Baby Christmas Tree

adapted/arr. Teresa & Paul Jennings

Well, here's one we bet you haven't heard before. This adaptation of the familiar Christmas carol, "O Christmas Tree," is anything but traditional, though at first, you may think so. It starts with a lush orchestral introduction, but then quickly evolves (devolves?) into a combination rock/novelty piece, complete with sound effects usefully placed as cues for singers.

The song features a Christmas tree family, which you can represent with soloists using different voices as we do on our recording. (Our Grandpa is a hoot!) Or you could just let everyone sing along. We have a unison version for you in case that's what you prefer. It's on our web site, free to subscribers. The story isn't really much of one, but we think your youngsters will be very cute telling it, or rather singing it, anyway. The best and quickest way to learn the song is to just play the recording a few times, then get out of the way.

Your students might start doing their own moving around and dancing to the music, but if you want something more structured, we have included movement ideas on the music itself. Use as is or adapt freely as you like. Tree costumes would also be fun, or you could use puppets, toys, or graphic cut-outs to make it more visual.

Text is taken from Music K-8 magazine.