Students may have noticed a new addition to PHS during past month–the appearance of purple and gold lights on the front of the main building.

Senior Jake Brown explains that the inspiration behind the lights came from his love for the holidays.

“You look around Puyallup and all of these holiday lights are up, so I figured Puyallup [High School] might as well have some holiday lights,” Brown said. “I just love the holidays. [I thought the lights] would make [the school] better and brighten people’s day [when they] came to school.”

Brown reveals how the lights serve to represent PHS.

“[The lights] symbolize the school with the school colors and [they are] not just meant to [represent the] holidays. They are spirit related and show people that we are proud to go here,” Brown said.

The school additionally received a discount when purchasing the decorations.

“ASB paid for it. We bought them from the McLendon Hardware store on Canyon Road. It was quite the deal,” Brown said. “We talked to our friend Rory and he helped us out. He gave us pretty much 50 percent off of everything. We were expecting it to be $600 with a little discount but it was less than $350 for all of the lights.”

Principal Eric Fredericks shares that he does not know why they have not put lights up before and wants to keep the lights up for next year as well.

“This is my first year as principal so I do not know [why]. I like the fact that [the lights] look festive but I also like that they are purple and gold. They really represent school spirit,” Fredericks said. “We will probably leave them up all year. To what degree they remain up all year is undecided because they do cost money to run.”

Brown expresses his hopes for a newfound PHS tradition.

“I do not want it to be a one-time deal. I want it to be a tradition,” Brown said. “I will understand if money is ever a problem but I hope it becomes a tradition to put up [the] lights around the holiday time here at PHS.”