The second week in December the school in Thailand where I am teaching asked if I would teach something about Christmas. So??? Of course I said yes, and had no idea that it would mushroom into a full blown Christmas program and New Year celebration It started with the idea of teaching my classes “Jingle Bells” and ended up with the entire 1500 students singing and producing an all day event complete with Santa Claus.
In preparation we had a variety of art projects including posters, puppets, stockings, bells, snowflakes, hats, Santa’s, and Christmas cards.
The students really enjoyed it all, and the school looked a lot like an American school with Christmas artwork all through the halls! I was amazed at how creative the kids are since there is no formal art program in the school.
The Thai teachers in the English department all helped.
We even had all the other 60 teachers participate in a “Color Santa Contest.”
The students decorated the stage, created many mini-shows and rehearsed until performance day…
and rehearsed and rehearsed...
the actual performance day kept changing….
First scheduled for Dec 23, then 24th, then 26th and finally Christmas on Dec 3oth!
The reindeer were of course, girls….
See story below.
Reindeer's Story at Christmas
According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, while both male and female reindeer grow antlers in the summer each year, male reindeer drop their antlers at the beginning of winter, usually late November to mid-December. However, female reindeer retain their antlers till after they give birth in the spring. Therefore, according to EVERY historical rendition depicting Santa's reindeer, EVERY single one of them, from Rudolph to Blitzen, had to be a girl.
We should have known... ONLY women would be able to drag a fat man in a red velvet suit all around the world in one night and not get lost.
So our Santa, who happened to be visiting friends, was actually from America.
He was a great surprise to the all the students…especially the two other schools we invited to come and see the “Big Christmas Show.”
Please remember this is Thailand and most of the students had no idea about Christmas, in fact they had not even heard Christmas songs… so it really was a first!
And the school also wanted the story about the First Christmas… we did the best we could, with the costumes being a bit of a challenge with “0” budget… even I was in awe as the multi-act presentation continued for hours.
Here is a link to see the 5 minute video sample.
Of course no show in Thailand would be complete without their rendition of a Thai music video.
And Miss Christmas was a Kathoey,
“Lady Boy” (a teacher at that).
The day ended as all Thai events do…with lots of wonderful food and the students celebrated a job well done! I was exhausted but very happy and proud of the students.
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