Tara’s
Takes
The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear! Those words of wisdom from Buddy the Elf has summed up my preparation for the Christmas holiday.
December if a busy month for everyone, but in our industry, it is a nonstop month of concerts, school events, church programs, community events and more.
Monday night I wrapped up my sixth, yes I said sixth, concert/program of the holiday season. I feel that I should be fully engulfed in holiday spirit now.
Per started off December by covering the Tracy Elementary concert. After that, my concert coverage took over. Due to multiple events on the same night, I enjoyed the TAHS Winter Prelude. I followed that up with the final Milroy School Christmas concert. I’ve been covering these since we bought the paper so it was a bittersweet moment.
That weekend, Natalie joined me for the St. Mary’s School program.
That week, Natalie had her final Holy Redeemer School Christmas program. Considering I’ve had kids in the school since 2009, it’s going to be odd not having that on my schedule next year. When Brady was in kindergarten, Natalie was Baby Jesus for his concert. This year, she was an angel as the eighth-grade portrays the story of Jesus’ birth. In addition, Holy Redeemer eighth-graders perform “The Light of Christ” to start the program. One of the traditions is that the choir director, Mrs. Lenz, invites HRS alumni who are seniors at the high school to come back and sing “The Light of Christ” as the students perform. Since Ben is a senior, he was part of the group that sang for Natalie’s concert. It pulled at my heart strings a little.
This past weekend, I enjoyed Tracy Lutheran Church’s Sunday school program. And Monday night I finished up my month of all things Christmas program with Ben’s senior Christmas concert at Marshall High School.
I’ll be honest, between the chaos of the last few days before Christmas, early deadlines and the work that goes into taking over three more papers starting Jan. 1, I had a million things I wanted to be doing Monday night. This concert was supposed to be the week before, but Mother Nature postponed it.
However, this (along with the Spring Pops Concert) is one of my favorite concerts at MHS. This year’s was probably the best I’d seen.
A big part of it is the way the students have fun with the music. It features a wide variety. It always starts with the jazz band, moves into the different choirs, transitions to the concert band and finally, a big sing-along with all the band and choir students. What makes this fun is they have the choir students right down close to the audience to encourage audience participation. In addition, the kids in band decorate the instruments with bows and ribbon, most of the students are wearing Santa hats or holiday sweaters during the band portion. They wear their choir robes for the first part and during the big sing-along all the kids are wearing their fun holiday attire. There is a lot of giggling and smiles during this portion.
This year MHS has two high school exchange students from Germany, one in band and one in choir. So, of course, during the sing-along, we had to do “Oh Christmas Tree” in German. After many hours in the audience this month, it was a fun way to end the program season.
Every concert I attend, whether it’s watching preschool or seniors, I’m always amazed at the work that goes into it. No matter the age or the difficulty of the piece, these kids, and more importantly directors, spend a lot of time to make it their best.
I couldn’t agree more with Buddy the Elf, “The best way to spread Christmas cheer is signing loud for all to hear.” After all the songs I’ve heard, I’m bursting with Christmas cheer.
Per and I wish all of our readers, advertisers and supporters a very Merry Christmas!
