cups of cranberry juice• ! cup honey• ! cup sugar• 2 oranges• 1 apple peeled and diced• 2 tablespoons allspice• 2 tablespoons ginger• 2 tablespoons nutmeg• 3 cinnamon sticks• 1 cup brandy (optional depending

upon preference)

Directions:Pour all ingredients into a crock-pot and let it simmer for two to four hours on low heat. If brandy is desired, pour into the mix a half hour prior to serving.

Candy Cane CocktailGetting into the holidays requires a couple of accessories — especially candy canes! This drink, listed on itthing.com, incorporates the clas-sic holiday smells of berries and peppermint.

Ingredients:• " oz. SKYY Berry vodka• " oz. Peppermint Schnapps• " oz. white Creme de Cacao• # oz. grenadine• Half and Half cream (if desired

for taste)• Soda water

Directions:Pour the vodka, Peppermint Schnapps, white Creme de Cacao and grenadine into a shaker with ice. After shaking well, pour the mix into a cocktail glass garnished with crushed`peppermint candy. Top it off with a splash of soda and voila! Instant treat.

BY CHRISTEN MCGLYNN AND ABBY GLICKMANSTAFF WRITERS‘Tis the season to start the drinking! The holiday season brings families and friends together. Therefore, what better way to show a person you care than personalizing a seasonal drink for them? A little alcohol can always warm the holiday spirits on a cold night. However, if a virgin drink or a hot chocolate is preferred, there is a variety of alternative options to give a holiday drink that extra spark. Here is a culmination of delectable drink ideas to make this holiday special with friends and loved ones:

Spicy Hot Chocolate Mocha Courtesy of Katerina Petrovska of diethood.com

Ingredients: • 1 to 1/2 cups milk• 3 tablespoons sugar• 1 tablespoon brown sugar• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder• 1 tablespoon instant coffee

granules• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper• 1/8 teaspoon salt• Mini chocolate chips• Whipped cream• Caramel syrup• Marshmallows• Chocolate syrup

Directions:Use a medium-sized saucepan and place all ingredients except top-pings in. Whisk and cook on medi-um to low heat, for approximate-ly two to three minutes or until the mixture is heated completely. Pour the mixture into two glasses approximately the size of a coffee cup and add toppings.

Minty Hot ChocolateCourtesy of Joy McCarthy, holis-tic nutritionist of joyoushealth.com

Ingredients:

• 1 cup almond milk• 2 tablespoons of raw cacao• 2 tablespoons of maple syrup• # cup hot water• 2 tablespoons of loose leaf mint

tea

Directions:Use small food blender to mix raw cacao, maple syrup and almond milk until combined. At the same time, boil 1/4 cup of water and steep mint tea. Use small saucepan and heat blended chocolate mixture on low until ample temperature is reached. Do not burn the almond milk. Combine mint tea and the chocolate mixture, and remove heat. Divide the final two into two small cups. Place dark chocolate or mint chocolate shavings onto the surface of the beverage.

Abby and Christen can be reached at features@dailyillini.com.

FOLAKE OSIBODU THE DAILY ILLINI PHOTO COURTESY OF KATERINA PETROVSKA PHOTO COURTESY OF JOY MCCARTHY

Raise your holiday drink

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It all started when my Jewish grandmother dragged home a pine tree branch when she was about six years old.

As a child, she watched black-and-white Christmas movies on TV, heard Christmas music on the radio and always wanted a chance to celebrate the holiday, but her par-ents weren’t quite sure of the perfect way to mesh both Hanukkah and Christmas togeth-er. It was then that the ongoing fascination with developing the perfect Jewish Christ-mas began.

My dad, who grew up in a relatively relaxed Jewish household, had bits of Christmas every-where. They had a tree, presents from Santa Clause and even included the traditional Jew-ish tradition of Chinese food on Christmas to complete the perfect hybrid holiday.

