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What would a school be without the annual Christmas program?! My guess is a lot less stressfull 🙂 !!! Seriously though, our Christmas program this year was filled with fun and laughing with many timely messages as well. Emily served as the coordinator and put much of her time into preparing and planning the event, and while you’ve always got those little hiccups like costume changes and last minute program tweaks, it was a wonderful event.
The theme for the Christmas program pitted all the grades against one another in “sing-off” style with 3 impartial judges just like the popular TV shows such as “X-Factor” or “American Idol.” While this served to engage the kids in the program, it also led to a fierce competition between the teachers of each homeroom. The 7th Graders practiced everyday, for hours, for weeks! The 12th Graders had elaborate costume changes and the 8th Graders almost had special effects (because their homeroom teacher is also the science teacher and has access to some chemicals!).
Each class was to put together a song, as skit, and a dance. However many of the grades simply blended all 3 together (which unfortunately made the judging more difficult). The skits were hilarious. These Bahamian kids can certainly act well! My favorite was an act of the chaotic nature of holiday airline travel performed by the 12th Graders. They depicted a mixing of cultural expressions of the holidays with the weariness of delays and missed appointments to draw the audience’s attention back to the real meaning of Christmas in the midst of all the hectic-bustle.
I was in charge of the 10th Grade. I really don’t want to talk about it. Lets just say the skit kept changing, and on the day of the performance it was changing still. All in all, everyone did a great job, and with grades 5-12 the performances lasted almost 3 hours!
Finally, it came time for the judging. Honorable mention went to Grades 8 and 11 for their specifically “Christmas” message about keeping Christ in Christmas. 9th Grade took 3rd place with an elaborate play and 12th Grade took 2nd for great acting and costumes. But it was the 7th Graders who practiced and practiced and practiced, and ultimately did a 45 minute long rendition of the “entire” Christmas story – from Elizabeth’s pregnancy to the Wisemen from the East.
We had such a fun time. There were many laughs and the parents really enjoyed seeing what the Windermere kids can do. But next year we might just do carols.