It is Christmas for private schools
Published 9:49 pm Monday, December 22, 2008
EVERETT — Wearing floor-length robes and a shepherd’s headdress, Shawn Hensen knocked on the door of a fifth-grade classroom at Immaculate Conception/Our Lady of Perpetual Help School.
A boy holding a pet rat opened the door and welcomed in Joseph, Mary and a procession of shepherds, barn animals, stars and Santas.
“My wife and I are about to have a baby,” Shawn said, gesturing to “Mary,” fellow first-grader Olivia Nasti. “Do you have a bed?”
The teacher shook her head. The procession continued.
In an era when the Nativity and most Christmas symbols have been shut out of public schools, many private schools continue to celebrate Christmas with decades-old traditions.
“It’s getting to the point where you don’t mention the C-word,” said Jeff Michaelson, principal of Heritage Christian Academy in Bothell. “It has to be, ‘Happy Holidays’ to include everybody’s particular belief system, just from the changing of Christmas vacation to winter vacation. … You don’t have to worry about that in the private Christian school. Our Christmas is about the birth of Christ and what impact that has on their life spiritually.”
At Zion Lutheran School in Everett, students spend weeks learning about the biblical story behind Christmas. Kids sing “Up on the Rooftop” and “Silent Night” at concerts. They host classroom Christmas parties.
Principal Lynne Hereth taught in a public school about 30 years ago. Back then, no one minded that she had a Christmas tree in her classroom, but now that would never fly, she said.
She loves Christmas at Zion Lutheran.
“The emphasis on Christmas is the Advent season and preparation for baby Jesus,” she said. “That’s really suffused in everything we’re doing at this school. It’s a joy.”
At Immaculate Conception, Joseph and Mary ended their search for a room where they started — in Gabriele White’s first-grade classroom. Olivia in her role as Mary held a real baby, who spit up on her and cried, while the class sang “Away in a Manger.” The baby was brought by a visitor to the school but served as a timely prop.
Every year, White decorates her classroom with Advent calendars and angels. She always teaches her students about Christmas traditions from around the world.
While some kids say they feel a genuine spiritual connection to the holiday, others say they enjoy the festivities best.
“I like helping the teacher get to do the Advent calendar,” said first-grader Madison King, dressed like the star of Bethlehem. “Because the Advent calendar has chocolate in it.”
Reporter Kaitlin Manry: 425-339-3292 or kmanry@heraldnet.com.
