History professor shares holiday cheer with students

Dec. 14, 2022 – DENTON – Each December, Texas Woman's University history professor Jacob Blosser and his wife, Kathy, welcome TWU students into their Denton home.

It started 17 years ago when a first-year student told Blosser she was homesick between Thanksgiving and final exams. Blosser decided that the answer to homesickness and anxiety over exams was a holiday party.

“I thought it might make a difference if students could take an hour and join my family for a bit of holiday cheer,” Blosser said.

He partnered with University Housing, and that first year 15 students gathered in the Blossers’ living room. In the years following, the number of students grew. Before the pandemic, he was hosting multiple parties. “Now we limit it to just one a year,” he said.

Blosser’s holiday parties share a basic recipe. “The parties are a time when you can show that you care,” Blosser said. "You use the good china, serve six layer chocolate cake and make sure that there’s plenty to eat. Students studying for exams are ravenous.”

The parties are technically study sessions for his history course. “I tell them to take notes between bites. There’s lots of exam answers that get spilled out over the course of the evening.”

The evening always ends with Blosser reading The Night Before Christmas to his students. “It’s a very special time of year,” he said. “I’d like to think that we send the students out a little happier, a little more cared for, than when they came in.”