Dear St. Patrick families,

On behalf of the teachers, staff and myself, I would like to wish all of our families a very holy, happy and merry Christmas! As we gather together to celebrate the birth of Christ, let us remember all of the blessings and grace that God has given us, and moving forward, all of the blessings and grace that God will bestow on us in the future. The Christmas season is a wonderful time of the year for all of our families. and I would like to wish safe travels to all of our families who will travel during this time to visit family and friends.

Our final day of school is Wednesday, Dec. 20th. Your homeroom teachers will be sending home some information regarding the class parties in the afternoon.

Our Christmas break is scheduled from Thursday, Dec. 21st, through Tuesday, Jan. 2nd. School will resume Wednesday Jan. 3rd.

We would like to congratulate 8th grader, Julie Pham. Julie was the recipient of the Irish Academic Scholarship from St. Vincent – St. Mary High School. This is a four – year renewable scholarship awarded to students who have received the thirty highest scores on their fall scholarship placement test. Julie scored in the top 12% of all students who took the test. We are all very proud of Julie’s accomplishments.

Friday, Jan. 5th, is CYO basketball night at Hoban. Any 6th, 7th or 8th grade boys’ or girls’ basketball players will be admitted free that night if they wear their jersey to the game. More information may be obtained by contacting Hoban’s Office of Admissions or contacting Sara Stone at stones@hoban.org.

My favorite Christmas story that I like to retell every year is the story of the candy cane. A candy maker in Indiana wanted to create a candy that would be witness to Jesus, so he made the Christmas candy cane. He incorporated several symbols of the birth, ministry and death of Jesus. He began with a stick of pure, white, hard candy. The white color symbolized the Virgin birth and the sinless nature of Jesus. The hardness of the candy symbolized the solid rock, the foundation of the Church and the firmness of the promises of God. The candy maker made the candy in the form of a J to represent the precious name of Jesus. It would also represent the staff of the “Good Shepherd” with which He would reach down into the ditches of the world to lift out the fallen lambs who had gone astray. Thinking the candy was somewhat plain, the candy was stained with three red stripes to represent the stripes from the scourging of Jesus. The small stripes represented the healed stripes on Jesus from his scourging. The large red stripe represented the blood shed by Jesus on the cross so that we could have the promise of eternal life. This story gives a whole new light to everyone’s favorite holiday candy.

Feliz Natal, Feliz Navidad, Joyeux Noel, Frohliche Weihnachten, and Buon Natale!

Bonee Annee, Shana Tova, Buon Anno, Feliz Ano, Nuevo, Manigong Bagong Taon, and Felix Sit Annus Novus!

No matter what the language – from all of us to all of you – Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!