Spreading Christmas cheer

Staff writer

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link Derek Major: Staff photo

Kindergarten students sing “Feliz Navidad” to customers and employees at Yucca Telecom in Portales Wednesday.

Kindergarten students at Brown Elementary got a chance to bring a little Christmas cheer to several Portales businesses on Wednesday by singing Christmas carols.

“We do this for a couple reasons,” said Brown Principal Rebecca Flen, who has been at the school for six years. “The community always gives and donates to our school and so it’s one way that our students can give back.

“The other thing is we do have a fine arts grant and this is one of the things we use it for. It doesn’t cost anything, but it’s just a show of how the program is improving.”

The kindergarten students walked from the school located on West Fifth Street to Ace Hardware, Yucca Telecom and the Portales schools central office.

The tradition has been going on for over 10 years.

Debra Hargrove, the music teacher at Brown, starts getting the kids ready a few weeks before they go to sing.

“We start teaching the students the carols a couple weeks in advance,” said Hargrove. “We start signing with the music, then the last few days we’ll do it without the music to get the kids ready.”

The children sang “Jingle Bells,” “Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer,” “Feliz Navidad” and “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” at the locations.

Luther Adkins, the county supervisor for Yucca Telecom, believes it’s a great idea to have the kids come and sing.

“The employees and customers look forward to it every year,” Adkins said. “It’s on our company calendar so every one knew when the kids were coming and we had a lot of parents here too. It’s a great thing.”