HANCEVILLE – On Thursday night, the children of Hanceville’s First United Methodist Church’s preschool hosted a delightful Christmas program for the many proud parents, grandparents, families and friends. The children sang and danced to happy Christmas songs while the crowed giggled and craned their necks to ensure they saw the whole sweet little group.
“This is the first year the one and two year olds are doing something together,” said Adrian Burtis, one of the teachers at the school. “We’re super, super excited. We have been practicing pretty much all this month, last month and part of October.”
The one and two-year-old children did the Reindeer Hokey Pokey with the help of their teachers, Laura Taylor, Christina Crandall and Tanna Garrison. The little ones, some with more gusto than others, hammed it up as they turned in circles in their wobbly Hokey Pokey dance moves. Clearly there was some true talent in the bunch!
Mary Kreps and Caitlin Tebben led the three-year-old class in a heartfelt rendition of “Joy to the World”. The small childrens’ large voices melted the hearts of their audience and left everyone wanting so much more. The spirit of Christmas was truly with this little group and their excitement was infectious.
The final group of children to perform for the night was the four-year-old class. Watching their teachers, Tamara Pitts and Adrian Burtis, the gang sang with full emotion and sincerity, “Do You Want to Build a Snowman” from Walt Disney’s infamous movie “Frozen”. Then to lighten things up, each of the children were given a set of maracas and together they sang “Feliz Navidad”. Shaking their instruments violently to the left – a few to the right – back and forth, the class had a great time showing out for the packed room.
When things settled down a bit, the older children were invited to tell everyone what they wanted for Christmas. The requests varied and each child was quite sure of what they wanted from Santa and each seriously insisted they had been very good all year long.
After the program, Reverend Paul Campbell said a special blessing and invited everyone to enjoy a delicious meal together. The food was out of this world and the smiling faces of the daycare staff who served it up was truly something special.
“All of us teachers would like to thank the parents,” said Burtis, “because without them we could not do what we do,” she smiled warmly.
If you are looking for a church to attend or are interested in the preschool at Hanceville First United Methodist Church, feel free to contact them. They are located at 704 Commercial Street NE, Hanceville, AL 35077. Their phone number is 256-352-5536 and they can be found online at www.hancevillefumc.org.
