Just as everywhere in the world Christmas is a special day in Greece, especially for the children in Kindergarten. Already in November, I started decorating the Kindergarten with big Santas, snowflakes, Snowmen, and many more things including a Christmas tree. Also, all the children told me what they had planned for Christmas as well as what they wished for. But just as I was used to from at home we started telling Christmas tales, especially one story, that I had never heard of, was told nonstop it was the Story of the kallikantzaroi.
The kallikantzaroi are little black creatures that look like humans but with long tails, they live under the surface of the earth and try to saw down the tree of the earth, and with it, the world should collapse. But shortly before they are finished Christmas comes around the corner and they now can get to the surface. Once they are on the surface they forget about the tree of the earth and they start to bring trouble to the people of the world. On the sixth of January so 12 days after Christmas the kallikantzaroi then have to go back under the surface of the earth and there they notice that the tree of the earth has magically healed itself. So now they have to start all over again. This folk tale is believed to happen every year.
As I later found out this very interesting story was going to be the subject of the Christmas play my Kindergarten was going to have on the 10. of December 2022 at the PEKEV, which is somewhat the community center of Vrontados, where they have a big stage and a lot of Chairs so all people can fit.
On the day of the Play, everything turned out great all the Children looked super cute in their little costumes and the decorations also looked great and were a great addition to the work of the Children. The Children knew perfectly what their line and role in the play was so there was not much help needed from us. Of course, some Children were a bit frightened by the size of the stage but as we rehearsed the play often we were able to mild their level of fear with some encouraging words so it soon turned into excitement. After the Children finished their play and they got their well-deserved applause Santa Claus came with a big brown bag full of presents and every child got a Puzzle and some sweets. After that, the Children happily ran to their Parents. The parent association also planned that there would be a professional Photographer that took videos and photos and they also had some tables with Water and traditional Greek Christmas cookies like melomakarona and kouroumpiedes. This day was really special not only for the children and their parents but also for me and the other teachers at the Kindergarten. Because we got to see how great they performed and we knew how much work they and we put into it to get to this Point.
Although this day was great the real preparations started way earlier to be precise around the beginning of November. The children all got a paper with their line of the play that they then had to rehearse at home and every day from 11 to 12.30 we rehearsed the play with music at the Kindergarten. My work mainly consisted in preparing the decoration for the Stage. In the Basement of the Kindergarten, we still had the styrofoam cutout of the Houses, the Tree, the Pot the saw, and the geese that we needed for the play. But as they were already pretty old the color was already chipping off on some parts and also it was not really vibrant anymore. So I had to mix some new colors and paint everything also some parts were broken but with a bit of hot glue, I was able to fix it fast. We also needed a banner with the title of the Play to hang on the Stage with some pieces and cartons and a lot of Glitter, to get the Christmassy feeling I also managed to do that. As I could not really help the children with rehearsing their lines for the play I helped with the music and for the rehearsals, I was the DJ.
This play was also not the only event that took place at my Kindergarten. In the week before Christmas, a few Mothers of the children came to the Kindergarten with bags full of baking supplies and then we all baked together. Each mother had a recipe with them for traditional greek cookies so we then baked kouroumpiedes, melomakarona, and melomakarona pita because these cookies are not meant to be decorated we also baked sugar cookies and colored icing so the children also got to decorate some cookies. This day was really nice as the mothers explained every step of preparing the cookies so me, the children, and the other teachers learned a lot. Also, the Mothers were really happy to show me their culture and even though we had a language barrier we talked about the different customs. But I also got to know them better as on the day of the play we did not really have time to get to know each other. But most importantly I got to taste the amazing cookies the children made.
All in All Christmas time in Kindergarten was a great experience and even though the customs and traditions in Greece are quite different from the ones I was used to in my family I had a great time. I got to learn many new things and enjoyed these new traditions very much the only thing that was missing was the snow to build snowmen in. But with all the decorations people had outside and the decorations we made ourselves for the House and for the schools as well, it was a great cozy feeling that we all had.