Being the eager-to-please, good Jewish son my dad was groomed to become, he married a Catholic girl who celebrated Christmas in true

Italian style. Her family’s Christmases made those of Tony Soprano’s family seem weak in comparison. There were at least seven dif-ferent kinds of seafood, piles of presents and plenty of noise.

When my parents had kids, they were faced with the difficult decision on how to incorpo-rate the traditional Chinese food dinner and also make us feel a part of something that could be a sweet, family scene from “The Godfather.”

My parents settled on what they consid-ered to be the perfect blend. It was impera-tive that we had a Christmas tree, and that we have tons of presents under it — enough to account for Christmas as well as the eight days of Hanukkah. My parents also had a menorah for Hanukkah, although we would light all the candles on the same night to allow enough time for the Christmas festivities to also take place. This made our holiday equal parts Hanukkah to equal parts Christmas — a very difficult ratio to achieve.

My sister and I were lucky enough to get to have every kind of holiday, festive chocolate imaginable in order to bring this interfaith fantasy to fruition. We had chocolate Santas, candy canes and gelt, too. The small gold choc-

olate coins were more of a delicacy in compar-ison to the dense chocolate filled Santas that inevitably took days to eat. It didn’t matter to us at the time; it was a reason for more candy.

The music was a harder area to strike a bal-ance. To this day, my dad stands by the fact that there isn’t a true Hanukkah song. Yes, there is that song about a dreidel, but that’s not really about Hanukkah. Thanks to Adam Sandler, and his infamous “Hanukkah Song,” it seemed as though Hanukkah had a little bit more of a fighting chance in this category. My parents also used this as an educational tool to teach my sister and me that Goldie Hawn and

Paul Newman are also half-Jewish. That’s the stuff that sticks with you.

There were some years we would spend the holidays with my mom’s family, which would allow for a much more traditional Christmas. It was fun, but it was definitely missing some spunk and personality from the lack of Christ-mas-Hanukkah fusion. Looking back, I’m glad my parents decided we should have a little bit of both — a traditional Christmas and a Jew-ish Christmas.

Samantha is a sophomore in LAS. She can be reached at srothma2@dailyillini.com.

Cultures come together in a Jewish Christmas

SAMANTHA ROTHMAN

Staff writer

PHOTO COURTESY OF SAMANTHA ROTHMANRothman (right) and her younger sister Sydney sit on Santa’s lap at a mall in Northbrook, Illinois, in 2000.

Tuesday, December 9, 2014 The Daily Illini | www.DailyIllini.com

Tuesday, December 9, 2014 The Daily Illini | www.DailyIllini.com7

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Just 16 miles north and off I-57 live twelve reindeer: Comet, Vixen, Black Jack, Tinsel, Snickers, Daisy, Holly, Itty-bitty, Hallelujah, Tiny Dancer, Jack Frost and Hope.

The herd pranced around Hardy’s Reindeer Ranch in Rantoul, looking for the attention of owner Mark Hardy as he handed treats to his twelve reindeer from the other side of the low, slatted wooden fence.

“If you listen closely, you can hear that their hooves actually do make a clicking noise,” Mark said as he watched the reindeer move around the fence, position-ing themselves for treats.

These 12 reindeer are descendants of an original group of 15 purchased by Mark and his wife, Julie. The first two reindeer were purchased in Michigan in 1995 and the additional 13 were flown in from Alaska on Delta Airlines three years later.

“So reindeer do fly,” Julie joked. The Hardy’s own and operate Hardy’s Reindeer Ranch at

1356 County Road in Rantoul, a seasonal ranch and Christ-mas tree farm that offers fall and winter activities and is open to the public from August to Dec. 28. For the rest of the year, the ranch is open for private group reserva-tions in an old western-style banquet hall on the property.

Although its 10-acre corn maze is the main attraction in the fall, according to the Hardys, the reindeer have won the attention of tourists and natives alike during the winter season.

