Elementary Christmas concert fills new gym

With over 300 performers and an overflowing house, the Elementary Christmas Concert is far and away the school’s biggest event.

This year, the performance moved to the new gym, but it was packed too, including both sets of bleaches and chairs on the floor. About 900 were in attendance, estimated Principal Scott Lusk.

“That’s what I love about Cleveland: we come out and support our students.”

But a change in venue wasn’t the only difference this year, Lusk told the crowd.

“In the past 25 years, our actual classroom teachers were the music teachers. This year we’re lucky that we have Miss Lacee Johnson. If you want to see someone who can really keep a class going, come in and watch her teach. Every kid is up and moving and singing.”

From holiday tunes that ranged from humorous to traditional, the kids kept the crowd entertained,

First on stage were almost 60 kindergartners. They performed “What’s in that Stocking,” “A Hat for my Snowman” and “Christmas Makes Me Sing.”

Split out on its own this year, the first graders sang “If I were a Reindeer” (above), “Peppermint Candy Cane” and “There’s Someone in the Chimney,” which featured PE and Health teacher Charlie Haugen on the Santa sound effects.

The second graders performed “Hip Hop Elves,” “Christmas Lullaby Calypso,” and “Turn Off that Nose.”

The third and fourth graders sang “On the road to Bethlehem,” “Beautiful Christmas” and “It’s Time to Deck the Halls.”

The fifth and sixth graders caroled “Here Comes the Snow,” “Follow that Wondrous Star,” and “Various Themes on ‘Fa-La-La,’” a traditional setting of “Deck the Halls” which develops into a humorous collection of Fa-La-La variations, including musical moments from Rossini's “William Tell Overture,” Beethoven's “Fifth Symphony,” Strauss' “On the Beautiful Blue Danube” and Tchaikovsky's “1812 Overture.”

As is tradition at Cleveland, the final group led “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.”

As a bonus for the audience, the singing acts were punctuated by director Erik Hermanson’s Holiday Jazz Band.