Ringing in the holidays

Jenny Marder

“Remember, we’re going to keep them quiet right now,” Oak View

Elementary School kindergarten teacher Margaret Friedmann said as she

handed a set of jingle bells to each student.

With no time to waste, the 5-year-olds immediately began ringing

the bells, shaking them above their heads and smacking them against

their wrists or onto the shoulder of a nearby student.

Thus began the Christmas carols, sung loudly, passionately and out

of tune by two kindergarten classes at a tree trimming party at Surf

City’s Pacific Liberty Bank on Monday.

For the second year, Pacific Liberty Bank invited two Oak View

Elementary School kindergarten classes to sing songs, hang handmade

decorations on the bank’s Christmas tree and sit on Santa’s lap. Each

child came with personal decorations and left with cookies, candy

canes and neatly wrapped gifts.

“This is the only present that some of them are going to have,”

said Jeanne M. Hexem, vice president of the Huntington Beach branch

of Pacific Premier Bank. “Oak View is more of an underprivileged

area.”

For two and a half weeks, the students have been learning songs

and making ornaments in the shape of Christmas trees from green

Popsicle sticks and pasted with stars, sequins and photographs of

students involved in school activities or posing with classmates.

“This is a star, this is a star and this is a little star,” said

Ernesto Vasquez, 5, proudly indicating the intricacies of his

ornament.

Songs sung in English and Spanish included “Jingle Bells,” “Feliz

Navidad” and “Must Be Santa.”

The children were also given a tour of the bank and a glimpse into

its vaults past heavy metal doors and combination locks.

“Some of these children have never been inside a bank before,”

Friedmann said. “This helps them make sense of their world. When they

get to get out and into the world like this, it broadens their

experience. And all the time, they’re doing language development.

They are learning.”

But the most exciting part for most of the children wasn’t singing

or touring the bank or even sitting in Santa’s lap. It was getting

their own carefully wrapped presents, which they were instructed not

to open until they got home.

Juan Marin knew what was inside his bright red package, or at

least he knew exactly what he wanted:

“A car,” he said. “A little one.”

Anything Pokemon-related was also high on the list.

“They’re just like little sponges, and they just soak it up and

learn so much every day,” said Linda Saez, who’s been teaching

kindergarten at Oak View Elementary School for 30 years. “I always

wonder, who’s teaching who? Everything is just new and fresh and

exciting.”