Behind the Curtain of the Homecoming Dress-Up Days

ASB members stated what went into picking the dress-up days for Homecoming week. Homecoming week is from September 30th to October 4th.

By: Adam Lopez

Homecoming is an annual tradition that welcomes students back to school. Homecoming at Redwood is filled with festivities like dress-up days. On Monday there is ‘Know your Role,’ Tuesday is ‘Night after Oscars,’ Wednesday is ‘Celeb Day,’ Thursday is ‘Star Athletes Day,’ and Friday is ‘That’s a Wrap.’

These dress-up days take time and preparation to set up, and here’s what’s been put into it.

Ms. Aston is ASB’s advisor, and she spoke with enthusiasm about the dress-up days and what went into choosing the Hollywood theme. Ms. Aston says, “Originally, ASB did a whole class brainstorm. There were lots of ideas thrown out and presented, and then we narrowed that down a little bit and sent out the ideas to the whole school and asked them to vote and got their opinion. It seemed overwhelming that most of the people wanted Hollywood, so that’s what we decided to go with.”

Hollywood can be a very broad theme, as there are so many different ideas that could go into it, Ms. Aston says, “Hollywood was harder to choose dress up days for because initially when we thought of Hollywood, all anyone thought of was dress really fancy in suits and dresses. Not a lot of kids necessarily want to dress that way, they want to come to school for comfortability, so we had to keep that in mind.

Ms. Aston’s concern for comfortability was a cause for compromise, including both comfortability and the theme.

Ms. Aston says, “What we tried to do was use Hollywood to create the taglines that would then go along with a more casual dress-up day that’s better suited towards students.”

Taylor Langford, ‘25, ASB’s president says, “I think we wanted to do dress-up days that we knew kids would want to participate in, so we tried to do days that were as close to the theme, but also that were pretty easy to dress up for. I know pajama day is a big one so we wanted to make sure that was in there.”

Picking out dress-up days isn’t always an easy job, and is a process that needs to be followed to ensure a successful week of participation.

Sophia Diaz, ‘26, ASB’s spirit coordinator, says, “Before picking any dress-up days we try to stick to the theme, the theme of Hollywood. This goes out for all dress-up days, but we try not to do repeat dress-up days, so if we’ve already done it we try not to do it again for the school year.”

“We all, as a class, thought of different ideas. Some ideas didn’t get used, some did. We all brainstorm what ideas we’ve seen other schools do, what are some ideas we want to see, and we shorten that list from there,” says Diaz.

Picking out a theme for such a big tradition as Homecoming could feel intense. Ms. Aston says, “It’s a lot of pressure, because we know that we’re not just choosing a theme for our class, we’re choosing a theme for 2,300 students. We want to make sure that we choose the best theme possible, where most of the kids on campus can feel like that’s one they want to get behind and one they want to participate in.”

Langford says, “It’s definitely nerve-racking, because you want everyone to like the theme, and so it’s hard to pick something that you knew everyone was gonna love.”

Miranda Rojas, ‘25, ASB’s vice president says, “Either ‘Blue Out’ or ‘Celeb Day.’ Wearing blue to show our Ranger pride is part of the Redwood spirit. ‘Celeb Day’ is part of the Hollywood theme which goes back to why we selected the theme.”

When creating something as big as this, the people creating it also have to be proud of their creation. 

From a creative point of view, Ms. Aston says, “Wednesday is ‘celebrity day,’ where you dress as your favorite celebrity. I’m excited about that one because it gives kids a lot of room to explore and create, which is always fun to see what kids come up with when they’re given a little bit of space.”

“I have seen kids go all the way as far as wearing a bald cap to be Pitbull, which is super fun, and if you’re not super willing to go that far out of your comfort zone, you can dress like Adam Sandler and go the more comfy route. I like that one, I’m excited for that because I think it’ll be a lot of variety,” says Ms. Aston.

Tags: ASB, Behind the Scenes, clubs & lifestyles, dress-up days, homecoming, rangers, Redwood, redwood gigantea, redwood high school, Redwood Homecoming, redwood rangers, rhs, rhs homecoming, visalia ca