With Christmas bursting onto the horizon, but tantalisingly not quite here yet, the kids are slowly winding themselves up with excitement and itching for Christmas-inspired fun. The Sticky Kids Christmas Singalong promised the opportunity for kids to run off a bit of Christmas steam in a controlled environment – and that’s what it delivered.
The children in the audience were immediately drawn to the giant Christmassy boxes and bags on stage, all trying to guess what might be hiding in the enormous red satin ‘Santa Sack’ posing dead centre. To further set the mood, the Sticky Kids Christmas CD was playing as parents with babes in arms and children up to age 6years were settling themselves in.
Molly Muddle burst onto the stage in a very sparkly Christmas outfit and explained that Santa had left these presents for her to open in order to help her remember what songs to sing – as she always forgets. She phoned her friend Mac (Donald – a farmer) to come and help her and they then took it in turns to open the presents.
As each present was opened it duly reminded them of a song to sing. Children would then be called down from the audience to come on stage and help them perform the song – and there was certainly no shortage of volunteers. Simple actions accompanied each song with which everyone joined in. The kids would then get a sticker and with excited grins go running back to their seats.
The whole thing had, appropriately, a very pantomime-y feel to it with shouts of ‘behind you’ and ‘oh no it isn’t’ being elicited, mad-cap dashing in and out of doors with Mac and Molly always just missing each other and, of course, not forgetting hitting each other with giant squashy Christmas crackers. There were a mixture of Christmas songs and traditional kids’ songs, like Twinkle-Twinkle, with some words changed to reflect the Christmassy theme.
While this lacked some of the theatrical finesse and polish of the usual theatre offerings – it was more like a slightly chaotic kids’ Christmas Party - their experience with a young audience and expertise at getting and keeping them involved really shone through.
This was a show to take part in rather than sit back and watch and, like the best children’s activities, the kids really felt that they had helped to make something really exciting.
Not entirely to my taste, but my five-year-old declared it the best thing she’d ever seen (and she’s seen a lot) and, after all, it wasn’t meant for me! Did exactly what it said on the tin – sticky kids singing along – oh, and a lot of dancing, shouting and laughing!
The Scottish Storytelling Centre is presenting a variety of children's shows over the Christmas period