Festive face masks, decorated Perspex desk dividers, in-bubble class parties, online classroom concerts and Santa zooming past on a scooter – this is how schools will be celebrating Christmas this year.

As the coronavirus pandemic forced the cancellation of traditional school concerts, fairs and parties, schools are determined to ensure that the Christmas spirit is still very present.

“We have made a promise to ourselves as a school: COVID-19 will not take the magic of Christmas away from our students,” San Andrea head of school Stefania Bartolo said.

“This year we have decided to decorate the school quite early,” she said.

“Our students loved the idea and started decorating their own Perspex dividers on the separate desks. Teachers have been donning Christmas masks and the school is blurring every morning with Christmas songs all over the three main buildings.”

A festive atmosphere at St Catherine’s High School.

Students have been making decorations, baubles  and cribs. The last days of school will be Christmas Week where children wear Christmas clothes.

And, during PSCD lessons, they will be discussing ways to show kindness – and the acts of kindness will be written down and placed in baubles and taken home to hang on their Christmas tree.

Parades, online talent shows

At St Catherine’s High School, younger students are organising a Christmas parade where class bubbles will not mix.

Children will be dressed as figures of the Nativity scene and they will walk from their class to a designated area where they will lay ‘baby Jesus’ in his manger as they sing Christmas carols, said school head Sue Midolo.

In the junior school classroom, doors are decorated and an online talent show is being organised.

“The last two days of school will be dedicated to Christmas-related activities and Santa will also visit  riding his scooter while children are in the outdoor area for some carol singing,” she said.

The school is also having a reverse advent calendar whereby all students will collect food items to donate.

Kindness and giving

This is an initiative also taken on at St Benild’s School, explains head Claudia Vella.

There, special assemblies, such as lighting advent candles and assemblies about Advent and St Nicholas, are being recorded and shared online.

Christmas concerts and parties will be held within the same bubbles and students will be preparing crafts and cards for the elderly at Casa Antonia, Balzan.

San Anton School is also keeping the Christmas spirit alive.

Head of communications Maria Pia Galea said that while  traditional activities, such as the annual Christmas market and Christmas concerts, were cancelled, the school “is  leaving no stone unturned to ensure that the Christmas Spirit is alive and present throughout the school”.

Younger students are preparing individual class activities which will then be filmed in class and shared with parents and guardians. 

Kory, the school’s popular COVID-busting mascot, has a few surprises up his sleeve.

Meanwhile, the school launched a campaign to raise funds for Hospice Malta through a collection and an Acts of Kindness Calendar that encourages daily acts of kindness.

“Musicians among staff are rehearsing festive tunes which they will perform in the school corridors to ensure that we end the last day of term on a festive and safe note,” Galea said.