Santa kneels before the baby Jesus in this year’s Christmas window display on the front side (middle window) of Holy Trinity School in Wallingford.

Story and photos by Shelley Wolf

Just in time for the Wallingford Stroll in December, the eighth-grade students at Holy Trinity School in Wallingford completed their annual Christmas window display − to the delight of school neighbors and town residents.

The annual tradition, which has been going on since at least the 1980s, has been attracting local residents, some of whom drive by the school each year during the Advent and Christmas seasons to see what the students have put up, says Michael Frechette, principal of Holy Trinity School.

“Everyone loves to see the windows,” Frechette says, “and we get compliments on a daily basis.”

This year’s central focus is a Nativity scene, with Santa bringing a gift and kneeling before the baby Jesus. The white paper figures are flanked by palm trees, with the buildings of Bethlehem not far off. Angels, doves and stars can be seen above. The decorations cover all three floors of the 110-year-old brick school building.

The decorations, which take a few weeks to put up, eventually fill all the windows of the school, from the front of the building, facing west, to the playground side, facing east. Even the stairwell windows are filled with stars. The playground side is visible from the town center. 

The whole scene is sketched out in advance by Darlene Bailey, a retired teacher who was a teacher at Holy Trinity for 30 years. This year, she partnered with Anne Roth, another retired teacher, who taught at the school for 18 years. Together, they used an overhead projector to project images onto a wall and traced them to create the patterns. The eighth-grade students then used the patterns to trace the images onto white paper, and did the cutting and taping.

Over the years, the school has experimented with a mix of secular and religious themes, but finally settled on variations of the Nativity. “Our school represents religious faith in the community,” Bailey says, “and where it’s located in town, you can see it coming down the hill. The whole town sees it.”

The window display runs from Dec. 6 to Jan. 6 (Three Kings Day). The school is located at 11 North Whittlesey Ave., Wallingford. For more information about Holy Trinity School, visit https://www.hts-wallingford.org.