At no time do I feel more a part of my community than when we are all gathered together under a single roof, bonded by the smell of damp wool and thoughts of our gussied-up children ready for the elementary holiday program. There’s no more harmonious feeling than that which comes from seeing not just your own child, but everyone’s children dressed as reindeer on an equal opportunity basis.
You don’t have a kid participating? Indulge your sappiest inner self and go anyway. Have your heart filled. Let the festivities begin.
Choose a hard, creaking fold-out chair in the middle of the gymnasium where you will be able to properly take in the expressions on the faces of our future. Go early. The gym will be packed with hundreds of parents, grandparents, fussing siblings, aunts, uncles, and rogue teenagers from down the block. Eavesdrop on community gossip. Count the number of cowboy hats versus baseball caps. Note the strategies of 6-foot dads trying to settle themselves into the tiny seats. Breathe in Avon perfumes as they mix with the scent of dust burning off stage lights.
Personally, I will be among the unapologetically maternal, busy buckling black shoes and complimenting 9-year-old girls on their tights, their singing voices, and their meticulously curled hair. For the boys, we’ll straighten ties and collars and admire shined-up belt buckles. My colleagues and I will be sincere in our nervous expectation for our students and their parents.
Our elementary is the kind where many of the teachers credibly say things like, “His father looked just like that in the second grade.”
With only 12 years at the school, I can’t claim the knowledge of generations, but I do know that the fifth-grade band will play first. Even though she’s been running at full throttle for the last two weeks, the music teacher herself will be aglow. While she explains how far her students have come in just a few months, it’s essential to ponder the concept of bands and working together and what it’s like to teach children the language of music. The students, faces all shining and anxious, will blow loud warm-up notes and hide grins in their mouthpieces and reeds. The band will play “Jolly Old St. Nicholas,” “Good King Wenceslas” and “Jingle Bells.” (This year the misplaced saxophone honk will come from my own son!) Notice how naturally the students have learned to tap their toes to keep time. Clap especially hard.
As the band moves off stage, the lights will go half up while adults check their watches and phones. Moms with toddlers will storm the bathroom. People will pass newborns in fleece Santa suits up and down the rows for all to coo at during the lull.
When the lights go down again, the play and singing will begin. The kids with speaking parts will pass the microphone from hand to shaking hand. Parents in turn will bend to keep from obstructing anyone’s view as they shuffle up the center aisle in order to blind their children with flashing cameras while they are center stage. Everyone will “Ahhh!” without reserve when the kindergartners come on adjusting their elf hats.
My favorite part is the end. At our little school, this means all the kids, about 200 students in grades K-5, will stand together on stage and sing in unison. The hours of preparation will pay off as they work the dynamics according to the teacher’s direction and smile when she reminds them by smiling herself. It will be a joyful number with a crescendo finish. Everything will be right; the children will sing together and beam and bow when they are finished. Lights, kids and spirits will glitter and shine.
When it’s over, we’ll tell our neighbors how great their kids and grandkids did, how tall they’ve grown, how nice they looked. Usually it will be snowing outside and a gentle hush of significance and the thrill of coming vacation will be upon us we exit. Most important, we’ll feel once again that a certain harmony has sprung from the school gymnasium and is following us all out to welcome the season.
Kate Krautkramer teaches at South Routt Elementary in Yampa. She was a member of the 2002 Colorado Voices panel.
