Christmas Carol causes havoc

Our son who was called 'a breath of fresh air' by his pre-school leader turned into a rebel after learning of Christmas carols for his pre-school play.

Aware of the impact the language children hear has on them, even unconsciously, I have always been very careful about the songs I have chosen to sing to him. I elected to avoid songs which talked about falling out of trees or beds and judge, braking and not being put back together again, sweets being better than reason and songs with any cruelty in them.

Our son was very good for his age, when it came to saying please and thank you. However around Christmas time I began to notice he was forgetting to saying please, was more impatient  and would say he wanted things right now. At first I thought this was just a phase and was not sure where it had come from, as it is not the kind of language we use at home, till we saw his Christmas pre-school play. They were singing we wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.  If you're not familiar with the words here they are: 

We wish you a Merry Christmas (x3)
and a Happy New Year.

Good tidings we bring to you and your kin
We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Now bring us some figgy pudding (x3)
and bring some out here. (or, and bring it us here)

For we all like figgy pudding (x3)
so bring some out here.

Now bring us some figgy pudding (x3)

and bring some out here. (or, and bring it us here)

However in this version they sang: we all want a figgy pudding (3X) so bring it right now. They were also shown to stamp their foot when saying 'right now'.

It was then clear to me then, that my son thought that that was the way to get things and started behaving that way at home.

If I ever needed proof of the impact nursery rhymes, songs and everyday language has on behaviour this was it. It has taken just over two months to 'stamp out' this behaviour.

This is why I have chosen the nursery rhymes I translated into French very carefully and made some adjustments to the English version to make them more educational, more accurate (pigs don't eat roast beef) or to enable a rhyming translation. I hope you will enjoy them.