English major Jenica Greenfield has been living in Lucille Clement residence hall for two years, and she is willing to put out a little money to decorate for the holidays.

Greenfield’s dorm room door is wrapped in foil Christmas paper with a bow. She spent about $5 on the project. She got the idea last year when there were a lot of wrapped doors and more decorations in general, she said.

“Someone started to decorate their door every month (last year) and other people saw that and thought, I want to do that to, so it spread and suddenly there were a lot of doors,” she said.

Walking around in Lucille Clement the week before finals, I find a few decorated doors here and there and even though the decorations for the doors doesn’t cost much Greenfield said she believes that the tough financial situation many college students are in is one of the reasons why there are so few decorated doors.

“I spent about $20 on the decorations for my door this semester,” she said.

With a little imagination, decorating the door can be free. Many have a source at home to explore for things to put on the door. Marketing major Brittany Coleman brought her decoration from her parents’ home. It was either that or the yard sale. She really likes the decorations on the doors. “It makes the floor look homey and cozy,” she said.

Coleman is a freshman and will continue decorating her door while she lives in Lucille Clement, she said, and she will probably continue not spending money on decorations when she can find them in her parents’ home.

Accounting major Elizabeth McCauley made a winter landscape on her door. She bought snowflakes and trees made out of foam and construction paper in different colors for about $10.

“I got the idea at work when I was doing a Christmas drawing and I thought it would look nice at my door,” she said.

Resident assistants can make their contributions to the holiday feeling as well. Emily Samples, RA on Lucille Clement fourth floor, created a Christmas atmosphere for her residents with a little effort and a few dollars. For Christmas she bought small mittens and stockings for about $20. Then she drew the residents’ names and put them on the residents’ door.

“I do it because I love my residents and they’re awesome,” Samples said.

And the residents appreciate her effort. “I think the stockings would encourage people to decorate their own doors, and I really like them,” Greenfield said.

Making ornaments for the resident’s doors is not something that comes with the job as an RA even though it says on their work description it says that the RA’s should “facilitate an environment that contributes to the intellectual, social and cultural environment of the residents.” That doesn’t necessarily mean door decorations, though.

“Someone from another floor came and asked me why he didn’t have a stocking on his door, and I told him that he has to ask his RA about that,” Samples said and laughed.