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The school Christmas pageant

December 12, 2022   ·   0 Comments

When Christmas time rolled aroundin public school, it always meant one thing above all else: the Christmas pageant. Plays, carols, and all types of other displays and activities were devised for kids to participate in to heighten the excitement of the Christmas season for everyone.

Each class had to come up with something to do for the Christmas pageant according to their abilities; from grade one to grade eight. A handful of kids were picked from each class to perform something, and the rest of the school was rounded up, herded into the gymnasium, and forced to watch the entire pageant. (Watching the pageant got the rest of the school out of doing schoolwork, so nobody ever seemed to complain about it!)

Some years everyone would perform in the pageant in the evenings for our parents; and some years a handful of us would just do it for the rest of the school.

One of my earliest recollections of participating in a Christmas pageant was a play put on for the rest of the School when I was in grade five. When our class Christmas play rolled around, roles in the play had to be decided on; who was going to play what part, and so forth. I was the fat kid in class. So guess who got picked to play the lead role of Santa Claus by unanimous choice of the whole class? You got it, me! I didn’t want to do it; I knew what was going on. I thought it was a shot at me; and I didn’t appreciate it at the time! But the entire class, including the teacher, insisted it be me.

I tried to suggest the other fat kid in the class take the part but to no avail. The vote was in; and I reluctantly won in a landslide. I had no choice. I would like to think it was because of my superior acting ability, but we all know the universal truth: the fat kids always get stuck with the fat roles. (It’s a good thing we didn’t have a school band or I probably would have been stuck with the tuba too!!)

Rehearsals for our Christmas play got us out of a bit of schoolwork; everyone else in the class had to carry on with their studies. HA-HA! So there was a bit of an upside to the whole thing. Finally the big day came and the entire school filed into the gymnasium to witness my theatrical debut. (And to see the play, of course.)  

I remember when I made my big entrance in my red Santa Claus cap and coat stuffed with a pillow and wearing a cotton ball beard it got big laughs; probably for a number of different reasons! I also remember about half-way through the play I forgot a line; after some whispering amongst the players we got back on track and finished the rest of the play without a hitch. We took our bows at the end; and the applause was nice too!

In hindsight, while some roles were larger than others, everyone who was involved had a significant role to play in the school Christmas pageant. It didn’t matter whether you were Santa Claus, Mrs. Claus, an elf, a reindeer, a piece of scenery, a scenery mover or a curtain puller. Someway, somehow, all of us involved got on the stage for a moment so everyone in the audience could see you making your own special contribution to the event. Without any of us, the show could not have gone on. We each made a contribution in our own way to the excitement and success of the Christmas pageant. It was special for everyone.

And it wouldn’t have been the same without any of us!

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