Today was the end of Christmas school. One last story to read, a review of the countries we learned about (and all of their varied Christmas traditions), one last project to complete, and the big finale of A Christmas Carol.
Our final Christmas story was from The Kingfisher Book of Classic Christmas Stories called “Christmas Every Day.” This was a cute story in which a child imagined what it would be like if was Christmas Day all year long. The end results of the imagining were not good, and in the end, she realized that the reason Christmas is so special is because it only comes around once a year. As much as I love Christmas, it was a good reminder that like everything, Christmas has its season.
To review our “Christmas Around the World” activities, I started by asking Turkey and Bunny what countries we had learned about. Each time they named one, I asked them how to say Merry Christmas in that country. We then decorated a sign with that saying–using lots of glitter (after all, you can’t have Christmas school without covering everything, including yourself, in copious amounts of glitter at least once!). As we glittered (Turkey and Bunny took turns going over the words I wrote out in pencil), we discussed some of the most notable Christmas traditions of that country. Although we only technically learned about four countries this year, I threw in a bonus question about England, since we’ve been reading A Christmas Carol, and we’ve gotten a pretty good idea of what a traditional English Christmas is like.
Because we did finish A Christmas Carol today, we also got to watch my favorite version of the movie–The Muppet Christmas Carol. I know, I know…the Muppets? And yet, the movie is strangely true to the book, the music is great, plus…well, it’s the Muppets! What’s not to love? I have a few other versions recorded on the DVR that I hope to get to as well, but I had to make sure we saw our favorite, as a reward for us having read the whole book!
I’m always sad when Christmas school ends. So much effort goes into the planning and implementation, starting way back in the summer when I start thinking about which resources I’m going to use, and which I’d like to get, and then the big rush in November and December of choosing crafts, planning field trips, picking which stories to read on which day, deciding which craft goes best with the stories, and figuring out how to break apart our big read-alouds. It should come as no surprise that between school and regular Christmas need-to-dos, I spend much of December completely exhausted! But it’s a good kind of exhaustion, and I wouldn’t trade making these special memories and building holiday traditions for anything!
Merry Christmas everyone!