Joy bags share season's bliss

School children experience Advent in a novel way

By BILL GLEN
WCR Staff Writer
Edmonton

The parents of seven children, five of whom attended the school, will soon see the rich tradition pass on to their grandchildren.

"Just as our youngest daughter (Tianna, 8) graduates, our granddaughter (Kirra, 4) starts school," Ron Deering said. "We have been involved for 18 straight years now."

The school implemented the joy bags program where each of the nine classrooms is given a large cloth bag. Inside are candles, an Advent wreath, a tin of cookies, a journal and a small prayer book for daily prayers during Advent.

The student brings the bag home and shares the contents with the family for a few days. The candles are then lit and the prayers are spoken. The treats are enjoyed and replenished and the moment is recorded in the journal. The joy bag is then handed over to another student in the class so each student has a chance to share before school closes for Christmas.

Retiring next spring after 45 years as an educator, principal Joan Cunningham is confident the next principal will carry on the tradition.

"The children get really excited," she said. "There is a real energy that begins to build every November.

"They can't wait to get the joy bags."

"It's a chance to reflect back on our family's growth and journeying." - Ron Deering

Cunningham sat down recently and was astounded to read a journal that contained 17 years of memories of the Deerings after a parent brought the book to her attention.

"It's sort of a passage of age," Judy Deering said. "In the beginning you don't know how to read yet, so your parents or your older siblings help you. You're always happy to bring the joy bag home. Nobody's grumpy. You always know you're going to have goodies after supper after you commit to the spiritual part of it.

"The Advent wreath is the legend we celebrate," she said.

"I like reading the comments over the years," Ron Deering said. "It shows the growth of our community and families that we knew. We've been in Patricia Heights for 30 years. The stories in the journal are all related to what the family did to celebrate Christmas."

The families describe lighting the candles. Sometimes the parents describe their children and over the years, you can see where the kids are growing up and leaving the community.

"It's also a joy to read what we wrote over the years," Ron said. "It's a chance to reflect back on our family's growth and journeying."

The journals also describe the return of some families to the community and the school, as is about to occur with the Deerings.

"The joy bag would always come home on the weekend when we celebrated two birthdays (Thomas, 23 and Tiffany, 16)," Ron said. "And now Kirra is our third December baby.

"There is always a lot of candle lighting," he quipped.

Eldest daughter Treena, 32, a high school teacher in Red Deer, sees a great intrinsic value in the tradition of the joy bags.

"Writing is becoming a lost art," she said. "So having the kids writing in the journal is even more special now because it doesn't happen very much. Everything is computerized.

"This is really an archive where families sit down together and page through a book."

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