Singing Christmas Tree… of Bobbleheads

Mona Shores, a local high school, celebrates the holidays every year with a singing Christmas tree.

“A singing Christmas tree?” you ask.

Yes, a singing Christmas tree.


Look closely. There are over TWO HUNDRED high schoolers IN THAT TREE!

mLive has an excellent article here that highlights the specifics — 67 feet tall, 300 singers, a gazillion lights — if you’d like more details.

First, it was a little weird. I mean, there are 240 kids in a tree that stands 67 feet high! We were in the center balcony and the thing was still taller than us. The show opened with a light show to Tran-Siberian Orchestra that put the beer commercial house to shame. Yes, I’m disappointed I didn’t take video. The kids filed through the theater for the first couple songs (including Silent Night which was very moving), then climbed into the tree.

Yes, climbed. How else are you supposed to get into a tree?

I’d heard from coworkers that kids tend to pass out, and one boy dropped midway through the first half. More disturbing than his limp form buckling inside the tree was the reaction of the boys on either side of him: they simply moved a little closer to one another. I know nurses were on-hand but since we couldn’t see inside the tree, my mom and I came up with all kinds of scenarios of the scene inside the scaffolding. Were there sniffing salts? Gurneys? Juice and cookies? And how many of them were stationed on each level? Good news — he reappeared in time for the last songs, but by then another student was missing.

But I haven’t explained the bobbleheads reference. You see, they were crammed in pretty tightly and kept their hands behind the covered railing, and because of the design of their robes they looked like their arms with missing, THEN combined with the fact that the majority of them bobbed, swayed, and otherwise moved along with the music and you have… bobbleheads. (I’d like to thank Vickie for the title of this post.)

As amusing as these details were, I don’t want to detract from how spectacular (spectacular!) their performance was. They sang in at least five different languages (that I counted), for nearly two hours, without a break OR sheet music. And most of them smiled the entire time. My absolute favorites were the five girls three rows from the top who moved side to side, in unison, for almost every song. Their joy made my night.

16 Comments

  1. Melanie's Mom

    It really was a fantastic performance. I sang in an amazing choir in high school and would have loved to have been able to climb up and sing in a Christmas Tree! The student orchestra accompanying them was great too. A marlevous way to get into a Christmas mood.

  2. There used to be a tradition of a singing Christmas tree at the auditorium here when I was a kid. We sat in the balcony every year and I was always amazed that I was looking straight across at somebody on the tree. They were adults and didn’t tend to drop like Jethro in the ce-ment pond, though.

    • I really wanted to film it but they gave us such a lecture about using our phones and cameras that I was nervous. Plus I didn’t know if it’d be weird to start the video halfway through — once I realized how cool it was — and now I’m kicking myself.

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