New England is known for its amazing fall foliage and crisp autumn weather…and Holy Cross certainly enjoys its fair share of autumn color. HC is beautiful all year round, but campus is particularly stunning in October and November. Travel + Leisure named us the most beautiful college in MA for a reason! Fall is personally my favorite season at Holy Cross, not just for the beautiful scenery, but also for the many events that happen on Mount Saint James during the semester. While the ivy on the side of Holy Cross’ brick buildings turns orange, red, and yellow as the seasons change, our campus is set ablaze as well. Among the festivities are tailgates and football games, Family Weekend, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and of course all of the fall-themed activities that you can do off-campus such as apple picking.
Tailgate and football season is one of the fall activities that Holy Cross students and alumni look forward to most. It’s a blast to spend time with friends and family over food and drinks and then go and cheer on the HC Football team at Fitton Field. Many parents and alumni show their Crusader pride at every single game, bleeding purple and showing their love and support for Holy Cross. With football season also comes fall homecoming weekend, when even more alumni return to campus to show their enthusiasm and support for alma mater. They come to spend time with their fellow alumni as well as with their children who go to Holy Cross now! Family weekend is also a great opportunity for families to spend time with their their HC student’s friends and vice versa! I love getting to know my friends’ families better and I look forward to having them on campus. It doesn’t hurt that they usually take us out to dinner on Shrewsbury Street too!
Halloween is of course another well-known fall event that people get excited about around campus. Just because we are too old to trick-or-treat, doesn’t mean that dressing up with your friends isn’t still a lot of fun! Creating and putting together fun group costumes is exciting and something that I definitely look forward to as the end of October nears!
As soon as Halloween is behind us, we quickly turn our sights to Thanksgiving. Kimball, our dining hall, annually serves a Thanksgiving dinner before break begins, so if you love Thanksgiving food, you’re in luck! Not only will you get to eat a delicious food at home over the holiday, you’ll also get to have turkey and sides at Kimball as well. The menu includes turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, squash, pies, apple cider, and pretty much every traditional Thanksgiving food that you can imagine! Cool Beans and the D’Agostino Cafe also embrace the fall spirit by adding pumpkin flavored coffee drinks to the menu and offering options like hot apple cider!
Apple picking and pumpkin picking are fun activities to do with your friends on a fall day if you’re looking to go off campus. My friends and I went apple picking at Tougas Family Farm earlier this month and it was so much fun…they even had scrumptious apple cider donuts, warm cider, caramel apples, and plenty of other fall treats at the farm stand. No matter what part of fall you love most, there is definitely something for you to enjoy at Holy Cross!
