It is the most wonderful time of the year, and perhaps the busiest. If you are like me, your to-do list keeps growing even though you continue to check things off. Our lists are full of baking, decorating, shopping, wrapping, and more! Weekday School is no different. Our teachers and students have been busy creating Christmas artwork, projects, and gifts. The laughter and excitement in the hallways is contagious. We have had favorite sweater day (we don’t say “ugly” at school), Polar Express Day, decorated our trees with homemade ornaments, and placed gifts of food under the trees. Our annual Christmas program is right around the corner. Our kindergarteners are learning their lines for the play of the first Christmas, and other classes are practicing the songs they will sing on stage. All our classes are learning about the season of Advent and the birth of Baby Jesus.
As we get closer to Christmas, I sometimes wonder if we will get it all done in time. We definitely wonder if our kindergarteners will learn all their lines! It’s a lot of stress trying to make everything perfect. Maybe we need to get back to a time when Christmas was simpler – when people did less shopping, did more kind things for family, friends, and even strangers, made homemade gifts, and focused on the true meaning of Christmas. Would we really miss all the craziness? My own parents continue to remind me that the best gifts do not need to be extravagant, and they are right. We have a lot of amazing toys at Weekday School, but we joke that the toy the children are most excited to play with is “junky junk.” For those of you who don’t know, junky junk is a mixture of random little items (mostly the toys that come in a Happy Meal). We have totes filled with these precious treasures. They have been collected and added to for years, and every classroom has a container. The children ask every day if they can please play with the junky junk and are so sad when it’s time to clean up. It’s proof that the simplest things are often the most treasured.
My wish for you this Advent season is that you are able to slow down and enjoy the true wonder of Christmas. A story so simple that a child can understand and retell it. A baby born in a barn and laid in a humble manger filled with hay. His parents were not famous, and the only other creatures to witness the miracle were stable animals. Ordinary shepherds working in the fields were the first to be told of His birth. There was no fanfare, and yet nothing took away from the joy. This seemingly simple story turned into the most miraculous one, teaching us about hope, peace, joy, and love.
Let us all see Advent through the eyes of children and feel excitement in the smallest and simplest parts of the season.
