PG High School hosts holiday Art Pajama Party
She wiggled with excitement on her stool, unbound brown curls bobbing as she looked up with clear, blue eyes from wrapping her mother's Christmas present with handmade wrapping paper.
“I got to design the thing,” said 7-year-old Adyson Jones. “My mama will love it. … I'm waiting till our tree can get up so I can put it down for Christmas under the tree.”
The little girl in red pajamas with white snowflakes was one of about 60 elementary- and intermediate-age children creating handmade art projects as gifts for their parents Saturday morning at Pleasant Grove High School's Art Pajama Party.
“We started it about 15 years ago as an advocacy program for art at the elementary level and the intermediate level, so those kids would have an opportunity to work with high school students and learn some techniques and some things,” said Nicole Brisco, art director at Pleasant Grove. “We kind of wanted to pair it up with the opportunity at the holidays to raise funds for our National Art Honor Society program, as well as give the high school kids the opportunity to do community service.”
Christmas music filled the cafeteria as the high schoolers suggested colors, helped glue paper and framed each mixed media photo piece.
This is the third year Savannah Story, the art club's vice president for special events, has been lending a holiday hand to the project. She said she loves children, but the Art Pajama Party holds a special meaning for her.
“A lot of us … whenever we were their age, came to the art workshop, and I know that was one the things that made me like ‘Oh my gosh, I love art.' Because it's really cool for them … especially when they get to, like, make these art pieces that they would've never been able to do by themselves. … They just get really excited.” she said. “I'm not sure I would have gotten into art at middle school or really enjoyed it, but after I came here, that was really exciting for me.”
Brisco said Savannah is just one of many high school art students who made projects at the program as a pajama-clad youngster.
“Most of (the high school students) are excited to do it because they remember doing it,” she said.
They are also learning leadership skills, Brisco said, by teaching and being responsible for the children as they learn art techniques.
“I like the idea that they learn very quickly,” she said. “It's challenging to manage children and help them to be successful. It's a good life skill-building thing. It gives them a feeling of ‘I'm in charge of making sure this child is successful.'”
The children create and wrap their personal gifts in hand-designed wrapping paper, with the intention of keeping it wrapped and under the tree until Christmas morning. But that doesn't always happen, Brisco said.
“Every once in a while, we'll have a kid walk out the door and say ‘Mommy, look what I made,' and rip it open by the time they get in the car because they're so excited,” Brisco said. “They're just so excited to show their parent. They'll want them to open it before the holidays, but we try to get them to put it under the tree so they really feel like they're contributing something.”
For the past two years, Jason and Renee Lea's 8-year-old daughter Tommie has loved putting on her pajamas to create a special Christmas gift for them, they said, but she doesn't rip it open in the car on the way home.
“She tells us ever year it's her Christmas present (to us) from her,” Renee Lea said. “She makes us wait.”