Father Christmas & In the Winter

Introducing the song – Father Christmas

Discuss with the students if they have ever written a letter to Santa.

What did they request in their letter?

Did they receive the gift they requested? How did they feel about that?

Have students ever asked for a gift that they did not receive? How did they deal with their feelings?

Did students ever give someone a gift that was exactly what that person wanted? How did it make the student feel to be the one to give that gift?

NOTE: Because there is such a variety of economic circumstances surrounding gift giving, I ask students not to specify the gift they wanted, but just to talk about their feelings of wanting a gift, their excitement or disappointment with their request.

Introducing the song – In the Winter

Ask the students who enjoys winter weather and who prefers weather that is warmer.

Ask them how they feel about going outside when they have the proper winter clothing to wear.

Have they ever been caught in weather for which they were not prepared? How did they cope?

What are the five most important items of winter clothing the students think they would like to have to stay warm? Do those choices match the clothing items included in the song lyrics?

Winter Lyrics

When learning the lyrics, discuss the order of the verses with the students. The winter clothing items are listed from head to toe (after the coat, of course!) to assist with remembering the order of the verses. Socks are sung before boots, because socks cannot be put on after boots!

Performance and Staging

Students may be divided into two groups to sing the call and response lyrics between the two groups. This helps decrease the amount of lyrics each student is required to remember – a useful adaptation for younger singers.

Students may carry to the stage items that they have included on their wish list. Props can add visual interest, as long as they don’t detract from the singing! Students may hold colourful letters that they wave to the beat of the music for the repeated sections: “Father Christmas, did you get my letter? Father Christmas, this is what I want.”

Expressive singing

Young singers tend to have voices that are lighter and that have less projection than more mature singers. Combining two (or more) classes of young elementary students helps create a stronger vocal performance volume without placing unreasonable demands on the voices of young singers. In a small group class, someone may be chosen to be the leader and sing the “call” sections using a microphone with the remainder of the group singing the responses.

Students may benefit from a discussion about the sentiment behind the lyrics. Is the singer worried that Santa has not received their letter? The items on the list being sent to Santa are very important to the singer. How will the singers use their faces and diction to convey the story of the song?

In the winter version of the song, is the singer very cold? Is the singer excited about all the winter clothing that is being added? How will you sing expressively to show these feelings?

Classroom activity (see separate PDF download file)

Create images for each of the items mentioned in the song (printables are included in the PDF).

As you sing, attach the images of the items to a larger image (for Father Christmas - a Christmas stocking, and for In the Winter - a child). If you have access to a magnetic surface, using magnets to attach the items is ideal. If the surface is not magnetic, attach a clear baggie to the front of the image and place the smaller item images inside the baggie.

The order of the items can be different than the printed score by having the teacher point to the student whose image will be added next. Alternatively, to make it like a “game”, students who are chosen to hold images can line up with the image held behind their backs. The order of the students can be random or the same order as the song lyrics. When it is their turn to show what image they are holding, they will bring it out in font of them so the class knows which one to sing. This may be amusing if the winter boots are added before the socks!

Creative input

The students may be interested in creating their own list of items to include for the lyrics in this song. Choosing the lyrics is part of composing. Encouraging students to provide their ideas is empowering and creates a meaningful connection to the song. Some parts of this song rhyme and many other parts do not. The students can also decide if this is important to them when they are creating their own lyrics. Composers make these types of decisions!