Christmas Celebrations with Gifts from BibleLands

Advent and Christmas were celebrated in December 2011 in accordance with Schneller traditions. This year there was additional impetus through the presence of two dedicated and hard-working volunteers from Germany, Johannes Michel and Thomas Ruppert, who cooperated fully with the educators (night-duty teachers) and lead the preparations for Advent and Christmas. Advent wreathes were made on time. Educators and volunteers assisted students in making them. St. Nicholas' Day was celebrated this year for the first time since many years. Every educator coordinated the decoration of his/her boarding home by both the boys and girls. Many trees outside the boarding homes and around the campus were also decorated. The church was also magnificently decorated, and all decorations were handmade by students who were taught to make the beautiful decorations by the volunteers. Choir practice, handcrafts, and music training all lead to the climax of the season when both the Academic and Boarding Departments held their Christmas programs just before the Christmas holiday began.
The Academic Department held its Christmas program on Wednesday 21 December at 1.30 PM. The children excelled in their music, singing, and the Christmas play they performed. The Boarding Department held its Christmas program on Thursday 22 December. The program started with the Christmas service which was held at 6.00 PM. The boarding children also excelled in their music, singing, and the Christmas play they performed. It was followed with the Christmas dinner and the distribution of presents by Santa Claus to all our students.
Even our youngest children were able to instantly realize that the EMS volunteers were the Santas giving them their presents. We have been asking volunteers to perform this role too often making the whole thing lose its element of surprise. The positive factor in this is that it made our very young children less fearful of Santa. 
All our children including all the vocational  students got presents this year thanks to BibleLands which provides us regularly with grants for Christmas and Easter gifts to all our students. We express our most sincere gratitude to BibleLands for enabling us to give a present to every student thus putting smiles on every face and bringing joy to every child in our boarding department.
Although all staff were invited to the Christmas service and dinner, not many attended. We thank those who joined our students on this very important occasion. We hope those who did not attend will realize that the fact that attending such functions is now voluntary does not absolve them from their duty to participate in the social life of our boarding students, especially on such important occasions.
We thank EMS volunteers Johannes and Thomas, all the educators, teachers, and students for the wonderful Christmas programs and decorations they worked hard to produce. Schneller School celebrated Advent and Christmas in a wonderful way this year. We thank all who worked tirelessly, for a long time, to make all this possible. We especially thank BibleLands for the Christmas presents given to all our students.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.