Like many schools and businesses, Omaha Creighton Prep sends out a holiday card each year.
Usually, they’re pretty standard-issue, the kind you can buy in a store.
This year, however, the Catholic boys school got a bit more festive.
Prep printed about 600 cards fronted by original art depicting last year’s colorful “Christmas at The Cage” celebration, the last in the school’s old gym with its trademark “Bird Cage” student section.
The detailed image features students decked out in all manner of holiday dress — the Three Wise Men, the angel Gabriel, Santa, a Christmas tree and shepherds with their sheep, not to mention the school’s Junior Jay mascots.
“We just wanted to do something different,” said Nate Driml, a Prep spokesman.
Many schools send cards featuring student artwork. The Prep cards were reproduced from an original painting by Maureen Beat, an Omaha artist and graphic designer whose son, Michael, graduated from the school last year.
The idea for the painting, Beat said, came from Taylor Stormberg, a friend of her son and one of Prep’s leading scorers on the basketball court. He, too, graduated last year.. The painting was auctioned off earlier this year as part of a fundraiser.
Beat said she drew on a number of pictures taken at last year’s event to create the composite painting. Parents can pick out many of the students’ faces in the crowd. Beat’s son is a blue-green wrapped present in the lower right corner, next to the Wise Men.
“Christmas at The Cage” itself is a spectacle.
At halftime, the Christmas tree and presents play a half-court basketball game against the Holy Family — Baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Last year, four students dressed up as Advent candles, three purple and one pink, set in a wreath. Every quarter, students lifted a student attired as a flame who pretended to light each candle in turn.
“It’s all tastefully done, but it’s pretty fun,” Driml said.
This year’s edition was held last week in the school’s new gym with its new “Bird Cage,” built as part of a $20 million addition and renovation. The Junior Jays defeated Omaha Burke.
The good news was that the new gym seats 2,300 people, up from 1,300 in the old one. In the past, Driml said, those hoping to catch the celebration — and the game, of course — had to arrive more than an hour early to get a seat.
For those not on Prep’s mailing list, signed and numbered prints are available for sale at Prep’s bookstore, the Jay Mart, or at the school’s Web site under “School Life” and “Prep Moms.”
Contact the writer:
444-1223, julie.anderson@owh.com
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