The evening students returned to campus after the Thanksgiving break, we all gathered in Engelhard, and I talked about how during the short two-and-a-half weeks between Thanksgiving and Winter Break, we pack in the maximum amount of joy and celebration at St. Andrew’s. The key, I said, is to keep it simple. We make room to enjoy the simple things we have: our friendships, our time together. 

For its simplicity, I love the Wednesday chapel we had this week: our Sunday School Christmas pageant. With one week left before we all leave campus again, the faculty children and their VI Form Sunday School teachers share a simple story, which is fundamentally about love, awe, worship, and togetherness. Adults often make things more complicated than they need to be. But the message of the Nativity is simple: God chose the humblest and poorest of circumstances to begin His time on earth. We are called to His side to honor every creature, whether we are a wealthy king or a poor shepherd. 

One of the great gifts of this school year has been the return of faculty children to the Dining Hall, the Chapel, the hallways, and the common rooms of the school. These small ones adore our students and watch them closely. Whether our students know it or not, they are their role models, coaches, big siblings, and examples. Walking through practices one day last week, I noticed a V Form boy running sprints with a small child and letting him win, with high fives all around. On another day at breakfast, a faculty child brought a pen to put away in the announcement box on the windowsill. A student studying nearby watched carefully to see if she could do it, and when she could not, he helped open the box, but allowed her to feel it was her victory to have reached the target. How our students treat the youngest members of our community, when no one is looking, speaks volumes about the kinds of people they are and are becoming.

And yet sometimes, as in the case each year in the Christmas pageant, the tables are turned—as it was written in the Book of Isaiah, “a little child shall lead them.” (A passage that a VI Former will read on Sunday at our Service of Lessons and Carols—parents and alumni, you are welcome to join us for the 2:00 p.m. service, or you can watch on livestream here.) Of course, it makes sense that our best Christmas teachers are children. Their wonder, anticipation, reverence, and joy remind us to show up, be present, be ourselves, love each other. It is not what we get or what we spend that defines this season, but rather who we are and whom we love. I cannot imagine anything more worth celebrating.