Christmas show

[VaguelySkeletal]

I volunteer in the school my dc attended, so this will be the 13th? 14th? Christmas show I've been involved in. It is done beautifully every year, I make no criticism of that. But it's always one of the Out Of The Ark shows, or similar.

The songs are sometimes just so dull or laboured. Why, when there are so many beautiful traditional Christmas songs?

When my eldest went to secondary and joined the Chamber Choir, she was absolutely blown away by the carols she learned there. She even asked me why she hadn't been taught them at primary, where the music teacher was an excellent peripatetic with incredibly high standards and successes.

Her choir friends, who came from other local schools, also did not know any of the traditional songs. Except for the churchgoers.

Why are we ignoring our cultural heritage in this way?

I might be wrong, but I think you have to pay for the rights to perform certain music. For instance, my school had to pay for 'we will rock you' to put on the performance, whereas my DH did 'Grease' but with generic songs rather than the actual songs. Not sure if this applies to primary school Christmas shows 🤷🏻‍♀️😂

My child's school has done away with a show/nativity in KS2 and instead each class performs two Christmas songs, a mixture of pop and traditional carols. All parents are invited to attend and tea and mince pies are served during the performance.
It's fantastic.

Why don't you volunteer to teach music and traditional carols to a high standard in all your local schools? Most schools can't afford music teachers anymore so it would be a great thing for you to do.

My guess is that most Christmas shows aren't massively religious.

Our primary did:

• a traditionalish nativity for infants
• a more off piste Christmas show for Juniors
• a traditional Carol service in local church that whole school walks to

With the carol service. When my eldest started loads of parents used to attend (sitting in the balcony on 3 sides of the church), and stand and sing. By the time DD2 left, fewer parents attended and no one stood and sang - they seemed to view it more like a concert than a participatory event.

Why don't you volunteer to teach music and traditional carols to a high standard in all your local schools? Most schools can't afford music teachers anymore so it would be a great thing for you to do.

The school shows are taught and rehearsed to a high standard by an amazing peripatetic music teacher, who has been doing it for longer than I have been involved in the school. When the cohort has the ability she teaches the children to sing in parts, too.

you have to pay for the rights to perform certain music

Of course you do. But most of our traditional carols are out of copyright hence free to use.

My guess is that most Christmas shows aren't massively religious.

In the schools my dc have attended, Christmas shows have all either been a Nativity of some sort or included a Nativity. They always include songs about worshipping the Baby, newborn King etc.

I don't now the answer as to 'why', but I do agree with you it is a shame that so many are growing up without knowing traditional Christmas Carols.

We once did a show with traditional songs and the parents moaned that it was boring. You can't win!

We do both. I've taught traditional songs to my class but it's very difficult for them. We have about 95% EAL and most of these are still at the beginner stage.
We're doing one of the Out of the Ark ones this year and they enjoy the songs because they are short and easy enough for them (it's one of the plays for ages 4-8, so just about ok for them).