How Michael Buble Saved the Christmas Concert

Every year Eli’s daycare/preschool puts on a Christmas concert. Last year we had high expectations, but we made the mistake of sitting up front, and as soon as Eli spotted us it was all over. He cried through all three songs, although one of his teachers (also Puerto Rican) was sweet enough to hold him and comfort him while the rest of the kids sang on.

This year, we were nervous. When I took him to the choir room where all of the kids were to lining up, I felt his heart start beating faster and his eyes welled up with tears. I handed him to his teacher, Ms. Merideth and went into the sanctuary with Jav, my mom and Ron, hoping for the best, but expecting a repeat of last year.

Let me rewind a bit. Over the last few months, Eli has grown fond of Michael Buble, and his song “Home,” in particular. He asks to listen to that, and Mumford and Son’s “The Cave” over and over and over, whenever we are in the car. I had mentioned this to his teachers at one point, who found it as amusing as I do.

Anyways, back to the concert. Much to our surprise, Eli came marching out, at first with a timid look on his face, but quietly singing “Silent Night” with the other kids as they filtered onto the stage. His timidness wore off quickly, as he pointed to one of his classmates and shouted, “There’s my dad!!” We were those complete dork parents standing up along the side of the room so that we could see better, giving him thumbs up, the whole nine yards. He shouted the lyrics to the rest of the songs, clapped for himself and raised his arms victoriously upon the completion of each song. He even did the correct hand motions and inserted his own little dance routines into the performance. Whew! What a relief.

Afterwards I asked his teacher how she got him calmed down enough to go onstage. Her answer? “I just told him to be like Michael Buble. I told him he needed to sing loud like Michael Buble and that Michael Buble wouldn’t cry onstage.”

Thank you, Michael Buble (and Ms. Merideth) for saving the Christmas concert.