Festa do Natal

I hope you still have a little Christmas spirit, because I'm finally getting around to posting the kids school Christmas program!

The week before school ended, the kids' school had a Christmas program. The kids had been talking about practicing for it for weeks. Additionally, both kids' teachers has requested certain items for the kids costumes (fabric, shirts, props, etc). Needless to say, with the costumes, practices and so on, it was quite an event!

It included the entire primary school, which is pretty much 2 years old through about 9 or 10 years old. There were also a few performances by older dance troupes from the school, a performance by a band of students and so on. This program started at 8:30 PM. My kids are usually washed, brushed, pajama'd and in bed by 8:30 PM. But as this is Brazil, the whole clock and schedule are shifted a few hours later and the program, scheduled to begin at 8:30 really kicked off closer to 8:50.

Depending on the age of the class, the performances were of a different scale. Older kids did choreographed dances or skits, younger kids mostly paraded around the gymnasium. But every child was in a complete costume. The whole gym was elaborately decorated.

D's class were all dressed as angels and did a little dance with a partner of the same gender. It was so cute, and he was so serious, being sure to do exactly what he was supposed to. Several weeks later he is still singing the song they danced to.

M's class was more along the lines of parading through the gym, which is a lot to ask of a group of 3-year-olds at 10 PM in my opinion! The kids were Santa and his helpers, fairies, dolls, ballerinas, and drummer boys. She was a "yellow fairy." We sent her to her classroom wearing a tulle skirt, tank top, wings and bare feet. Her group walked the perimeter of the gym blowing bubbles. When we picked her up at the end at about 10:30 she was also wearing gold cuffs on her ankles and wrists, stars and glitter in her hair (that lasted for more than a week and 5 shampoos) and lipstick, blush, sparkly powder on her face and lots of eyeshadow.

I am still adjusting to this concept of Brazilian time, but I was amazed to see the teeny tiny kids a part of this program so late at night.

The whole of the program was really amazing to me, especially for a primary school. It was so
well organized and planned. The gym was packed. The program ended with Mary and Joseph parading through with a real brand new baby "Jesus" and all the children following. During that time they had each family in the audience light and hold up a candle. It was beautiful, but hundreds of open flames is not something we'd do in a gym full of people in the US. Unfortunately the kids didn’t get to see any of the program. They were held in their classrooms before and after their parts, because there was no place to seat them in the full gym.

But my favorite part of the program was a skit by some older children. It was all without dialogue. The main characters were an obviously poor family of 6. The mom kissed and waved the dad off to work, then she packed up the older children with baskets of popcorn to "sell" throughout town. Mom cleaned a little and did the laundry and kids came back turning over the money they earned to mom, dad returned with an aching back and handed mom a bag. In it was one very small load of bread, which they broke into 6 pieces, said grace and ate, then laid down to go to sleep. While they were sleeping, Santa came and left a gift at the feet of each person. When they woke on Christmas morning they opened their presents and each family member pulled out a long banner and held it up....their gifts were "Peace," "Faith," "Love," "Health," "Happiness," and "Hope." It was a beautiful message, especially in a place where there is some serious economic depression.

I’d been having trouble with my Christmas spirit, and even though it was hot and humid in the auditorium that night, the program really made a turn for me....and the kids were so proud of it!