The Christmas Show

By Glen Staples Managing Editor, RBU: The Group Blog
http://glenslife.com/

 

Jamie’s snowflake was a triumph!
 

I’ve rarely been so proud of him, though I thought they could have made a bit more use of the snow within the show to be honest.

 

Today was the school’s Christmas show, that’s ‘show’ of course not ‘Nativity’. They haven’t stopped doing the Nativity for religious reasons I don’t think, but just because there aren’t enough parts to go round.

 

With the whole of the Infants department (Sorry Jo and teachers everywhere, I fear I may be using somewhat old terminology, should I be saying Foundation stage?) vying for the best roles but only one married couple, an innkeeper, 3 kings, 3 shepherds and an angel that say anything, things can get a bit tense.
 
Clearly they can’t give the best roles to my children every year, though it must be a real wrench for them when they don’t. Hence I think they have opted more for the Christmas show instead, and can therefore make up as many parts as they like in order to make things fair.
 
And so it was that my 5 year old became a snowflake.
 
As usual, we completely underestimated the competition when it came to getting a decent seat. The show was starting at 13:45 so I naturally got there at 09:00 feeling positive vibes about getting a front row seat. One look in the playground left me in utter dismay, as there was a long line of mothers in sleeping bags, already stretching out of the gates, this was worsened when I realised that the first 7 of them play for the Oxfordshire Basketball team, and were wearing top hats.
 

Four and a half hours later the doors opened and we all rushed in. I couldn’t see what was happening but there was already some very harsh words being shouted ahead. A mum, who had been camped out in the playground for 3 days, was suddenly joined by her husband, her younger child and her parents, in clear contradiction to the 2 person per child rule. Things were getting very nasty until the mother conceded, and left her father stood outside holding the toddler.

 

By the time Jo and I made it into the hall, there were three seats left at the back just behind the Haystacks family.  (Apologies to anyone who can’t remember living in Britain in the 70’s and spending Saturday afternoon watching Giant Haystacks wrestling Big Daddy!)
 

Suddenly a hush came over the crowd and the children were lead into their positions, each and every one of them searching the crowd for someone they know. My boy looked gorgeous as he smartly walked out. My research into what makes the perfect snowflake costume at Reading University had paid off, and his costume was perfect. We gave him a wave and his grin was nearly wider than his face.

 

The show started and a bunch of kids I don’t know came on and danced about saying things, which was not necessary really – surely the snowflakes should have been on first?

 

I heard the cue, now I got excited. The only thing we’d been able to get out of Jamie, about his upcoming performance, was the cue to go on. The cue had been so well drilled into him by his teacher.

 
Out they came…
 
I could have cried…
 
The world stopped for a bit…
 
What could be more important than these few moments? How can I not feel like the luckiest person in the world when I can watch this? How can I not be lucky when I can take a day off work just so that I don’t have to miss it?
 

And they danced…

 

The snowflakes danced…

 

Well I say they danced… to be honest they just sort of milled about looking at each other and occasionally remembering the choreography. Up and down went his arms and then round and round he walked, his grin well and truly returning to its normal position. One minute later and it was all over. I’d had a day off work to sit in a packed school hall with a 3 centimetre viewing window between me and the stage, to watch my son spend a minute pretending to be a snowflake and I would do it all again in a heartbeat – brilliant.

 
The rest of the show frankly went downhill, I felt that most of the scenes were lacking the magic of the snowflake scene, and could possibly have been better had they included some snow in the background maybe?
 
Of course I am joking about the rest of the show, it was all good and the amount of effort that the children and staff had put in was very evident during the whole production. It’s these tiny moments of daftness that make being a parent great, so a big thank you to the school, and well done Jamie – I loved it mate!