I have been recently thinking about when I was a kid at school, and how we would have our annual Christmas Program each year. I am taking you back a few years though...to the 1950's . Mrs. Ashenbrenner, Ms Tiffany,Mrs Degner, and Mrs Marcheisi , our earlier grade school teachers, would have us start practicing songs for weeks ahead, so every song would be perfect. . As I remember at the school program, we sang Here Comes Santa Claus , All I Want for Christmas , Jingle Bells, Frosty The Snow Man ,Up On The Housetop . and end it all with...We Wish You A Merry Christmas . Sometimes we would have jingle bells to shake or triangles to play. At the end of the program, an an announcement would be made that Santa Claus was coming for a visit...and every year he arrived right on schedule! . I always thought he must be related to Mr Cater...such a resemblance through that beard of his! LOL. We sat on Santa's lap, which in the 3th -4th grade was rather embarrassing for a kid, but all the other kids went along with the routine... so I did also. We told him in loud voice (with parents close by) all we wanted for Christmas....and it wasn't just our two front teeth! I always asked for either a doll or doll buggy..and eventually, one year the old guy got it right. He would give us a brown lunch sack filled with Christmas candy, candy canes and oranges and away we would go...home for the holidays. I remember anticipation of the Christmas Holidays...No school until January 7th!
This nice guy is not Santa Claus...but looks pretty much like Santa would dress us at our programs
Of course, at Sunday School programs, (after reciting our one line that would take mom weeks to get me to learn) we sang songs like Silent Night ,Joy To The World ,Away In A Manger , to recreate the nativity...and of course it always ended with...We Wish You A Merry Christmas .
Of course, at Sunday School programs, (after reciting our one line that would take mom weeks to get me to learn) we sang songs like Silent Night ,Joy To The World ,Away In A Manger , to recreate the nativity...and of course it always ended with...We Wish You A Merry Christmas .
I imagine Christmas programs are pretty much the same, even today, in schools. Would love to hear about what yours was like!
Additional note: my dd Stephanie added in comments "These are good memories though - especially thinking on all the Christmas concerts my mother had to sit through listening to a bunch of jr. high kids playing instruments (painful I bet! lol)"
I can reply that each was music to a moms ears...though I can still remember when in 5th grade, her band's very first "tune up note"....sounded like a good note to win the war by. ( make the enemy drop their guns and run! LOL LOL.
"Christmas Is Coming "
Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat
Please put a penny in the old man's hat
If you haven't got a penny, a ha'penny will do
If you haven't got a ha'penny, a farthing will do
If you haven't got a farthing, then God bless you!
(A farthing is an old British coin valued one quarter of a penny!)
Pictured above , is a dreamy eyed folk art snowman I made, developing a paper pattern from a soccer ball and vase...Sometimes just looking at objects around the house, you can develop a workable pattern. He sits in a wreath of pine which I will be adding vintage ornaments to, once I have them unpacked.
Christmas Is Coming" frequently sung as a round with lyrics as above.
This became the basis for Bing Crosby's song "Christmas Is a-Comin'
Of course, we didn't have NORAD back then to tell us when and where the real guy was on Christmas Eve..as they do now at their tracking center...http://www.noradsanta.org/ or had email for a quick reply from Santa to our well thought out Christmas list...at click here to E-Mail your wish list Santa! santaac@nep.net
Santa is very happy to say he has been getting many wonderful reports on how good children have been this year. He and Mrs. Claus have been pouring over the volumes of letters from good little boys and girls. Wow such wonderful wish lists. If you have not sent your wish list you can send it from this website... http://santaslistofgoodlittleboysandgirls.com/index.html
And if you are wondering if you have been naughty or nice..here is a place you can look to see how you are doing on Santa's naughty or nice list! http://www.northpole.com/Den/List.asp
Thank You for sharing the links...they are great and have tons of things for the kiddies and even adults :)))))
ReplyDeleteI love that snowman!
ReplyDeleteI wish my son's school had annual Christmas programs like we used to - I'm not sure if it's lack of interest or that most schools anymore are lacking music programs (my son's music teacher Mrs. Warner is wonderful but itinerant and travels between elementary schools in our city).
ReplyDeleteThese are good memories though - especially thinking on all the Christmas concerts my mother had to sit through listening to a bunch of jr. high kids playing instruments (painful I bet! lol)
Hey, Miz Cindy! I have tagged you on my blog if you would care to play along!
ReplyDeleteAww...thanks for bringing back those memories to me, Cindy!
ReplyDeleteAnd thank you for those really sweet comments you left on my blog! You sure do know how to make a girl feel good! :)
Have a great Thanksgiving week!
Tammy
Oh boy, we always have Christmas concerts to sit through with our kids-church and school. It is alot of great memories but the down side is all the "special" outfits we have to come up with. Caryn and Kent both have to have white turtlenecks for the church one (they are going to be in a living Christmas tree). You would think that white turtlenecks would be easy, however, most of theirs have been worn under soccer outfits and are not fit to be seen. So it is out to buy white turtle necks. Kent has to be a toy soldier in his school program. Yikes, how do you do that? Needless to say, I had to buy a costume on ebay. Now I am hoping I can convince him to actually wear it. I was going to give it to the school for next year but Angie insisted that I keep it just in case she needs it next year. She has to buy an elf costume this year so between us, we should have a stock of Christmas outfits! :)
ReplyDeleteI remember in 1st grade trying to fake it through "up on the housetop" For some reason, I didn't know any of the words. I think I was Mary in my kindergarten program-back when you were allowed to do "christian" programs in public school.
wonderful memories!!
ReplyDeletethanks!
Brings back memories of my own childhood!
ReplyDelete