For many years, students at Madison Elementary School have been singing Christmas carols during the winter season. Every year at Madison, students sing Christmas carols in front of family members before Christmas break. This is a wonderful moment for parents watching their kids sing in their cute little outfits, making great family memories.
This tradition has been going on for many years. This event happens in the gym of the elementary school. Part of the experience is recording the students’ singing and looking at the students’ Christmas art around the walls of the gym. For this special event, teachers see their students all dressed up in their suits or dresses.
At the entrance of the gym, parents and family members receive a setlist for the performance, handmade by the students. Sometimes the list even includes lyrics for the songs the 1st and 2nd grade kids will be singing, encouraging family to sing along.
Madison students are dropped off to their classrooms, while they await their performances. All students at the school are split into two groups; they are split up by their last names. Last names A-K perform on the first night, and L-Z perform the next night.
“The day of the first performance, the performing students go to the gym, and they do a dress rehearsal in the a.m.,” said Madison Elementary teacher Tracy Cates, who has been helping with the show for 11 years. “Every grade does a run-through so it can be fine-tuned. In the afternoon, the performers for the 2nd night are the audience, and the performers do one more dress rehearsal with an ‘audience’ and get a feel for what it will really be like at night when families will be in the audience.”
When the students sing, some of them might be nervous, others might be happy and sing loudly; it just depends on the student.
“They are more excited to show off to their parents,” Cates said. “We are all encouraging and just encourage everyone to do their best.”
The students typically take a few weeks to learn their songs. Singing them together with their classmates and friends makes a wonderful memory for students, something that carries through all their school years until graduation.
“We start early, we usually start right after Thanksgiving break, for the most part, and practice every day,” stated Cates. “Once individual classes are getting pretty good at words and memorizing the songs, we move to grade-level practices and fine-tune all the children to be the best they can be by performance time.”
Memorizing songs can also help the students with reading and working with each other to sing at the same time, following the rhythm of the music. This can make learning a little fun for the kids.
Thanks to all the staff of the elementary school, this tradition can happen every year. Staff take their time to do this event and have wonderful memories and experiences while doing so. The only time the carols were not done was during COVID-19, as large gatherings were not allowed.
When Eastside Elementary School used to be at Blossom Gulch Elementary School, students would also sing Christmas Carols like at Madison. Sadly, they stopped the tradition in recent years, but older students who are in high school or middle school still remember the fun memories students experienced singing with their classmates.
“From what I remember, we would start with singing Frosty the Snowman and end with Jingle Bells,” said MHS junior Shaila Millan, who was a student at Blossom Gulch in her primary years. “After singing our songs, we would go back to our classroom and drink hot chocolate and take pictures.”
While these carols may seem like a natural thing to do around the holidays, many schools have stopped such activities over the years. However, such an event is more than just singing–it is a bonding experience between classmates and teachers, family and friends.
“It helps to remind students that their parents are so proud and excited for them,” said Cates.
