If there is one thing that Texas always does big its homecoming. From the week leading up to the big game and dance schools across the state are bustling with students eager to show their pride for their school.

From dress-up days to spirit games and shopping for the perfect shoes to match your dress – homecoming is filled with events to cap off the high school experience.

One tradition has grown to epic, Texas-sized proportion – Mums.

While the history of the homecoming mum is simple, the tradition has turned into a lucrative show of exaggeration with wearers trying go bigger and bigger each year.

In room 122 of the magnet campus, some Franklin parents have been hard at work since this summer preparing for homecoming and mum season.

According to PTSA volunteer and parent Mayra Tercero, the mum prep begins in the summer.

“Over the summer, we’ll start making a lot of things,” Tercero said.

“A lot of the heads were made over the summer and then we just come back and we start putting them together.”

Each mum is made by hand and can contain any assortment of ribbons, cowbells and other decorations such as lights, stuffed animals and charms.

The PTSA has been working to complete as much of the prep work as possible leading up their busy season.

“Usually the first two weeks students come in to ask questions,” Tercero said. “Then when they’re ready to buy they come back and order so the last two weeks it is super busy.”

From assembling orders to hosting workshops for teams the moms making mums stay busy.

We do workshops so, we have the soccer girls and the girls basketball team come in,” Tercero said. “We come in and put up these tables and then they will make their own.”

On Wednesday, Sept. 15, the moms hosted the Student Council and other groups to make their mums together.

“We actually built the mums and get to pick our ribbons,” Senior Samantha Galarza said.

Galarza said the experience was fun. “It took about an hour and a half,” Galarza said.

The workshops are meant for students to create small mums with their team or spirit group and cost each member $10 to create.

With the ordering deadline quickly approaching, some students lend to the mom’s stress through their indecision about getting a mum.

Junior Savannah Soldi is on the fence about buying her boyfriend a garter. Soldi wants to be asked to the dance before making the expense to buy her boyfriend a garter.

“I haven’t been asked yet,” Soldi joked. Although she expects her boyfriend to ask this week, she is cutting it close to the order deadline.

Mums started where homecoming did. According to the NCAA, the University of Missouri was the first school to host a homecoming celebration. Students wore chrysanthemum flowers with ribbons attached as an adornment and a show of school pride.

Sophomore Brooke Flores purchased a garter for her boyfriend to encourage his spirit.

“He’s not very outgoing and I am so I wanted to follow tradition and show off our relationship through the customizations.”

Flores and her boyfriend will be attending the dance and customized his garter to include their names.

Some students like Freshman Kersten Lara opted to make their own instead of buying one pre-made. Lara started working on her mum two weeks before the day students will show them.

“It’s not fully done,” Lara said. “I have to find another letter to finish my name and then I have to add more ripples and the centerpiece said.”

Lara is making the mum garter for her date.

“[I’ve spent] over $40,” Lara said. While the cost of a mum can range and vary greatly, Lara opted to make her garter to save money.

“I thought it would be cheaper,” Lara said. “The better thing about it is you can personalize it more.”