While the annual School Christmas Concert is a great way to end the term before students leave for winter holidays, it can be a stressful event for teachers to organize. This is especially so if there is no music or drama specialist to organize or supervise the process. However, this process should not be much different than the planning and implementing curriculum that the teacher does daily in the classroom if one uses creativity and flexibility. Here are some important points to consider.
Know Your Demographic
Teachers can sometimes feel paralyzed with "political correctness" at this time of year. Should the program be referred to as a Winter Holiday Program or a Christmas Concert? Teachers and administrators know their school population and what would be acceptable and comfortable to most families. Obviously a school that has a predominantly Christian population or a private religious school would prefer that the traditional Christian aspects of the holiday season be emphasized. A more urban or multicultural school, however, should assume more diverse ways of celebrating the season.
That said, keep in mind that, as in most things,not everyone will be happy with the choice of theme. There is always a small percentage of parents or teachers that will find something to disagree or be offended with, but the school should feel confident that the general population will enjoy and appreciate the program.
Focus on the Stories
Even in a religious school, the Christmas Concert is not a time to proselytize; but it is a place to tell the traditional Christmas story of Jesus being born in a stable. Powerful stories such as these make holiday events more meaningful. Kieran Egan in An Imaginative Approach to Teaching suggests that this is because stories capture the imagination with concepts of wonder and the miraculous. All humans respond to these concepts even if they don't have belief in the Christian God. The Hanukkah story also contains these elements with the miracle of the oil burning for eight days. Traditional Western classics like Dickens Christmas Carol, O. Henry's The Gift of the Magi, Hans Christian Anderson's The Little Match Girl, and the opening chapter of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women all reflect the qualities of generosity, unselfishness and goodwill that are characteristics associated with this season.
Of course, another characteristic of the season is materialism and often the story of Santa Claus or St. Nicholas giving presents to children who are good (and coal to those who are not) is the most popular story at this time of year. Because of this, I would discourage against using cutesy plays about elves, reindeer or toys as the focus of the concert simply because the stories are much less rich with meaning and history and do tend to provide moralizing messages. However, the poem The Night Before Christmas is a classic because it contains some of the same elements of wonder and mystery that the religious stories do.
Presentation
These stories could be presented in a number of ways. If only one is chosen, it could form the basis of a theme that the whole school could perform as a play or Reader's Theatre type narration. Songs could be chosen to be sung by a whole school choir that reflect the action or theme of the story.
Another idea would be to have each class or grade take a story or holiday tradition to perform. This idea would work especially well if the student population is diverse.
The most important point to consider is that parents love to see their children perform and this is the whole point of putting on the program. Choosing a format that maximizes the amount of students that take an active part in the concert will ensure that families leave the program feeling positive even if the theme of the program does not reflect their own beliefs or heritage.
Sources:
Egan, Kieran. An Imaginative Approach to Teaching. San Fransico: Jossey-Bass, 2005.
Lisa Loewen - Lisa Loewen is a writer and educator living in the area of Vancouver, B.C. She has a B.A with a major in History with a focus on Canadian ...
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