Christmas celebrations started in earnest today with the celebration of Santa Lucia.
Mrs Brown told the whole school the story of Santa Lucia and why this is a special day for people who live in Sweden.
Lucia was a young Italian girl who lived hundreds of years ago. She felt very sorry for the Christians who were being persecuted for their religion and were hiding in the Catacombs under the streets of Rome. She would take them food so that they did not starve. But the catacombs were very dark tunnels and she needed to keep her hands free to carry food and drink so she wore a crown of candles on her head.
The Swedish people were enthralled by this story and they wanted to celebrate what Lucia did so they made her a Saint and every year on December 13th they celebrate Santa Lucia. The youngest girl in the family gets up early and dresses in a white dress with a red sash and takes drink and biscuits to the other people in her family.
Mrs Hastings, who used to be one of our teaching assistants grew up in Sweden and she introduced William Ransom to the story of Santa Lucia. She makes us all special biscuits and we all celebrate Santa Lucia with her. This year it had to be a day early because of all our Christmas rehearsals and performances!