Please see detailed infomration about each classes costume informtaion. Below this you will find the times for each class to perform.

Costume Information

LOCATION: East Cooper Baptist Church, 361 Egypt Rd, Mt Pleasant, SC 29464

WHEN: Sunday, December 10, 2023

TIME: 2:30 pm – 2:55 pm Strings music and art display by CBA students

3:00 pm – 4:30 pm – Schoolwide concert

COST: Free 

Christmas through the Centuries/Navidad a través de los siglos All teachers were asked to communicate costume information with parents at the beginning of November through ClassDojo or the EC monthly email. Room Parents have also reached out by text, WhatsApp group, or ClassDojo chat. NEW THIS YEAR: If you would like to donate costumes used this year for future performances, one of our volunteer moms, Rachel Erickson, will have bins at the concert to collect them, or you may bring them to the FBC campus. You can find more background information about the CBA Christmas concerts at the end of the document.

Age/Grade

Song/Presentation

Costumes & Availability

2 yo w/parents

Spiritual – “Mary Had a Baby” in English and Spanish 

Parents will accompany children onstage and should be dressed as shepherds/in biblical costume (see link here on how to make sheets into a biblical costume; for the adults it starts around min. 6), and children can also be shepherds or be stable animals (see DIY examples). CBA has children’s shepherd costumes (nothing fancy–made out of pillowcases and pieces of cloth) in our CBA Christmas Closet. Please let your teachers know if you would like one of these. You might have to make it fit by tying it up with a piece of fabric or yarn. Feel free to cut into it if needed.

3 yo

“The Friendly Beasts” in Spanish

Section A above; Section B below:

It will go from this to (minus the mascot’s head, nor the black gloves):

Section A (Maestra Gabriela)–the donkeys

Boys and Girls

-Brown shirts, long sleeve T-shirts or sweatshirts, and brown pants (could be corduroy) or sweatpants.

-CBA will get the brown felt and headbands for the ears. A volunteer parent crew will help to cut and attach the ears.

Section B (Maestra Martha)–red and white cows, according to the song

Girls and Boys

White shirts or long-sleeve T-shirts that will be covered with sporadic reddish/brownish felt patches (the felt was donated to CBA by Allison Lee–thank you!).

Just for girls

Red tutus (you can find them cheap at Once Upon A Child on River’s Ave or Walmart). Girls with tutus will look like this before patches are added:

White leggings (you can find them at the places above or The Children’s Place). 

       

Just for boys 

White sweatpants (you can find them at the places above or The Children’s Place)

Headpieces will look like this when done. Parent volunteers are helping with this.

Section C (Maestra Roxy)–black and white sheep 

Girls and Boys

-Top: Black shirt, long-sleeve t-shirt, or turtleneck.

-Bottom: Black pants or sweatpants

The hats have been re-cycled by CBA–PLEASE return them to the school for future use.

4 yo

“Feliz Navidad” 

Girls

  • Black long-sleeve shirt
  • Black leggings with a red tutu
  • Black shoes or boots

Boys

  • Long-sleeved white shirt
  • Red suspender
  • Long black pants
  • Black shoes

Kindergarten

“Aguinaldo del Callao” = Venezuelan Christmas Carol of the animals on a farm; from a special region in the country

Girls – a gold tutu and a white shirt/blouse with white stockings/tights found online or from the Walmart website (cost is around $10).

Boys – a white long-sleeve button-down shirt with a gold scarf that CBA will provide.

Some soloists’ parents  were contacted by the teachers to have a special animal costume. 

Mandarin

“I Lift My Eyes to the Hills” 

The Mandarin students purchased Chinese clothes months ago

Grade 1

“Angels We Have Heard on High” in English and Spanish

Room mothers bought angel costumes. The cost was $10, and parents are to Venmo Ashley Henney. 

Grade 2

“Vamos Turu a Belén” (Let’s All Go To Bethlehem)

Afro-Creole-inspired carol 

Please dress your children in festive clothes of the season and/or the Christmas colors: red, white, and green.

Grade 3

“Campanas de Belén” 

Spanish, 18th century

Shirts in white, green, and red with black or khaki pants. Girls can wear a dress in any of those colors too. 

Grade 4

“Riu, riu, chiu” 

Spanish, 16th century

Outfits will refer to the fashion of the time in Spain when black became a color of elegance and bright red first came to Spain from the colonies where indigenous peoples perfected techniques to extract cochineal.

Girls: Any blouse and skirt or dress in any combination of red, black, or white.

Boys: Any shirt and pants in red, black, or white.

