![]() ![]() Meade secretly invited all of the parents to this Christmas party. As they engage in song, the large door leading into their classroom opens and parents enter, joining in song with the entire class. The Christmas treats have been arranged on a table at the front of the room and the students sing once again. They present their beloved teacher with Christmas cards they made at home, cards that Meade will save for the rest of her life. But there are more surprises ahead for her flock of young students.Īs the day of the Christmas party arrives the students attend class with colorful ribbons, bows and pins. The students enjoy a festive and productive week that concludes with the many gifts being wrapped in colorful Christmas paper.Īs the holidays approach, the students find it very hard to contain their excitement. The classroom resembles Santa’s workshop at the North Pole with the children as the many elves that help Santa. Simple gifts with so much meaning, bursting with pride the students create knitted slippers, aprons, bookends, iron holders, placemats, facecloths, reed baskets, coaster sets and dresses for dolls. The following Monday she tells her students they will focus on making Christmas presents for their mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers. Meade spends the weekend baking and preparing her treats for her young students. The money now available she visits the corner store to purchase her flour, sugar and more for the class Christmas party. The students return with their coins and proudly place each coin in an empty glass quart milk bottle that Meade prominently displays on her large oak desk. ![]() She sends the students home at the end of the day with a few of these Christmas decorations and asks them to sell them to their neighbors for 25 cents each, the money is due on Friday and the sales will be brisk during these cold winter days. The end result is truly beautiful and most festive. She gathers the green pine branches and ties them elegantly together with a thick red ribbon she has donated from her collection at home. ![]() The scent of pine in the warm classroom only enhances the smell of the holiday season, the pine branches are placed on a table covered in old newspaper to contain any remaining sap. Meadeinstructs her students to gather small pine branches to bring back to the classroom. Meade gathers her flock of young students and ventures into the Concord forest surrounding her small school, a field trip of sorts with the students dressed warmly in their boots, wool coats, hats and mittens. Meade will need funds to do this, something her students will help her with during recess. The Christmas party will involve a trip to the corner store to purchase some ingredients to make a Christmas cake, assorted pies and cookies. Meade has a plan: a plan that will provide the joy of the season on a budget and leave the children with those lasting memories. Her announcement is met with wide applause as the children imagine the coming days, days that will allow them to focus on candy canes and decorations instead of math and spelling. ![]() She has chosen this early December day to tell her young students there will be a class Christmas party before the school recess for the holiday season. She has planned a joyous season for her students, but the funds are very limited as usual. Christmas is approaching and there was plans to be made. In 1926, Meade found much excitement in her classroom. A very special elementary school teacher named Eleanor Meade gathered her students around and instilled the thoughts that Christmas should bring.Ī century ago the technology in school was limited to books, lectures, primers and a slate blackboard at the front of the room.Paper was a luxury that was monitored and not to be wasted, and the room was heated with coal or steam in some modern schools of the day. Such was the case close to a century ago right here in Concord during the approaching Christmas season. Sometimes short-lived, but these are times that plant thoughts that will last our entire lives. Sometimes there are occasions – times when we are young and very impressionable – when special people enter our lives and we remember them. ![]()
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