Have you ever wondered how many Christmas traditions exist all over the world – and what they might be? Well, our students answered some of those questions for their parents on the 20th of December where they created an all-international Christmas celebration. If you weren’t there, I’ll give you a little peak at what was going on in our end of the year celebration.
After having approximately one week to prepare, our students got to decorate our classrooms according to different Christmas traditions. The four classrooms were divided between the four houses that we have, each representing a continent. Thus, Amundsen got Europe, Armstrong South America, Cousteau represented African Christmas traditions, while Hillary went with Asia. This way, the visitors got a little bit of a global walkthrough in terms of Christmas traditions. Some houses, for example Armstrong, baked something traditional from their continent, in this case South-American Christmas bread, while others created a thematic European music playlist or presented various African Christmas-themed rituals. In the end, the visitors could vote for their favorite Christmas-themed room. This time, the Africa room and Cousteau's hard work won the hearts of the public with Armstrong following very closely in second place.
After the parent had experienced each room, we continued in the Culture Center, where we watched a few videos, summarizing the first half of the year. The houses sang and danced to a Christmas song of their choice. We could hear some familiar tunes such as: Jingle Bell Rock and Feliz Navidad.
The classic Silent Night were then sung in different languages and gave the festivity a proper all-international ending, after which we were ready to say goodbye to each other and embark on a well-deserved winter holiday.