Grades 5 – 7 

“Silent Night” 

Festive clothes

CBA Christmas Concerts

CBA started Christmas concerts in its first full year (2015-2016) because Christmas is a significant time in the Christian calendar. In addition, music is an excellent way to learn and retain vocabulary, about cultures, history, values, etc. It is also a gift to children to practice performing in front of others when they are young, which will help them as adults when they have to give presentations or perform in front of others. It is the one time of the year that the whole school comes together, and the little ones can see the older students perform and vice versa. It has also been a vehicle for extended family and friends of our current families to see what CBA is about. Finally, this is the stuff that traditions and memories are made of!

 

Costumes

Children will feel less stressed about performing in front of others when they feel like they are playing/pretending in the concert. When dressed up as a shepherd or an animal in the stable, as a dancer with a tutu, or an elegant dude with suspenders, the children feel more confident because they assume a role. They are part of a big group that looks alike, so they will not feel like all eyes could potentially be on the one kid. The costumes reinforce the meaning of part of the vocabulary in the song, they help to make the movements (that help the children learn the song) make sense, and they lead to great photos 

Culturally, for your Latin American teacher, even the poorest of the poor love a good show and will gladly sacrifice to have their children dressed up in costume. For centuries, their indigenous and Spanish roots have included drama and dance with very elaborate costumes (dedicated artisans spending days and days in labor) for special occasions such as annual centuries- or decades-old festivals, and, in modern times for school performances. It is a joyful occasion to do something out of the routine and show the dedication that parents have to help their children celebrate that they get to be in a performance and have a special look. 

Here are some of your children’s teachers in costumes from their childhood–some of the few childhood pictures they have, which show how important these occasions were for them. One is dressed in the outfit worn by folkloric dancers of her country, and the other is dressed in their version of a Hawaiian dancer. The next photo shows a Mayan dancer in Guatemala in the costume of a deer for El Baile del Venado. This dance is believed to have originated 1,500 years ago and is found among other indigenous groups in Latin America. The last one is a dance from Spain that originated when Spain was colonizing Latin America.

 

Cost Considerations

Although we ask that some families purchase certain articles of clothing, we try to ensure that costume costs are low and that many, if not all, can be re-used by the children, whether in a future concert or daily life. 

CBA does not pass along the cost of other concert expenses to parents. In years past, when the students and their families fit into the sanctuary at FBC, the school hired musicians to make tracks and to play at the concert, paid for the extra cleaning afterward, and has always paid for some of the materials of the costumes. 

For the past two years, the school has had to pay for the use of the host church, the host staff’s time involved with the sound cues, and still provides some of the materials. Our staff takes extra time finding the songs that go with the theme and age group, translating some songs, typing up the lyrics, making tracks or finding videos to rehearse with, planning the different aspects such as when to rehearse, etc. 

This year, one of our moms, Rachel Erickson, has kindly volunteered to help coordinate so that parents may lend or gift articles to each other, or take advantage of our renovation, which has provided us a permanent space to store costumes once Rachel takes inventory of what we have. 

Class Program Times

Plan for Christmas Concert 2023

Concert Date & Location: Dec. 10 at East Cooper Baptist Church (Mt. Pleasant)

Times:

  • 2:30 Art Show with String Students performing in the atrium 
  • 2:55 All students must be seated with their classes
  • 3:00 Program begins

Theme: Christmas Through the Centuries

Goal: each group maximum of 7 minutes (this includes walking up, singing, and going down) 

  • There will be a video introduction to your song playing while your students walk to the stage.

Order

Age/Grade

Song/Presentation

Led by

 

Pre-service

Art and instrumental in hall 

Katherine and Ruben

0

Video Welcome

Welcome by the pastors of FBC and HABC

(strings students walk to front during video welcome)

VIDEO

1

Marilyn and Margarita

Welcome 

 

2

Strings

Original Composition

Ruben

3

2 yo w/parents

Spiritual – Mary Had a Baby 

  • Parents & students come to front while chairs being removed from instrumental

Maribel/ Marvel

4

3 yo

The Friendly Beasts (12th Century)

Martha

5

4 yo

Feliz Navidad – Jose Feliciano

Illisbeth

6

KG

Aguinaldo del Callao

Ingrid

7

Mandarin

I Lift My Eyes To The Hills

  • At conclusion, 1st grade students immediately join gr 1 students

Claire

8

Gr 1

Angels We Have Heard On High 

(18th Century)

Rachael

9

Gr 2

Vamos Turu a Belén 

Martha

10

Gr 3

Campanas de Belen

Victor

11

Gr 4

Riu, riu chiu

Rossana

12

Gr 5 – 7

MS Choir – Silent Night

Verse 1 & 2: Spanish

Verse 3: Invite all to join in English

Rossana

13

Headmaster

Closing

 

ElementaryMS Reminders:

  1. Please take your children to the bathroom before the program begins. Students may NOT leave to go to the bathroom unsupervised.
  2. Be sure your child is seated with their class by 2:55 pm.
  3. Students must stay seated with you during the entire performance. At the end of the performance, parents will be directed to come to you to pick up their student. Please do NOT let them run off to find their parents.

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