Page 35 - Cormorant 2023

ACSC 26 –
Christmas Lunch
Lt Col Christof Masheder and Major Øyvind Nilssen
THE ACSC CHRISTMAS LUNCH brought together course members, directing staff, support staff, and academics in a traditional festive lunch.
Over 250 people took part in a fun and relaxed event culminating in a rendition of the 12 Days of Christmas will have woken any sleepy student in the library. The Chicago Footnotes continued the party long into the evening playing several sets of Christmas hits and fan favourites. As the final event of 2022, this was a great way to finish the term and the year together as a whole course.
The Santa run was undertaken prior to the Christmas lunch to help course members build up their appetite. Many traditional costumes were on display with some more suitable for running than others such as the inflatable yellow submarine costume that brought many a smile along the track. Christmas carols were sung in the Forum after the Santa run with several unique Christmas sweaters and costumes on display before eager course members and staff took their seats in the dining hall.
The event was off to a good start with lively conversations only interrupted by the traditional turkey with stuffing served by the excellent JSCSC kitchen and dining staff. However, the singing after our meal revealed some worrying signs of possible academic fatigue among the course members. After battling with the International Security Studies Essay and the Strategy Essay, Syndicate Room Activity,
and Applied Staff Work for the last few months it quickly became clear that the course members were unable to count and sing at the same time during the “Twelve days of Christmas” carol. Maybe the King’s College mantra of “it depends” had finally made its way into the military minds which made them doubt the fact that one is followed by two and then by three.
The table decorations showed a varying degree
of creativity from a table size cannon to Christmas trees, garlands, and a tower of wrapped gifts almost reaching the ceiling. Interestingly some syndicates had chosen to build a Christmas inspired Berlin wall along the table using small trees, garlands, and other decorations to separate their course members in two cohorts. It is unknown if this was done in preparation for the coming syndicate splits, as a covid-19 distance measure, or in a Trump-MAGA inspired effort to build a wall and make the syndicate great again.
Towards the end of the event, a Christmas miracle happened when all the competitions were won by syndicates with members at the head table and in the Christmas lunch committee. This included prizes for the best table decoration, best Christmas outfit, and best Christmas tree(!?). The Christmas lunch committee put together a great end to the term, in what turned out to be a kinder-egg of an event with music, food, and a miracle.
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“It quickly became clear that the course
members were unable to count and sing at the same time during the “Twelve days of Christmas” carol