{"id":4251,"date":"2025-12-16T18:30:27","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T23:30:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stcoba-canada.com\/?p=4251"},"modified":"2025-12-18T09:14:49","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T14:14:49","slug":"a-magical-night-of-thomian-spirit-holiday-cheer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stcoba-canada.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/16\/a-magical-night-of-thomian-spirit-holiday-cheer\/","title":{"rendered":"A Magical Night of Thomian Spirit &#038; Holiday Cheer!"},"content":{"rendered":"<div dir=\"ltr\">\n<h3>Event Recap: A Magical Night of Thomian Spirit &amp; Holiday Cheer!<\/h3>\n<p><b>Date:<\/b> Friday, December 12, 2025 <b>Venue:<\/b> White Shield Banquet Hall (The Brick Room)<\/p>\n<p>What an incredible evening! On Friday, December 12th, the <b>STC OBA of Canada<\/b> family came together to celebrate the season, and we are thrilled to report that the event was a resounding success.<\/p>\n<p>The atmosphere in the &#8220;Brick Room&#8221; at the White Shield Banquet Hall was <b>festive<\/b>, perfectly capturing the holiday feel. We were delighted to host a near-capacity crowd of <b>115 adults and 25 energetic children<\/b>, bringing together esteemed members, friends, and families for a night of joy and connection.<\/p>\n<h4><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"an1\" draggable=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/fonts.gstatic.com\/s\/e\/notoemoji\/16.0\/1f37d_fe0f\/72.png\" alt=\"\ud83c\udf7d\ufe0f\" data-emoji=\"\ud83c\udf7d\ufe0f\" aria-label=\"\ud83c\udf7d\ufe0f\" \/> A Feast for the Senses<\/h4>\n<p>Guests were treated to a superb dining experience. The delicious Sri Lankan buffet was a hit, but the star of the culinary show was undoubtedly the <b>Live Hopper Station<\/b>, serving up crispy, hot favorites that kept everyone coming back for seconds.<\/p>\n<h4><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"an1\" draggable=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/fonts.gstatic.com\/s\/e\/notoemoji\/16.0\/1f3b6\/72.png\" alt=\"\ud83c\udfb6\" data-emoji=\"\ud83c\udfb6\" aria-label=\"\ud83c\udfb6\" \/> Music &amp; Entertainment<\/h4>\n<p>The room was alive with music all night long! A massive thank you to <b>Rolly<\/b>, our fantastic one-man band, who kept the energy high. The holiday spirit truly soared when he was accompanied by our very own talented Thomian singers\u2014<b>Ravi Niles, Kumaru Wijesundera, and Gihan De Silva<\/b>\u2014who led us through nostalgic tunes and festive carols.<\/p>\n<p>The magic of Christmas was truly center stage this year. We were charmed by Mrs. Claus (<b>Sonji Kumarage<\/b>), who gathered the little ones for a heartwarming story time reading of <i>&#8216;Twas the Night Before Christmas&#8217;<\/i>. The excitement then peaked as <b>Santa Claus<\/b> made his grand entrance to hand out gifts to the delight of the children (and the adults!).<\/p>\n<h4><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"an1\" draggable=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/fonts.gstatic.com\/s\/e\/notoemoji\/16.0\/1f91d\/72.png\" alt=\"\ud83e\udd1d\" data-emoji=\"\ud83e\udd1d\" aria-label=\"\ud83e\udd1d\" \/> A Heartfelt Thank You<\/h4>\n<p>An event of this magnitude does not happen without dedicated teamwork and support. We would like to extend our deepest gratitude to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Our Generous Sponsors:<\/b> A special thank you to <b>Joel Rasiah, Vishan De Mel, and Riyaz Rauf<\/b> for their sponsorship and support in making this event possible.<\/li>\n<li><b>The Organizing Committee:<\/b> A massive job well done to the entire <b>EXCO<\/b> for their hard work. A special note of appreciation goes to <b>Raj Mylrajan<\/b>, who did most of the &#8220;heavy lifting&#8221; to ensure every detail was perfect.<\/li>\n<li><b>Our Master of Ceremonies:<\/b> Thank you to <b>Kamaj<\/b>, who guided the evening seamlessly with wit and charm.<\/li>\n<li><b>Our Dedicated Helpers &amp; Elves:<\/b> We couldn&#8217;t have done it without the support of the <b>Suresan family<\/b>, <b>Vishan De Mel<\/b>, and <b>Echi Fernando<\/b>, along with our wonderful Christmas Elves, <b>Geetha and Rozanne<\/b>.<\/li>\n<li><b>The Venue:<\/b> A shoutout to the amazing staff at <b>White Shield<\/b> for their excellent service and hospitality.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>To everyone who attended\u2014thank you for making this Christmas Party a memorable one. It was a true celebration of our Thomian bond, filled with laughter, great food, and festive magic.<\/p>\n<p>We look forward to seeing you all at our next gathering!<\/p>\n<p><b>Esto Perpetua!<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/photos.app.goo.gl\/Q9G9ZyLU1DruVrV69\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-4254\" src=\"https:\/\/stcoba-canada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Christmas_Image.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"324\" height=\"243\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stcoba-canada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Christmas_Image.jpeg 1600w, https:\/\/stcoba-canada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Christmas_Image-300x225.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/stcoba-canada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Christmas_Image-1024x768.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/stcoba-canada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Christmas_Image-768x576.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/stcoba-canada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Christmas_Image-1536x1152.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/stcoba-canada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Christmas_Image-700x525.jpeg 700w, https:\/\/stcoba-canada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Christmas_Image-332x249.jpeg 332w, https:\/\/stcoba-canada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Christmas_Image-500x375.jpeg 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 324px) 100vw, 324px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Click here for Photos &gt;&gt;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Event Recap: A Magical Night of Thomian Spirit &amp; Holiday Cheer! Date: Friday, December 12, 2025 Venue: White Shield Banquet Hall (The Brick Room) What an incredible evening! On Friday, December 12th, the STC OBA of Canada family came together to celebrate the season, and we are thrilled to report &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4254,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christmas-party","category-uncategorized","column","twocol","has-thumbnail"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-24 02:24:14","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stcoba-canada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stcoba-canada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stcoba-canada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stcoba-canada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stcoba-canada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4251"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/stcoba-canada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4255,"href":"https:\/\/stcoba-canada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4251\/revisions\/4255"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stcoba-canada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stcoba-canada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stcoba-canada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stcoba-canada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}