The halls of Flower Mound High School were more crowded than usual last Friday with bells and whistles everywhere. Homecoming week was here.

The whole week was filled with different spirit days to help pep up the school for the homecoming game that Friday. The end of the spirit week was concluded with a proud display of mums and garters. These are a prominent Texas tradition where girls make an arm garter for their homecoming date and the guys make a homecoming mum for the girl. Mums and garters are made out of ribbons, cardboard, a fabric flower centerpiece, and other trinkets that represent the school and hobbies that the person is involved in.

“I’m a sophomore so mine had sophomore on it, and I’m really into lacrosse so parts of it were orange, my lacrosse teams color,” sophomore Ben Hammond said.

Every mum and garter had a unique twist to it, making each one different and one-of-a-kind.  However, mums and garters can sometimes get a little bit too crazy.

“I really like the idea of mums and garters, but sometimes they can get excessive. Some people go mad with it,” Hammond said.

All around were mums and garters with everything from lights to music to animals on them.

“There was a mum where the base of it was a whole poster board with flowers everywhere,” Hammond said, “It had a banner around it and everything and she wore it all day.”

Some people thought that it would be better if their mum or garter was planned so they could have what they wanted on it, and other people thought that it would be better if it as a surprise.

“I would rather plan mine so I would know what would be on it. I’m not really into surprises,” freshman Nathan Watkins said.

But in the end, whether or not the mum or garter was a surprise or not, crazy or not as crazy, or made by a date or even a mom, school spirit is what mums and garters are all about.