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I thought it would be a nice Christmas Tradition to learn a new Christmas Carol each year and also find out about the history of the song once the children are a bit older. This year I chose Away in a Manger because it is relatively short, and the melody is simple.
Away in a manger, no crib for a bed,
The little Lord Jesus laid down his sweet head.
The stars in the sky looked down where he lay,
The little Lord Jesus asleep in the hay.
The cattle are lowing, the baby awakes,
But little Lord Jesus no crying he makes.
I love Thee, Lord Jesus, look down from the sky
And stay by my cradle ’til morning is nigh.
Be near me, Lord Jesus, I ask Thee to stay
Close by me forever, and love me, I pray.
Bless all the dear children in thy tender care,
And take us to heaven, to live with Thee there
E5 has learned the first verse and we’ve just started on the second. She normally doesn’t sing particularly well in tune but today I sang just one note and asked her to copy it. She did very well and keeps the tune well when following me.
Interestingly this morning she asked who wrote the song. It seems the author of the first two stanzas is unknown but James R Murray published the song in 1885 and may have written the last stanza.
E5 has started making up her own actions, and she wants to sing it for us on Christmas morning.
Here’s our gingerbread creations:
This is E5’s design, although I piped the icing for them. She loved using LOTS of silver balls on her star!
And B3’s design…yes, including the fourth (white) button which they giggled about because of it’s position.
Both B3 and E5 love to help in the kitchen and pizza is a great one for them to help me with. I make a bread dough base, so they get to help with the yeast and every kids loves to knead dough! This time we made our pizza with ham and pineapple and mushrooms with heaps of cheese. It was YUMMY.
E5 and B3 have had fun making Christmas cards this year. They are very simple (because that’s all I could manage!) and made by stamping poster paint with shapes.
E5 wanted to try writing her own message in hers. We sounded the words out together as I wrote them and then she copied them as we went one word at a time. She got tired halfway so I finished for her. Here’s her finished card.
Click to enlarge
And here’s B3’s:
