My School Christmas Project

This year Sr. O’Brien chose to do individual class presentations for our Advent/Christmas celebration.  Our school is pretty creative when it comes to Christmas time; instead of always doing a Christmas pageant we do something quite different every year.  My Kindergarten year was a Christmas Family Carnival Night, with sleigh rides, games, photo booth, treats, etc.  My Grade 1 year was the traditional Christmas pageant and I got to sing some songs at the presentation.  Grade 2 we had an advent celebration at Church.  This year our teacher decided that she would give us a project that we could share with our family.  Our project was to pick a country and research their Christmas traditions.  My friend wanted me to do Italy with him, but I really wanted to do Portugal, because hey, even I know that  you got to be loyal to your own family roots first!  I REALLY enjoyed doing the research for this project and learning how my mom’s family celebrated Christmas in Portugal and even how mom grew up celebrating Christmas with Grandpa Joe and Grandma Teresa.  I learned that their Christmas decorations were focused on the creation of beautiful and sometimes very big Nativity Scenes.  I learned about a very traditional Christmas song called “E Natal”.  I learned about where Portugal, in particular where the Azores is on a map.  I learned how small the island is that my Grandparents came from is and especially how small it is compared to Saskatchewan.  I got to make Arroz Doce (sweet rice) and share it with everyone that came to my table to hear about Christmas in Portugal.  The evening of sharing our project was very fun!  All the parents from our class came to check out all our projects and taste a sample of traditional Christmas food from each of our tables.  Grandma Lorraine even came and I was so happy, and a bit shy, to what I had learned.  The best part though was that I got a chance to go to everyone’s tables too and try out their yummy treats!  Great idea Mlle. Campbell – you really are a great teacher!