I love December and all the traditions we have created in my child care program over the years. We all talk about how busy it is this time of year, but for me it is a busy I enjoy.
I find myself making the ornaments the kids can paint, getting the Graham Cracker ‘gingerbread’ houses ready for decorating and gathering the supplies for the Reindeer Munchies. These are just a few of the activities that bring me joy. Some of the kids remembered what we have done in previous years and wanted to make some paper chains.
One of the children asked if we were going to make treats again for the garbage collectors. It touched my heart that he remembered this tradition of sharing with others in our community. We do this throughout the year but make it extra festive at this time of year. With Covid and being in code red at the moment I explained I needed to look into the rules about this and what we could do.
Another of our traditions in putting up the tree. It is a little tree that comes in two parts. It slides together and is done. Together we add the lights which are very durable and then the kids are in charge of the rest of the decorations. They have garlands and they can make ornaments; add and rearrange as much as they want.
We are a multi-age program and so we have children one year old to five years old. They all can look at and touch the tree. Yes, it has gotten knocked over several times already. We just stand it back up and carry on. The little ones love to look at the lights and gently touch them. Almost daily the older kids love to rearrange the garland and decorations. Last year one of the kindergarten kids stated our tree needed a star. He promptly headed off to the construction paper and cut out a star from a yellow piece of paper, added a pipe cleaner and hung it on the tree. That star never left the top of the tree all last December.
Is it the grandest tree you ever saw? It just might be because it is theirs. Theirs to decorate and redecorate how they like. They are in control of how it looks and how it is cared for. It is part of their world that they can be in charge of. In all these uncertain days, this is one little piece of their world that they know is theirs.
