Holiday Tradtion #9: Preschool Christmas Program

I know you can't make anything out in this photo, but trust me when I tell you that MY child is up on that stage, preparing to sing (and hand-motion) her little heart out at her Christmas Program last week.

One thing I love about having Zoey in the Cascade Christian daycare program is that they still have "Christmas Programs", not "Winter Festivals" or "Holiday Sing-A-Longs"...it's Christmas all the way, with Jesus and all things religious being the center of what they're about. While Bryan and I are not terribly religious, we were both raised going to church and we both attended Cascade Christian preschools as well...in fact, Zoey's program the other night was in the same gym I used to sing in, what, 27 years ago? Anyway, the director of Zoey's daycare is a boisterous, cheerful woman who gets onstage at every program with a level of enthusiasm I can only envy from afar, to encourage us to 'PRAISE Jesus because our children are SUCH blessings and tonight you are going to be SO blessed by what your children have been preparing so hard to perform for you!' And then she inevitably introduces her assistant, Ms. Heather, who always looks exhausted and frazzled and kind of like 'aiy, this woman, I love her, but she told me two weeks ago about putting together a Christmas program!' Ms. Heather is the woman who gets it all done, you can tell, as she walks around behind the director picking up things that have fallen, been knocked over, or left in a state of disaster in the wake of such enthusiasm. It's always entertaining to watch.

But more on the program. Zoey's class was the first to perform two songs--Go Tell it on the Mountain, and Ring Those Bells. They filed in to the gym with jingle-bell wristbands and looks of total amazement on their faces. This was the make-it-or-break-it moment, when you could tell they were all either going to fall apart or totally ham it up for the entire assembled audience. Luckily, most of them began spotting their parents in the crowd, and there was plenty of jingle bell waving and shouts of 'Hi Mommy!' 'Hi Daddy!' Now, we've been listening to Zoey practice her songs for months now, and she wasn't about to disappoint, especially on her favorite song, Go Tell it on the Mountain. The girl had every word and hand motion memorized, although her lyrics deviated slightly from those I remember from childhood. For example, instead of "Go, tell it on the mountain, that Jesus Christ is born", Zoey prefers "Go, tell it on the mountain, that Jesus Christ is four". I hear that four is the new thirty.

I picked Zoey up in her classroom after the program and told Ms. Nicole how impressed I was that all the kids seemed so in to singing their songs, and she told me she was happy, too, because last year her class got up on stage and not one child sang one word of one song. This year, apparently, she got a class full of performers.

Christmas programs are by far one of my favorite holiday traditions!