End-of-term parties

IT'S the last week of term and all through campus the students are stirring and causing much fuss.

In the build up to the Christmas holidays many have work deadlines to adhere to but time is put aside for college balls, house parties and Christmas dinners.

For the lucky few who have no work due in before Christmas, the festive spirit can be embraced. Also many subjects do not put on lectures this late in term.

Instead, those who are brave enough to head for York city centre during one of its busiest seasons to pick out presents for their parents and friends at home, many of whom they will not have seen since the start of term in October.

Secret Santa is the way most students get around the problem of having many university friends to buy for at a time when their student loans and overdrafts are not looking as full as they will be after Christmas dinner.

The students keep warm on the cold winter evenings by eating, drinking and (if they have had enough wine) dancing at their college balls, which have been held at the racecourse and various hotels around York.

Also filling up the dark hours, many second and third years have been holding their own Christmas dinners, testing the cooking and organisational skills students aren't renowned for, and decorating their houses to the point where they are endanger of being accused of causing a fire risk by their landlords.

For those who aren't as confident in their domestic skills, good old-fashioned house parties have been the order of the day. This time of year being up there with the last weeks of summer in terms of the amount of alcohol consumed and goodwill shared.

Updated: 16:37 Thursday, December 16, 2004