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Amidst rushing crowds of students cramming for finals and stressing over their semester grades, the National Honor Society convinced a few musically-inclined teachers to give their voice to further the holiday spirit at St. Louis U. High and bring cheer to all on the last day of StuCo’s 12 Days of Christmas drive.

Although the event takes place in the 12 days of SLUH-mas, the event is mainly run by the NHS moderators Lynne Casey and Jennifer Carroll, as well as officers Sam Dorsey and Andrew Hipskind. Their job was to gather a lineup of teachers willing to sing in one of the most beloved SLUH traditions.

“We usually try to use our November meeting with the current juniors and seniors to get them to help coordinate the event, although Ms. Casey does the most,” said Carroll. “The faculty has been here for a number of years, and they’re aware of the event, but Ms. Casey usually does send an email just to the faculty to let them have an inside peek into what the event is going to look like.”

The event raises money for charity. This year, the Karaoke was able to bring over $500 for the Christmas drive.

“Campus Ministry or StuCo chose St. Francis ministries,” stated Casey, “because of all the St. Louis charities, it is one of the lesser known, and they work directly with the refugees and immigrants and those who are less well served.” 

Once teachers take the opportunity, it’s then up to them to decide the songs and routines that they will perform. Teachers usually go for songs that are both funny and within their vocal range, so that they can both entertain and serve the local community.

“Being classically trained, I want to choose a song that is fun for the audience and showcases my voice,” said Father Matthew Stewart, SJ. “I’m able to ham up Broadway tunes that fit well into my voice, and that wouldn’t be the same if I had picked a Taylor Swift song, for example.”

An event like this takes some time to plan and organize.

“We started a month before and tried to encourage students to recruit teachers to sing and publicize the event,” said Casey. “We had about forty NHS members working this year. They collected money, hung signs, MC’d the event, and asked teachers to sing.”

The concert, as flawless as it turned out, had some difficulties along the way.

“I was a little nervous this year because a lot of people committed at the last minute … but we had great acts,” said Casey. “Not as many NHS members volunteered as much as we thought they would, and that’s just because we didn’t have a real chapter meeting this year to talk about planning, writing the script, and organizing the music and everything. Probably the bulk of the work fell on the four officers.” 

The teacher’s performances ranged from Stewart’s rendition of the Frank Sinatra power ballad “‘My Way” to the Math Department’s “Walking in a Winter Wonderland.”

“Mr. Griggs is indispensable for teacher karaoke,” Casey commented. “He’s helped us every step of it, and he’s been really great being able to control the microphones and volume.” 

Unfortunately over the last couple of years the donations for the event have been slowly decreasing, although the trend is not the result of greed, but the rise of a cashless society and changes in SLUH policy. 

“This event has been here for as long as I’ve taught here, and in the days before Venmo was as popular, the event would make more simply off of cash that students carried, ” said Carroll. “But once Covid hit and cashless payment became more popular, the donations started to decline.”

 Although unfortunate, the decrease in donations was to be expected now that so few people carry cash, but SLUH has also shifted their philosophy on asking for donations from students.

“Because we're already a nonprofit institution we already do our own fundraising, so we try to be cognizant of the demands on students. We don't want to continually ask students for money, knowing that our school itself also needs support and fundraising. Trying to do too much fundraising for other organizations gets a little complicated when we ourselves are a nonprofit institution,” said Carroll. 

Perhaps the next Christmas season, students will stock up on cash in order to support their favorite teachers, but more importantly whatever charity SLUH decides to support in 2026.