Amen!  Ours is this evening at our Catholic School…I’ll bring my kleenex, too.

We are here in the States for 1 year and this is the one and only Catholic School Christmas Pageant for us here.  With my kids, nieces and nephews we had a representative of almost every class, alas not 8th grade.  My oldest dd did sing a beautiful solo in German, that probably no one understood except for her sisters and me.  It was truly wonderful and I was so proud of her.  If you are curious it was “Es ist ein Ros’ entsprungen” which is a big favorite in our home.  A man filmed the entire production with a really big camera that looked kinda profi to me.  I am definitely buying the DVD.

Our former parish sometimes did.
I wrote and directed one year. I pored over dozens of Christmas poems and took bits and pieces from about 6 or 7 and cobbled together a Christmas play in verse. It ended up being quite nice. I wish I still had a copy.
This is awful but I can’t even remember the parts my own children played I was so wrapped up in the organizational aspect. I can tell you who Mary was but that is about it.
Over the last 15 years though Christmas pagaents have not had a real place in our Christmas celebrations.

Our Catholic School is in its 4th year, and we have a wonderful pageant each year (the same each year so far). We like that it doesn’t change, as we can tell each new kindergartner that this is his year to be an angel and sing Happy Birthday Jesus. They like that part. Ours is tomorrow, and I can’t wait, although I dread the year it will be my last one (2021 if we don’t have any more children…)

So fun to hear about all of the various ways that schools and families celebrate - I hope others will share too!  Lisa

My son was home sick Monday and missed participating in his first ever pageant. Oh, did the tears flow! I SO wanted to hear his little voice and his classmates singing a lullaby to baby Jesus in their little shepherd outfits.

Tonight is our Christmas concert at our Catholic school. I, too, am grateful for this school where our concert is a “Christmas” one - not “holiday”. Our school goes through 5th grade, so it’s the 5th graders that “star” in the play part of the show. After five years of watching each 5th grade class take their turn, my oldest is now in 5th grade. With pregnancy hormones to boot, I know I’ll need tissue!

Dear Lisa,  I feel your sentiment.  Our oldest, Matthew, began St. Mary’s school back in 1992, and we have had kids in the annual Christmas pagent ever since.  It’s amazing how the same old songs and costumes take our breath away year after year.  Our “baby”, Jacob, is in eigth grade this year, too.  He was chsen for the MC of the evening for the pagent, our last pagent,  which should have taken place this evening…I say ‘should have’ because it’s not going to happen.  Mother nature took over and caused the biggest snowstorm ever here in the Antelope Vally of Southern CA.  School closed early for Christmas vacation, and they decided to make it an “Epiphany pagent” in early January.  And as disappointing as that may seem after 16 years of pagents, when you live in a place that usually gets one small sprinking of snow each winter, what happened yesterday was as breathtaking as any pagent.  To have time with the kids, and do nothing but sledding, snowman-building, bake cookies and drink hot cocoa by the fire…our own plans for the day were good, but clearly God’s plans were even better.  And this morning our world is completely white, so we get to do it all over again.
Please let me me know how you are feeling.  We are praying for you every day.  God bless!

To all Moms whose “baby” is in 8th grade this year…as a teacher at our Catholic school, I can not emphasize enough how appreciated you might be next year if you would be willing volunteer your time to help with the pagent.  When lining up and trying to hush little ones who are bouncing off the walls with excitement…there can never be too many parents helping out.  And your older kids might want to volunteer their help as well…it’s a great way to say thank you for many years of Ctholic education.

Our parish hosts a children’s pageant on Christmas Eve before mass.  It’s wonderful to see the kids graduate from sheep to shepherds to readers to singing in the choir.  I’m sure I’ll have a tear in my eye when our family’s days of participating are over.  Thankfully we still have little ones!

But, my kids go to public school, so I’ll also speak up in defense of winter concerts.  We attended our school’s show last night and it was a wonderful evening.  I feel lucky that my kids get to celebrate the universal joys of the season with their friends of so many different backgrounds.  I love hearing the children talk proudly about their own traditions (Jewish, Muslim, African, Christian, etc.) and seeing the pride in my sons’ eyes when they talk about their Catholic ones.  Being in a vibrant parish and a public school gives us the best of both worlds!

Laura,  Thanks for sharing your experience - I’m very sad that at our parish this year our Pastor has discontinued a longstanding tradition of having our little ones come to Christmas Eve mass dressed as shepherds, angels and wise men.  Also, as a mom of one who’s in public school now for the first year ever, thanks for your gentle reminder that exposing our children to cultural diversity can be a very beautiful thing!  Lisa

We have a small homeschooling family but still manage to do a very short Christmas play (our parish doesn’t really do one).  We use our digital camera and send the youtube link to my extended family members, almost all of whom live far away.  I don’t see my extended family for holidays so this is one way to share Christmas.