Lloyd celebrates holidays around the world

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Neighbors | Sarah Foor .During Lloyd's "Holidays around the World" performance, Alaina Protopapa (center) was St. Lucia, who traditionally serves a breakfast of bread to family members in Sweden near Christmastime. Peter Shrake (left) and Ethan James (right) acted as St. Lucia's star boys during the Dec. 8 performance.

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Neighbors | Sarah Foor .A group of Lloyd first-graders played African instruments during an exploration of the continent's Christmas traditions in their "Holidays around the World" presentation on Dec. 8.

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Neighbors | Sarah Foor .During an exploration of Christmas traditions in Mexico, first-graders Laci Shannon (left) and Aidyn Connolly held up a pinata, which are part of a celebration called Las Posadas in many Spanish-speaking countries.

By SARAH FOOR sfoor@vindy.com

Christmas traditions are a bit different everywhere, whether those differences are within a small community or in the largest countries.

On Dec. 8, Lloyd Elementary first-graders celebrated unique traditions with their performance of “Holidays Around the World.”

The students dressed in native costumes from Sweden, Italy, Africa, Mexico, China and the United States and sang songs about Christmas celebrations in each country.

Lloyd principal Tom Lenton began the show by telling family, friends and students that the show was a Christmas gift to them.

The crowd saw celebrations like St. Lucia’s Day in Sweden, where daughters serve breakfast to their family wearing a crown of candles. Next, Nick Tibolla brought Dominick the Donkey to life, a happy, hopping character who helped Santa bring gifts to little girls and boys in a popular Italian Christmas tune from the 1960s.

The students explored how Christmas is celebrated in warm climates in Africa and Mexico, and then held a parade for Chinese New Year.

The show ended with a performance from the United States of “Up on the Housetop,” and actor Brogan Roby explained that in America, our celebrations come from a bit of everywhere.

Music teacher Debby Fabian said performance was a five-year Lloyd tradition.

“It’s an entire cultural experience. In the students’ classrooms, they’ve learned customs from the countries, created maps and done art projects of people in traditional holiday dress. It’s more wonderful each year and I’m glad the students love learning about other countries,” Fabian said.