House of Margaret Thatcher and the House of C.S. Lewis held another Red and Green Affair on Saturday, only this year it wasn’t open for the entire student body.

RGA is an annual Thatcher-Lewis Christmas tradition dating back to King’s residence at the Empire State Building in 2006. Similar to its founding, this year it was designed for just the two houses.

Over the years, the holiday celebration has transformed from a pajama party, to a dance, and, this year, to a cocktail attire social. Previously, it was offered to the entire school as a dance hosted by Thatcher and Lewis. However, this year it was exclusive to the two houses.

According to RGA Associate Laura Sneed, RGA is no longer an open invite because the houses want to restore and preserve the Thatcher-Lewis dynamic.

“Lewis is our brother house, but we don’t do a lot of one-on-one events with them, so we thought this would be fun to do a more Thatcher-Lewis exclusive Christmas party than a dance,” Sneed said.

From left to right, Thatcher’s exec team includes: Annie Mae Jones, Rachel Freeman, Emma Powell and Olivia Staggs. I I Photo credit to Brent Buterbaugh

Held in the O’Keefe Student Union, this year the event was only open to the brother and sister houses, including a plus one for each attendee. According to Thatcher Scholar Emma Chamberlain, most of the attendees were first-year students.

According to Thatcher President Annie Mae Jones, the change was mainly due to their budget.

“It took a lot for two houses to put on an entire event for the student body – financially and logistically of putting it together the week before finals,” Jones said.“[it was] a lot of work and way too much money, and it wasn’t a huge payoff.”

Lewis President Blake Ashley had similar remarks.

“It was a total no-brainer for me and Annie Mae to say no,” Ashley said.

Plans for next year’s RGA have yet to be decided.

“It’s a year-by-year situation,” Sneed said.

Red and Green Affair Returns To Original Tradition