I’ve been going to elementary Christmas shows for more than 12 years now. Having a wife who is also an elementary school, music teacher, it’s part of the territory. Since my wife teaches at a fairly large school, for the past 10 years she has done 2 shows, lower and upper grades, every Advent/Christmas season.
For many years my daughter was in the show, but since that time I sit in the back, comfortable not to be fighting for prime space, and free to read stories on my phone (or type blog entries).
Even though there is a sameness to all of the shows (tonight’s is “Miracle at Midnight”), I never get tired of being at the shows. There is something so affecting about children trying their best, and parents happy to see their young ones sing, dance, and (sort of) act. The jokes are corny, but always well-received.
The highlights of every show are the songs. Each class gets an opportunity to perform, usually with hand gestures and basic dancing. I love how parents wave at their children, even from the back of the church, as they crane and half-stand to get the best view of the child’s big moment.
OK, Mary is very great with child this year…a larger basketball than usual.
At both performances, it is the eldest class that performs the play. Like the years of Nutcracker, the passing of time is marked as children move through the ranks. It will seem an instant before the seventh graders singing right now will be Mary, Joseph, shepherds, kings, and the most coveted role of the camel.
Fifth graders singing now, a class of angels…for the moment.
My wife is always so nervous in the weeks between Halloween and the two shows, and there is always a day or two of near despair. But I can honestly (and impartially) say that there has never been an unsuccessful show.
Seventh graders now…cowboy shepherds…hmmm
Every year I make the programs for the shows. I remember this being quite an ordeal years ago, but now the template is so clear that it takes no more time than typing in names (in fact, in years when she reuses a show from years past, I don’t even have to type in the songs or characters). It is one of my two yearly contributions.
Ah, the camel…lots of laughs in the audience. Now the front hump is singing.
My other contribution is clean up, usually vacuuming the sanctuary. In doing this for so long two things are clear 1)it is very hard to vacuum straw and glitter 2)church vacuum cleaners are notoriously bad.
Now the manger scene, the upturn ending, the big reversal. The one lesson I still take from scripture is that God has a wonderful sense of dramatic structure.
Everyone on stage, the finale, bringing in the ship successfully again. and parents are looking at their watches and smiling…just under an hour!
A school Christmas play…not the worst way to spend an evening.