Lovelady High School Art I students have been painting ornaments which will decorate the Christmas tree at the George W. Bush Presidential Center during the holidays.

"Lovelady students have a special privilege," Lovelady art teacher Varsha Tyagi said. "This honor and invitation is only provided to one secondary school and one primary school in the entire state, so this opportunity is special and unique."

This is the second year Princeton students have had the privilege of decorating the official tree for the 43^rd president’s museum and library.

According to Ms. Tyagi, she and her art students have partnered with the presidential library for the last six years to decorate the center's Christmas tree. She previously taught art in Frisco ISD, but now her Princeton students participate in the program.

Princeton’s ornaments will be unveiled as part of the tree’s lighting ceremony.

Students will wrap up their artwork this week, and their ornaments will make their way to the center where they will be hung on the tree.

"They have sent us so many varieties of wooden ornaments,’” Tyagi said. “It is interesting to see how they choose to decorate them.”
 

This year's theme for the project was "A Season of Merriment and Melody." There were 15 ornament shapes including: sleigh, drummer, scroll, musical note, reindeer, musical note and drums.

"My job was to make it meaningful for the students," Ms. Tyagi said. "I connected with the music teacher to have her come to my classes. She tied the project to music by discussing how music plays around the world for different cultures with different holidays and different holiday songs."

Students were asked to think of their own holiday memories, as well as a choose a favorite song. With a variety of Christmas and holiday music playing in the background to set the mood, they researched ideas, and Ms. Tyagi approved the designs from the students’ hand-sketched drafts.

Lovelady student Calista Strickland chose the song, “Santa Claus is Coming to Town,” as her inspiration.

“Once I chose a song, I found designs related to Santa Claus," Calista said. "I used the scroll ornament and put Santa and his sleigh on one side and some Christmas presents and the song title on the other side."

Valentina Beltran wanted to base her ornament on Christmas scenery and kept searching until she found the one she liked.

Adrianna Gillman painted the little drummer boy and a manger scene.

"I chose this because it means something to me," she said. "This is what I envision it looked like when the drummer boy was playing his drums for Jesus."
 

According to Ms. Tyagi, students will have the opportunity to visit the Bush museum.

"They always give the students access to free tickets so they can see their work on the tree," she said. "It's on display until January. The work will be seen by President Bush and his family because they attend the annual holiday kick-off party.”

Photos from students in story include:

Calista Strickland (with her “Santa Claus is Coming to Town”)

Valentina Beltran (with a Christmas scene)

Adrianna Gillman (with the Little Drummer Boy)

Other students in photos:

Kaitlyn Irvin (drying her white angel with trumpet)

Adyn Gallop (painting colorful presents on a black musical note)

Dezma Boykin (works on a green drum with violins and flowers)

Winnie Sauceda (painted gold bells on a red musical note)