Christmas classes are available to students who will be here between the fall and winter semesters. The classes begin Dec. 21 and run through the holiday break, excluding Christmas and Christmas Eve. Three classes are available for $100 per credit, up to three credits.

The classes are “not for the faint at heart,” said Chad Price, Academic Programs coordinator for Continuing Education. The classes run for five hours at a time with breaks interspersed. “It’s three credits in eight days,” Price said. “That’s what you’re doing for Christmas break.”

There are a lot of good aspects of the Christmas classes. “They focus on just one subject,” Price said. “There are no distractions and you get the teacher’s complete attention.”

Keri Button, a senior from Yakima, Wash., is enrolled in Math 221, a statistics class, this Christmas break. “I’m glad that I’ll be able to just concentrate on the math and I won’t have any other classes, it will be nice,” Button said.

Button heard about the class through her husband’s friend who took it last year. She decided since she would be here for Christmas anyway, it would be a good way to move right along.

“I just thought I’d get it over with,” Button said. “I’m trying to graduate when my husband does.”

She is a little worried about the intensity of the course. “I talked to the teacher and he said there’s about two hours of homework,” Button said. “And that’s on top of the five hours of class.”

A lot of the students who enroll, live locally, or can’t make it home for Christmas. “We have a lot of international students enroll,” Price said. Other students, like Button, live in Rexburg permanently and have children, so they will be here.

Christmas classes are not the only option for students who want to keep up on their credits when they’re out of school.

Continuing Education offers night classes and online courses to students who are off track. Winter registration for credit classes is currently open. Price said changes are on the horizon for online courses.

“There will be new online courses coming within a year,” Price said. “The university is developing an online bachelor’s program for past alumni who did not graduate and for Ricks graduates.”

With the creation of an online bachelor’s program, more upper level online courses will be offered to current BYU-Idaho students. Until then, the Continuing Education department is constantly working with campus departments to monitor the need for online courses.

Students can take up to 15 credits of night classes. The credits cost $120 each.