Kris Kringle of Castleton University

Photo courtesy of Devin Poslusny.
Castleton sophomore Devin Poslusny decked the halls of the themed houses.

You may have noticed the Christmas lights on the themed housing near Castleton Hall, or on the main entrance of Wheeler, or more notable, the Christmas tree driving around campus in the back of a black pickup truck.

Well for those who don’t know me, my name is Devin Poslusny, a sophomore at Castleton and the “crazy guy” who drives around with a Christmas tree in the back of his truck.

From a young age, I loved Christmas. My parents would decorate the house and yard with enough lights to see from space – no joke.

Once I was old enough to handle electricity safely, I was alongside my mom and dad decorating the yard the weekend after Thanksgiving every year.

For a couple years in middle school and high school, I decorated by myself due to my parents’ busy schedule.

In my senior year of high school, I saw on Facebook that someone in another state had a Christmas tree in the back of their pickup truck. They had garland, ornaments, and lights.

That’s when the great idea hit me.

With it being my first winter and Christmas that I owned my truck, I knew I had an opportunity nobody else would capitalize on.

So that is when I took the old family Christmas tree, threw some battery powered lights and some cheap Walmart garland on it, and started to drive around town with the tree in my truck.

Once I got to Castleton, my roommate, and building community advisor, wanted to decorate the house. He asked if I knew anything about decorating.

Growing up around it for so many years, I was like, “heck yea I do!”

He and I went shopping, and I borrowed a ladder from a friend in Fair Haven. That day, we decorated North House.

The CA at the time in Audet House saw North House, loved it, and asked me to do Audet House as well, which I did with pleasure.

Along with decorating the two houses, I also brought my tree to the campus and it blew up. So many people were curious as to whose it was, what the purpose was and how it stayed up.

Now, a year later, I spent the week leading up to Thanksgiving decorating the three themed houses, North, Audet and South, all with the same multi-colored LED lights.

The entrance into Wheeler has white icicle lights hanging from the balcony above as well.

When I came back from break, the Christmas tree made a return to campus for its second year in a row after many weeks of people asking when it would.

I get asked all the time why I do it. Why do I put the tree in my truck? Why do I decorate the buildings? The answer is simple.

I enjoy it.

Part of my enjoyment is personal. I love putting lights up at night and just seeing all the beautiful colors, but the other part is seeing people’s reactions.

When I see fellow residents walk into their dorms and smile because of the lights or stop with their group of friends to admire them, I know I did something right.

To any CA out there that might want some lights put up on their building, it’s not too late to do it! Message me via Facebook or Instagram, and we can work something out!

I hope everyone enjoys the Christmas lights!

    – Mr. Christmas

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