‘Tis the season to start buying presents, wrapping presents, sending presents, and getting presents. Wait, isn’t it “‘Tis the season to be jolly?” Not to most people. From even before Halloween, retail stores have been advertising for Christmas sales. According to research, Americans spend an average of $1,000 or more on Christmas gifts. This shouldn’t be true. We should be more focused on the true meaning of Christmas. We should concentrate more on the joy of giving than the joy of receiving. This sounds a bit cliché- “giving is better than receiving”- but it is said so often because it is true. This Christmas season, we should aim to be excited about giving instead of receiving.

At St. Robert, students are encouraged to take part in the actions of giving, reflecting, and praying. Every Monday, the students partake in a schoolwide assembly of Advent reflection and prayer. We follow the theme of, “In joyful hope, we work, we wait, we pray,” during the prayer, and afterwards we sing the hymn “The King of Glory,” while doing the corresponding actions. We also donate SAM (Share A Meal) items every Friday in the season of Advent in a sense of giving in the Advent season. Right before Christmas break, we give the gift of music to the St. Robert community in our annual Christmas Concerts, with each grade, the middle school choir, the concert and beginning band, and Advanced Music singing Christmas carols.

I hope that as a school, we are able to reflect and pray even after school lets out for Christmas break. Although we aren’t attending and praying on a daily basis as we do at school, we should try to keep up that habit while we aren’t in school.