With exactly three weeks until Christmas, a few students from the Owego Free Academy joined together Wednesday morning to help bring some holiday cheer to residents at Absolut Center.

Approximately a dozen students from various grade levels were setting up lights and other Christmas decorations in the courtyard at the nursing home, turning it into a winter wonderland. This is the second year this decorating was taking place.

According to teacher Nancy Flynn, it started last year with cleaning the courtyard up for spring and it progressed to decorating it for the holiday season. Flynn says decorating the courtyard gives residents a chance to see something that may remind them of Christmases past when they were young. 

"Every room has a window and they enjoy looking out. Of course, in the summer it's nice because everything is green and beautiful, but during the holidays, they're still looking out their window, so we're giving them an opportunity to see the kind of Christmas that they might have had in their past, where they decorated a lot. And all the residents do come to their window and look and see these beautiful decorations," Flynn said.

Last year, one student came dressed as Santa, and so this year, a few students came in costume, including Santa, Buddy the Elf, the Grinch, Shrek and the rest donned Santa hats and other festive garb. This year, 12th-grader Jack Arroyo came dressed as Santa and says helping decorate for the holiday season means a lot to him.

"It means a lot to me help out the community and have people have a moment to share with family and have a grateful time with them for Christmas. It's a good time of the year, a jolly time of the year. It's always good to spend time with people like that and reconcile moments you've had with them and it's just a really good time to be here," Arroyo said.

Flynn said when it came to decorating, she wanted to Griswold it and go all out, referencing the movie National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. Some decorations were already on hand, others were bought, and others were donated.

"I'm hoping that we can spread the idea that they can donate decorations and make it bigger and bigger every year," Flynn said.