The holiday season kicked off Tuesday at Alexis Park Elementary with brightly decorated hallways and a festive holiday concert featuring all 360 students singing some of the season’s most popular carols.
As proud family members entered the school, they were greeted with a colourful display of carefully cut out mittens. Over the last few weeks, the students heard the story Métis Christmas Mittens, a story of the Métis tradition of making mittens for loved ones. As the custom goes, the Métis often did not have money to buy expensive gifts, so instead made practical items with much love.
After much love and attention went into decorating the mittens, the Alexis Park entrance and many hallways are now decorated with over 350 crafted mittens. Many mittens also included a decorated heart on the back of the thumb for good luck and to show love from the maker.
Once family members were settled in the gymnasium, students from each of the grades sang holiday favourites such as I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas and Let It Snow. Grade 6 students ‘cooled’ the gym down with a hip-hop rendition of All I Want For Christmas is You.
The French Immersion kindergarten students got the crowd clapping as they performed a traditional Métis Folkdance – La danse des lapin – that blends French Canadian and First Nations traditions together. The children danced on stage wearing sashes in the traditional Metis colours of red, blue and yellow.
As the holiday break approaches, many of the schools are preparing their concerts. Check with your local school for concert dates and times.
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