You Could Die From the Cute

Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa Wall

 I've mentioned before how much I enjoy the multiculturalism of Lizzy's preschool. Today's holiday concert ("and feast, mama!") was a lovely example.

December Wall

Keep in mind that these kids are between three and six years of age, so the one little boy who needed his mom to sit with him due to stage fright is totally acceptable; they are little kids. Also many of the songs have been edited for length. This explains why Lizzy kept telling me I was singing "the wum-pa-pum-pum song wong", because they don't sing all three verses of The Little Drummer Boy at preschool; the vast majority of the kids haven't got the attention span for it. They sang several Christmas tunes (only the first five Days of Christmas in what they called Partridge In a Pear Tree, for example), several I'd classify as "winter" themed in English and Spanish ("Cascabel, cascabel, música de amor"), and a very cute version of The Dreidel Song, wherein one little girl played the dreidel itself, spinning around and falling down with the paper dreidel to show how it worked. Then Miss Ginny - the head teacher - read them The Night Before Christmas, with asides to explain the things they did not grok. My favorite of these went like this...

Miz Liz

Miss Ginny: You see, a long time ago, mommies and daddies both used to wear long nightgowns and caps or kerchiefs to keep themselves warm at night. Do any of your mommies or daddies still do this?
Small Girl: My daddy just wears his underwear to bed!

And then the whole group sang: "We wish you a Merry Christmas, we wish you a Happy Hanukkah, we wish you a Joyous Kwanzaa and a Happy New Year!"

Lizzy in her Antlers
and Red Nose for
Reindeer Hokey
Pokey

We all trooped upstairs for "the feast" as Lizzy persisted in calling it - we do potluck. There was a nice little book exchange where the children who brought a book in got to take one home from another child (and Lizzy, dear sweet person that she can be, made a thank-you note for the little boy from whom she received a book), and each child got a book from the preschool staff as well.

And according to the children's wishes, we will all have a merry Christmas, a happy Hanukkah, a joyous Kwanzaa, and a happy New Year.