December Singing Time

It’s time to get ready for singing a Christmas Song for Sacrament Meeting. This is always easy and fun. I usually pick Christmas Bells Are Ringing because it it sooooooooo easy to teach and it is pretty.  Everybody learns it really fast.  Then you have to pick another one that can be sung with it and this one will take most of your time.

“Christmas Bells are Ringing…Here What They Say to You….Jesus is Born…In Bethlehem…”

A PDF flip chart for Christmas Bells is HERE at Sugardoodle.  

Picture a Christmas is my favorite.  It is such a pretty song and the words sing of all the cast of characters in the Manger scene. So it is fun to get a children’s type of manger to use and have kids hold up that icon as we sing about them.  Another idea I’ve done in the past is to have the kids pass out the manger scene before the song and as we sing about the shepherds, or the angels, the child holding them come up and put them in the manger scene. By the time the song has been sung, the whole scene is back in place.

A PDF flip chart for Picture a Christmas is HERE at Sugardoodle.

It is also a great way to help kids remember what comes next in the song…..they are looking at the little pieces of the manger scene to help them remember the words.

This would be a perfect nativity to sing the song ” Picture a Christ mas”  with.

Another one that I’ve done in the past is very easy; Away in a Manger.  I think it is so familiar to them you won’t have any problems getting it memorized in a few weeks to perform in Sacrament Meeting.

When Joseph went to Bethlehem
I think he took great care
To place his tools and close his shop
And leave no shavings there.

He urged the donkey forward,
Then, with Mary on its back,
And carried bread and goat cheese
In a little linen sack.

I think there at the busy inn
That he was meek and mild
And awed to be the guardian
Of Mary’s sacred Child.

Perhaps all through the chilly hours
He smoothed the swaddling bands,
And Jesus felt the quiet strength of
Joseph’s gentle hands.

And close beside the manger bed
He dimmed the lantern’s light,
And held the little Jesus close upon
That holy night.

Image Joseph and Mary
Joseph and Mary at the birth….”and awed to be the guardian of Mary’s sacred child”



A harder Christmas song is When Joseph Went to Bethlehem.  It’s harder because of the vocabulary. But it is a sweet song most kids will always remember because it tells the story from Joseph’s viewpoint. It is sweet and tender and one of my personal favorites.  A beautiful PDF document with pictures can be found at Jolly Jenn. The link is HERE at Jolly Jenn.

“Sing Praise to Him….remember HIM as we picture Christmas this year! “

 I would get started with these songs now so you will be ready to sing them possibly the week before Christmas, since the ward choir will probably be doing the music on Christmas Day.  Then the next few weeks you will have some songs to practice for, before starting all over again with presentation songs!

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November Primary Chorister Ideas

Next year the Primary Presentation includes one of my favorite songs. It was sung by friends of mine at my Baptism in 4 part harmony when I was a new convert at age 18.It was arranged by a hugely talented friend of mine named Mark Adams. And it was sung by friends of mine named Winn Claybaugh, Colleen Shields, Greg McDougle and Cyndie Farish. they are all still good friends of mine.  Here is a PDF downloadable document with artwork that you can get a head start on teaching this week. I Know Heavenly Father Loves Me is the song title. It is in my top 5 of Primary Songs.

I love this hike close to my house in Utah; it’s Bell Canyon Reservoir….hiking with my hubs….reminds me of all the beauties of nature created for me to love and enjoy in my life. How often do I take them for granted? Yeah. I do. 

I remember when I was living in Salt Lake City going to school and going to church at one of the student wards and activities at the Salt Lake Institute. I was the Sunday School Chorister in my student ward. I had visual aids for this song (a rose, a piece of a lilac bush, a picture of a bird etc.) and I had the last row of the chapel all come up and hold my pictures. I read the scripture “And the last shall be first and the first last”.

Enjoying the beauties of nature on a Utah hike…..

It was so funny. Having to get up in front of everyone to help sing and teach a song was kind of embarrasing for those young adults. But Everybody laughed and sang with gusto. It is one of those kinds of songs that just brings in the spirit so quickly too. Maybe that’s why it is one of my all time favorites. I think it is an excellent choice. We should sing more song of gratitude to our Lord, for all the beauties of nature that he created just for our joy and enjoyment.

Hiking Bell Canyon Reservoir in October with the hubs…Seeing all this beauty reminds me of this song “I Know Heavenly Father Loves Me”. Why else would he create such beauty for us to enjoy? 

Another flip chart that has black and white icons for coloring is HERE at Sugardoodle done by Ann Clements. If you would rather do it on sticks another bunch of clip art can be found at Sugardoodle.net which was created by Amy Snyder.

Me on a picnic in Provo Canyon’s Vivian Park with my family. 

  Or you can do what I did and just use a silk rose, a fake bird, a picture of a blue sky, or the word sky, etc. It would be easy to assemble all the different things in the song; a picture of the Savior at the end.

A beautiful video on youtube of the song to listen to or show the kids (lyrics included).

Beautiful painting of the savior by Greg Olsen.  You could show pictures of the savior while learning the song too. 

The second verse is easy, eyes, ears, mind and heart, just point to those parts of your body. And for butterfly wings I just used my fingers intertwined and wiggling like a butterfly flying.

A beautiful butterfly on a lilac bush…..

Have a fun week! And enjoy all this wonderful Fall weather we are having. I think the world is so beautiful right now!

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