Advent Calendar- December 16 - Christmas At School

What did you or your ancestors do to celebrate Christmas at school? Were you ever in a Christmas Pageant?



When I was growing up we had a Christmas Pageant almost every year at school. One year we did “Christmas Around the World” [I’ll have to try to locate that photograph! I was a Hawaiian hula dancer!] Another year we did a version of Dickens “A Christmas Carol” [it’s been one of my most favorite Christmas stories ever since!] Another Christmas we did a live Nativity. One year we went to local nursing homes and sang carols for the residents there. I was very good at memorizing and reciting, so I often got lead roles in school pageants.

There were always Christmas Parties and Gift Exchanges on the last day of school before the Christmas/ New Year break. Usually a girl would draw a girls name and a boy another boy’s name, and they would exchange gifts on the big day. One year, however, we brought in a gift suitable for a boy or a girl and we played musical chairs around the Christmas tree to get our gifts. Now that was a lot of fun, and hilarious too! [As each person was eliminated they got to choose a gift from beneath the tree. The last player left got a gift from the teacher instead. It was a set of storybooks – I can’t remember what now. I just remember being disappointed I hadn’t been the last player!]

The Christmas Party consisted of each child bringing in some kind of goodie from home. There would be homemade cupcakes, and homemade cookies, and homemade fudge. And punch was usually Hawaiian Punch served with ginger ale. [Soda pop was not served very often to children back then. At least not in the circle I was in. The usual drinks were Kool-Aid or juice, or we drank from the water hose if we were thirsty and outside playing!]

Christmas time at school was always such fun!