St. Vincent de Paul School finds Jesus in Christmas

Intermountain Catholic

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Eighth-grade students who portrayed angels and Hawaiian dancers in the Christmas program ?Annunciation 2011? play the xylophone during the musical finale.IC photo/Christine Young

SALT LAKE CITY — Saint Vincent de Paul Catholic School’s student body received a standing ovation Dec. 15 for their Christmas performance of "Annunciation 2011," and the original finale Christmas carol "Jesus Is." Parent Michael O’Brien wrote the carol’s lyrics and Scott Larrabee, St. Vincent’s music director, composed the music.

O’Brien also wrote the script to this year’s program, in which the audience witnessed a modern-day annunciation based on the popular TV show "American Idol." During the performance, the stage became the setting for God to announce the birth of Jesus in a Christmas carol competition between four choirs: the Surf and Sunshine Choir, the Peanuts Gang Choir, the Whoville Choir and the Santa Claus Choir. Ryan C. Christmas was the emcee and the two judges were Simon Peter and Paula de Vincent.

"I have been involved with the Christmas program for the past four years," O’Brien said. "My son is now in the eighth grade, so this is my last year and I wanted to do something to go out with a splash. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would write lyrics for a song. I don’t have any musical skills. The song "Jesus Is," is short for Jesus is the reason for the season. Some of the lyrics are religious, while others are secular."

To write the music, Larrabee sat down at the piano with the lyrics and within about 10 minutes had the music composed, he said. "The song took some tweaking and consulting with Mike," said Larrabee, adding that they added two verses to O’Brien’s original draft. "It really is a simple, catchy tune."

Larrabee’s six-piece band, Higher Ground Jazz, accompanied most of the program, including the finale carol. "I’m really pleased the band volunteered their time," said Larrabee, Higher Ground’s piano player. "They made the program spectacular."

O’Brien got the idea for the script from a childhood memory. "As a child my mother told me that Santa Claus comes around on Christmas to celebrate Jesus’ birthday," he said. "I never forgot that. I thought what a perfectly wonderful way to integrate the meaning of Christmas – Santa Claus doesn’t have to be secular. That inspired me for Christmas all my life and it came out as we did this program."

The program was based on the Story of Bethlehem and the annunciations, but also had a secular twist with Santa appearing and the choirs each singing a religious song and a secular song.

"Traditionally the eighth grade puts on a Christmas program about the Holy Family, but this year, O’Brien included a little more comedy and play on words," said Deborah McFarlanes, St. Vincent eighth-grade teacher. "The eighth-graders love that they are a part of the production and get to be center stage. It’s a nice ending to their years at St. Vincent. Their names were drawn for the parts and most of them came up with their own costumes. The whole school participated by being a part of the choirs.

"The song Mike and Scott wrote is beautiful," said McFarlanes, adding that the students have been humming and singing it in the halls. "It’s nice for the children to see something be created. It teaches them the importance of school. It’s good for the students to see Mike as an attorney and a dad, yet the person who wrote the words to the song and the script for the program, and then see the music teacher write the music. The Christmas program was a nice opportunity for the school, parents and grandparents to come together for a wonderful performance."