Many students and staff have been dressing to show their holiday spirit but few can compare with Mrs. Tarrant-Oliphant’s (Mrs. T-O) Christmas spirit and Christmas sweaters. Every day in December, while walking the halls of Liberty, you’re likely to see Mrs. T-O between classes in one of her Christmas sweaters. She has between 20 and 25 Christmas themed sweaters to choose from each morning from her sweater closet at home.

In Mrs. T-O’s opinion, “Everyone needs a Christmas sweater.”

A couple of Mrs. T-O’s favorite places to get her sweaters includes Von Maur, Walmart and Target. She started buying more and more of them during her first year of teaching here at Liberty. She decided she wanted to wear a Christmas sweater at school every day in December before the break. To do this, she began collecting sweaters from then on to make sure she has enough to last between Dec. 1 and winter break. This means she has been growing her collection for the last five years. Mrs. T-O and her daughter, Annette Oliphant, who is a senior at Liberty, also enjoys showing her Christmas spirit by wearing Christmas sweaters and by being kind to everyone.

“My mom and I together have a ton of Christmas sweaters. We at least have one for every day of December but we definitely have more than that so I definitely show Christmas spirit through that. But, I also think one part of having Christmas spirit is making sure that you are treating everyone nicely and being empathetic with people because some people might not get gifts and just make sure that everyone is having a great holiday season,” Oliphant said.

Mrs. T-O and her family celebrate Christmas every year by getting together with friends and family. On Christmas Eve, it is a tradition to get the family together at Mrs. T-O’s house and on Christmas Day, there is a big family brunch with her husband’s side of the family. Later in the day, there is a big family get together at one of her brother’s or sister’s houses for a big dinner.

If someone walked into Mrs. T-O’s classroom during December, they would notice that there are no holiday decorations set up. This is intentional because Mrs. T-O is really big on inclusivity. She does a big Friendsgiving party during November because it is a national holiday that almost everyone celebrates. But, in December, there is Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah and other holidays that people celebrate and if she can’t include all of them in her decorations then she won’t decorate at all so she wouldn’t leave anyone out.

Even though she doesn’t put up any decorations, she would like to put up a holiday tree in the future where students can make something to put on the tree that represents what they celebrate and what they believe in.