It’s beginning to look a lot like “Christmas”

Sometimes a group of students gets a creative idea like “what if we surprised everyone in the concert and sang a bunch of songs from The Nightmare Before Christmas?” I like to run with those ideas when possible, especially with younger students who are just dipping their toes into the water of performing arts. I find it helps them “buy in” to what we are doing in choir class. Most of these students had never taken a middle school choir class before, so we were starting from the beginning. Anything I can do to make learning foundational skills fun is worth the time and energy!

While I don’t always have a “gimmick” in a concert (and indeed some concert themes/venues/occasions make comedic pieces inappropriate), I’m happy to get creative when possible to help students achieve their vision and I’m certainly not above a little goofiness. The students involved in this performance spent all fall trying to figure out how they could outdo the previous 5th/6th grade combined choir’s rendition of “The 12 Days of Christmas”; a performance that at face value was a relatively faithful (though simplified) vocal rendition of said Christmas song using appropriate singing technique. This particular rendition was tastefully accompanied by elaborate student-created choreography and prop work featuring a stuffed toy partridge tied to a fishing pole (with much more swinging the partridge overhead than in rehearsal), tutus pulled over blue blazers, an inflatable cow, hula hoops and too many kazoos. Alas, the footage of said “12 days of Christmas” performance is lost to the ages, but it lives on in legend. This was the current crop of 5th/6th grade singers attempt at surpassing that performance.

Note: one student was feeling unwell and had to sit down during the performance. Sometimes that happens and the health of the student always comes first. Luckily in this case he remembered what to do once I reminded him that it was okay to sit down if he needed to and we were able to carry on. He felt better afterwards and was able to participate in the full group songs at the end.