O Little Star of Bethlehem Barbie

O Little Star of Bethlehem Barbie

In elementary school, we had a Christmas concert every year.  One notable time my class sang The Coventry Carol.  All of the students sat on stage for the whole show and each class would rise as it took its turn to sing.  This was much easier than marshaling the children in and out for each song.

The school stage had two short flights of stairs leading down to the gym floor with a skirting wall that extended to hide the stairs from the audience.  Someone rigged a platform by putting some boards across the top of the wall for my class.  There was room for 24 kids in two rows, twelve stage left and twelve stage right.  I was kid 25 so my chair was on the gym floor and I stood on it when it was our turn to sing.  I was tall but the arrangement had my head at waist level to the others.

No one else from my family was performing that year.  We had a new baby at home so my mother could not attend.  Dad tried to escape too.  He suggested that I need not go.  This was craziness.  I had practiced.  My class needed me.  Dad suggested he could drop me off at the school and pick me up when it was over.  No, no.  Everyone's parents would be there.  What if he only came for my one song?  It wasn't just one song.  We would all be singing O Canada at the start and God Save the Queen at the end!

My adorable, long-suffering Dad came....  and stayed for the whole concert. 

All I Want for Christmas Barbie

All I Want for Christmas Barbie

It is hard to keep  Christmas secrets when you live in a family.  After every shopping expedition you have to sneak into the house and up to your  room to wrap and hide the gifts before someone sees you.  

My father, the world's worst gift shopper, took my four-year-old sister and me to choose a gift for our mother.  Mom had mentioned that she would like a pair of kid leather gloves to match her new purse.  It was a successful trip and dad explained that we must not tell what we had bought.  It was a secret until Christmas.  He repeated many times on the way home that the kid gloves were a secret.  We promised.

But Christmas is unbearably exciting when you are four years old and we weren't out of our coats before my sister blurted the news to Mom.  "We bought you kid's mitts!"

Barbie's lips are sealed.  She will never tell you what I got for you this year.

Rola Bola Barbie

Rola Bola Barbie

Barbie is dressed as Pierrot, a sad clown whose origins stem from the traditions of seventeenth century entertainers in Paris.  Pierrot is a sad-faced clown, a mime, who pines for Columbine.  His love is unrequited and while Columbine may flirt with Pierrot, she always chooses Harlequin.
Barbie is not very concerned with this aspect of Pierrot (she has Ken) but she is trying to learn some of the circus skills that the very best clowns possess.

Circus skills are divided into three categories (according to the Hovey Burgess pedagogy).  They are juggling, equilibristics and vaulting.  Rola bola is an example of an equilibristic skill.  It is a balancing act often combined with juggling.

Life is a balancing act often combined with juggling.  That is not a new or very perceptive analogy but it's really deep thinking for Barbie.