Students spread Christmas cheer
At New Life Christian School, Christmas is more than just "happy holidays."
Sue Bancroft, our secretary, sat at her desk in her office and told us about the message she passes to her grandchildren: "Of course I want to spoil them with Christmas presents and sweets. But I want them to realize the real reason we celebrate Christmas, and that's the birth of Jesus Christ."
To start the Christmas season, Sandi Waters, our English teacher, came up with a way to spread some Christmas cheer. She took the senior and junior classes on their second annual Christmas spirit field trip.
"This is my wish," Mrs. Waters said. "I hope that maybe that one person who was having a terrible day — or someone who really hadn't gotten into the Christmas spirit yet — would see this and that it may bring a smile to their face," she explained.
While the juniors and seniors stood alongside Marysville streets, holding up signs with quotations from the Christmas movie "Elf," we passed out smiles, waves and sang Christmas carols as loud as we could. We even had our own little Santa Claus!
"I'm not ready to leave," proclaimed junior Nick South. "I enjoy doing this!"
The students enjoyed trying to put a smile on a stranger's face, and that's what made the activity special. NLCS students also put together several goody trays and passed them out to several different places, hoping to spread the Christmas cheer.
Christmas traditions are some other things that tend to help spread the cheer and help keep us pretty busy. The seniors had tons of events to partake in or plan.
First, we promoted, sold, made and passed out candy cane o' grams. Then we held a traditional cookie contest — and the seniors got to be the judges. After that, we had individual class parties, Christmas plays, Christmas movies and Secret Santa.
"I love how involved our school gets in spreading the Christmas spirit. It's almost like we're a huge family and we are all excited to celebrate the same thing," said Jordan Tracey at our annual junior high and high school Christmas party.
Christmas chapel is another important tradition that takes place at NLCS. This event consist of games, candy, Christian character awards and a special message that explains the Nativity story and why we get to celebrate the birth of Jesus.
Of course, everyone at New Life enjoys the exciting events that we have going on throughout the month of December, but we're also reminded of the real reason that we get to do all of this: Since God decided to give us the gift of his son, we get to celebrate his birthday by giving to others.
That is what this holiday season means to our school. It's a whole lot more than "happy holidays" — it's Merry Christmas!
Leanna Whiteley is a senior at New Life Christian High School. Her column appears every six weeks in Education.
