As the School prepares for the festive season by putting up the Christmas tree in the playground and decking the hall for the Christmas Concert, let’s take a look back at how Christmas was celebrated at Sutton Grammar School down the years.

• In 1949, the school held a Festival of Nine Carols where the school choir were “reinforced by several members of the Staff” and “sang very well indeed”. Christmas classics including While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night and Good King Wenceslas were belted out with gusto.
• In 1962, a Mr Davies arranged “a very enjoyable concert which maintained traditional elements while introducing some new features.” It included a retelling of the Christmas story, carols sung in both French and English and performances on both the piano and the recorder.
• In 1973 and 1975, there are fond recollections of the school’s charity efforts in creating Christmas parcels for the old people of Sutton. In 1973 pupils collected over one thousand tins and bottles and in 1975 the school raised £1,025 to create 520 parcels. The parcels also contained Christmas cards written by students, and parents volunteered as delivery drivers to ensure these parcels brought Christmas cheer to the local elderly people. One local resident, a pensioner by the name of S. Bangs said, “it was the greatest Christmas gift he could have ever wished for.”
• In 1974, the Old Suttonians Rugby Football Club held a Christmas fancy dress dance, which was a “great success” and the story goes that “the sight of ill-kept, oddly-shaped bodies of drunken rugby players in various types of female attire will never be forgotten!”
• In 1986, the form who sold the most programmes for the Christmas Fair won £50, which they spent on a trip to Streatham ice rink. Whilst some seemed to be naturals on the ice, others enjoyed a less graceful afternoon: “The most exhilarating and exciting part for all non-skaters has to be when, after making your first solo lap, you smack into the wall of the rink, scattering classmates because you can’t stop.” No fingers were severed on the trip.

In recent years, the Headmaster, Mr Cloves, has begun a new tradition of a whole school assembly in the sports hall, complete with quizzes, games and a whole school rendition of a Christmas pop classic.

Season’s greetings!