Doesn't Anyone Sing Silent Night Any More?!?
Categories: Holidays, Religion & Spirituality
My children have their Christmas musical extravaganza this weekend -- they have been practicing for weeks. A while back, they came home with a little booklet of lyrics and directions for how to download the songs from iTunes, if we wanted to practice at home, or just familiarize ourselves with the music.
Because apparently, kids don't just sing Christmas carols any more.
Last year's holiday pageant was a super cute retelling of the Christmas story, complete with dancing barn animals (my older son was a chicken) and all the other usual characters (my OTHER son was a star, which apparently is what you do when there are too many kids for them ALL to be angels). The show was adorable and the kids did a great job and it was over in 30 minutes, which made us all happy.
But there were no traditional carols.My sons know all the carols -- they can sing all the verses of The Twelve Days of Christmas, they know the words to Silent Night and Away in a Manger, and there's nothing funnier than singing Deck the Halls REALLY REALLY LOUDLY (at least not when you're six and eight). This morning, on the way to school, we were listening to Hark the Herald Angels Sing in the car, and my six-year-old said, "I know this song!"
"Are you singing it in your play this weekend?" I asked.
"No, Mom, we're singing those other songs, from the computer. Remember?"
Sigh. Yes, I remember.
I also remember when I was a kid and we sang Christmas carols at Christmas -- and before you blame the liberals for taking God out of school, let me tell you that my kids go to Catholic school; they talk about Jesus every single day. But instead of singing carols about his birth, they'll be singing Happy Birthday to him this weekend.
What about your kids -- are traditional carols a thing of holiday pageants past? Are your kids performing stuff from iTunes, or classics from church?
Because apparently, kids don't just sing Christmas carols any more.
Last year's holiday pageant was a super cute retelling of the Christmas story, complete with dancing barn animals (my older son was a chicken) and all the other usual characters (my OTHER son was a star, which apparently is what you do when there are too many kids for them ALL to be angels). The show was adorable and the kids did a great job and it was over in 30 minutes, which made us all happy.
But there were no traditional carols.My sons know all the carols -- they can sing all the verses of The Twelve Days of Christmas, they know the words to Silent Night and Away in a Manger, and there's nothing funnier than singing Deck the Halls REALLY REALLY LOUDLY (at least not when you're six and eight). This morning, on the way to school, we were listening to Hark the Herald Angels Sing in the car, and my six-year-old said, "I know this song!"
"Are you singing it in your play this weekend?" I asked.
"No, Mom, we're singing those other songs, from the computer. Remember?"
Sigh. Yes, I remember.
I also remember when I was a kid and we sang Christmas carols at Christmas -- and before you blame the liberals for taking God out of school, let me tell you that my kids go to Catholic school; they talk about Jesus every single day. But instead of singing carols about his birth, they'll be singing Happy Birthday to him this weekend.
What about your kids -- are traditional carols a thing of holiday pageants past? Are your kids performing stuff from iTunes, or classics from church?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Uly 12-11-2008 @ 1:50PM
Well, Happy Birthday is traditional (sorta), and it makes sense, emphasizing that it's celebrating his birth and connecting it to how the kids live.
What else are they singing?
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Corinne Carey 12-15-2008 @ 3:26PM
Even when I retired from inner-city elementary teaching in 1983 our school system had decided to celebrate The Holiday Season including Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Kwanza, Native American, Buddhist, Hindu, [etc.] Agnostic and Athiest beliefs.....not an easy transition for all families nor staff. Just as the solstice-equinox cycle annually participates in the world-wide events of the eternity of our solar system for all peoples, all cultures, all languages, all religions WITHIN HOURS, we can and must find ways to the common grounds of our human respect and survival in the catastrophic global technical age we are living in.
So we enjoy current music, our own traditions, our Christmas carols, AND those of others without exclusion in our public celebrations.
Americans can and must work at enlarging ourselves.
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RyanG 12-11-2008 @ 3:57PM
I hate to play devil's advocate here, but the article answers the question itself. The event the author is describing is referred to as a Holiday Pageant, not a Christmas pageant. The songs she refers to are Christmas Carols, not Holiday Carols. In this world of political correctness and inclusion of all the religions and their holidays, we are watering down the meaning of Christmas, and in fact the other holidays around this time of year, and frankly not giving any of them the rightful service of equality and respect of their subtle but important differences. By lumping them all together, we are saying they are all the same, when in fact they're not, and many people of other faiths do not beleve they are the same either
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Heather 12-11-2008 @ 6:18PM
I'm not sure what music my son sang in his program this year, seeing how our school system SUCKS and had his program at 1:00 in the afternoon on a TUESDAY!! Yes, I'm very angry.
I did hear him singing a few around the house and it seems they were mostly kid friendly songs.
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beezie 12-11-2008 @ 9:16PM
I'm surprised to see this question asked on a blog that is supposedly just for "parents" not parents who celebrate Christmas .....Tomorrow my daughter's school has an "all school share" and they are singing a very cute song about hibernating bears. They do not do a holiday pageant - it would be a little difficult since there are many religions represented! So to be fair to everyone would probably take a verrryyyy long time. Only 7 of her 20 classmates celebrate Christmas.
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felix 12-12-2008 @ 1:14AM
I'm a new parent (my daughter is only 12 months old), so I don't know the difference between traditional songs and "kid-friendly holiday music"
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Detective 12-12-2008 @ 10:52PM
In California, the separation of church and state agenda is walking all over the Christian community. I have a 24 year old and an 8 year old . When my oldest son was in school the it was Christmas vacation, now it is Winter break,. (even the office lady corrected me when I asked when Christmas vacation started). The "Christmas Program" is nothing but an enhancement of commercialism. Santa, Santa, Santa. Santa is glorified in all the songs this year. Any hint of a belief in Christ is shunned. Yet they do have a traditional Hanukah song, after all its about tolerance and having an open mind. (as long as you don't mention CHRIST)
Don't worry my discust at the Christmas program is kept under wraps and away from my 8 year old. He is very proud to be in the program and I am very proud to watch him in it.
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Roxanna Sarmiento 12-12-2008 @ 9:44AM
This makes me so sad. Silent Night is my favorite.
Seriously, though - it seems odd to sing "Happy Birthday" when telling the Chrismas story. At a catholic school, no less.
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