A Day To Be Grateful For: A Look Inside Park’s Yule Festival 

The Friday before Winter Break is a special time at Park. In addition to palpable excitement about the upcoming vacation, the day brings a spirited celebration known as Yule Festival.

The entire Park community, including alumni, is invited to share in the festivities in the West Gym, and the event marks the only time during the year when the whole school assembles in one place.  

As Park has evolved over the years, so has Yule Festival.  As an article in the December 1999 issue of The Park Parent (the predecessor to Park Perspectives) documents, the event has its origins in an annual Christmas performance that included carols sung in multiple languages and, from the 1930s to the 1950s, original pageants written and directed by a faculty member.  Starting in the 1980s, the event expanded into a multicultural program featuring winter traditions from multiple cultures and religions, and the event continued in that format for several decades.  

In the midst of the pandemic in December 2020, a large-scale indoor gathering like Yule Festival was clearly off the table. The school pivoted, and the community came together outdoors on an unseasonably warm December morning to sing some familiar tunes before heading off on vacation. Head of School Scott Young remembers the tangible energy on that day, as Yule Festival provided an opportunity for celebration and connection at a time when there was little of either.  

The disruption forced by Covid provided the school with the opportunity to reimagine what Yule Festival might look like. Scott explains that the school wanted to create an event that would incorporate student voices, reflect community values, and bring people together. Because not all cultures have winter celebrations, the school decided to shift annual music selections to songs that are joyful and related to the winter season rather than associated with a particular religion or tradition. The school chose a perpetual theme of gratitude to tie the event together.  

The current version of Yule Festival includes many opportunities for students to speak and perform.  Faculty members and administrators select students from across the school to stand in front of the assembled crowd and share personal reflections and original poems on the theme of gratitude. These readings are interspersed among a plethora of musical performances, which serve important functions for the Music Department.  First, as Department Chair Dave Cordes explains, Yule Festival serves as a showcase for the school’s PreK-Grade 4 general music program, as each Lower Division student has the opportunity to stand on stage and perform a song they have rehearsed in their music class. Dave thinks the department strikes a good balance in selecting songs that do not overtake the rest of the music curriculum while providing students with valuable experience in the process of rehearsal, refinement, and performance.  

Yule Festival also provides a significant performance opportunity for the advanced musicians in our Grade 7 & 8 chorus, guitar, and orchestral ensembles. As Dave explains, being in the spotlight at such a large event is an important experience for these students as well as an incentive for them to continue with these ensemble electives. A memorable moment comes when all of the Grade 7 & 8 ensembles perform a song together, a collaboration that started in 2023 with an original arrangement of “Truly Brave” and continued with a rousing performance of “All You Need Is Love” last year.  

To underscore the community element of the event, a group of Grade 8 student leaders walk into the West Gym holding hands with PreK students, guiding these youngest community members into their first Yule Festival while providing a literal bridge between the school’s present and future leaders. The community aspect of the event is also reinforced by animated sing-alongs of two pieces that have become Park traditions: the folk song “Light One Candle,” which is led by a faculty and staff chorus, and the gospel spiritual “Children, Go Where I Send Thee,” for which all alumni in attendance (including recently graduated high schoolers!) are invited on stage to lead the hand motions that correspond with the lyrics.

Scott reflects that having an established theme and consistent foundation for Yule Festival provides the school with the opportunity for “iterative evolution,” improving the event each year by focusing on smaller details, and he finds the consistency a welcome respite after Covid-era improvisations. Scott also notes that having a dedicated theater technician on staff has significantly improved the quality of Yule Festival since institutional knowledge is carried forward from one year to the next.

Dave appreciates that Yule Festival allows music to be a vehicle for bringing people together and offers a chance for the Music Department to showcase what students have been working on in the classroom. He underscores how grateful he and the Music Department faculty are for the partnership of teachers and administrators. While music teachers might be in the spotlight at Yule Festival, Dave emphasizes that the event would not be possible without the hard work of so many other faculty and staff members.  

Above all, the school aspires for people to leave Yule Festival feeling connected, energized, and grateful, and the morning of December 19 promises to be a joyful and meaningful time for the entire Park community.  

By: Elizabeth Prasse P’27, 29, Park Perspectives Co-Editor

#TheParkSchoolMA #ParkSchoolExcellence #ItAllStartsatPark #ParkSchoolFaculty #ParkSchoolCommunity