Visitors can take the Reindeer Experience Tour for $4 in which they get to meet, feed and even kiss the rein-deer if they want.

“It’s not just that we have reindeer, yes that is unique, but it was our story of how we got them here and how we learned to do it,” Julie said. “And it kind of grew beyond that. We have tour buses that come in from all over the nation. I actually think the adults enjoy the reindeer more than the kids. The kids see the reindeer and they’re like okay no big deal, but the adults are like ‘tell me about this.’ They want to learn all about it. It’s very fascinat-ing for adults.”

Katie Coyle, sophomore in Media, said she was surprised at the size and appearance of the reindeer when she visited the farm in the fall with her sorority, Alpha Epsilon Phi.

“When you think reindeer you think Rudolph,” she said.

“You think very cartoon, aesthetic, thin, pretty, silhou-ettes of reindeer on Christmas cards. I didn’t expect them to be (so) big, but they’re actually adorable.”

During the week the couple spent in Alaska purchasing the reindeer, they lived on a reindeer farm learning how to raise the reindeer. However, both Mark and Julie said they realized that what works in Alaska doesn’t always work in Illinois. They are one of the few reindeer breed-ers in the lower 48 states and are involved in the Reindeer Owners and Breeders Association where they give and take advice on breeding and raising reindeer.

“The few of us that are doing this and doing it well, we share what’s working, what’s not working, and we’ve kind of put together a program from that,” Julie said.

Mark said growing up on a dairy farm has helped, too. “The dairy cows are similar to a reindeer. The care

is similar. They call these guys the ‘cow of the North.’ They’re built like a cow; they eat like a cow,” he said. “The four stomachs are similar to a cow.”

In addition to the crowds that come to see the reindeer, the ranch also attracts Christmas tree buyers. The Har-dy’s estimate that they sell about 1,000 Christmas trees a year — both fresh-cut and pre-cut.

Since pine trees take six to eight years to grow and fir trees take eight to 14 years to grow, Mark brings in pre-cut Frasier Fir trees from Michigan to have available in case the fresh-cut trees run out.

“They’re what we call the Cadillac of the Christmas tree,” Julie said. “They last very long, and they’re fra-grant, and they look like your traditional Christmas tree.”

Julie, an Urbana native, said she was working as a sales manager for Avon when she met Mark.

Meanwhile Mark, the son of a dairy farmer, was think-ing about raising Christmas trees on the land his father had given him. By the time the two were married, the seedlings Mark had planted had grown into Christmas trees and were almost ready to be sold.

He said he originally wanted to sell the trees out of his house — a grey barn that he and his dad had built on the property — but Julie, who has a marketing background, envisioned more.

“She wanted a shop, a Christmas shop. She wanted rein-deer. And she got all of that,” Mark said.

From that point on, the farm became Hardy’s Reindeer Ranch. Julie’s Christmas gift shop was built out of old barn timbers, complete with an authentic potbelly stove in the center that the Hardys light every morning in the winter.

The inside of the shop is adorned with strings of soft-ly glowing Christmas lights and fresh pine and fir trees.

From floor to ceiling, the shop is covered with holiday decorations.

“He was a single guy, thinking he wanted to raise Christ-mas trees, and then he met me and we figured out a way to market it,” Julie said.

The Hardy’s have owned and operated Hardy’s Rein-deer ranch for 19 years of the 20 they have been married.

The ranch is open every day during the month of Decem-ber from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., except for Sundays when they open late at 1 p.m.

Bridget can be reached at bhynes2@dailyillini.com.

Ranch offers holiday fun

FOLAKE OSIBODU THE DAILY ILLINIOne of the twelve reindeer at Hardy’s Reindeer Ranch in Rantoul looks for a treat. Visitors can pay to meet, feed and pet the reindeer. The ranch also sells Christmas trees.

Christmas trees, ‘reindeer experience tour’ available for ranch visitors

Tuesday, December 9, 2014 The Daily Illini | www.DailyIllini.com8

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