The Miss Christmas pageant took place on Christmas Eve. It was a much anticipated event in our family, who, as usual, gathered together to judge the entries. To narrow the field somewhat, we agreed that each doll had to be based on a Christmas song, which we would interpret in our design.
Grace and I each chose a wide variety of songs, ranging from Silent Night to Santa Baby. It was difficult to choose winners from the over thirty entries, but we eventually chose my design, based on O Come, O Come Emmanuel, my favorite Christmas hymn.
1st Place:My design was inspired by O Come, O Come Emmanuel. I dressed the Barbie in a black tunic and head scarf, and put chains on her wrists, to evoke the “captive Israel” in the hymn. I then added a beaded wire spiral that came up from her costume and rose above her, to represent the hope of Christ’s redemption.
2nd Place: For fun in this pageant, my mom entered a Barbie that she had designed. As she taught Grace and I to sew and frequently serves as our design consultant, so she was definitely qualified to compete. She did a really sweet interpretation of “Away in a Manger,” featuring a Barbie dressed as Mary and holding a tiny baby Jesus.
3rd Place: Grace won this place with her creative design inspired by the hymn,”The Holly and the Ivy.” She dressed the doll in a short black dress, and accented the design with flowing ribbons, with the black representing our sin, the red Christ’s blood, and the white the purity of God.
4th Place:With larger pageants we often award four entries. My interpretation of “White Christmas” took the prize this time. I embellished her white gown with silver and white snowflake accents.
Here is a picture of the winners. For more pictures from this pageant, see the photo gallery!
The Miss Christmas 2008 pageant was a challenging pageant, as there were many Christmas songs to choose from. It was also difficult to come up with a design that was coherent, yet definitely identifiable with the song. It produced many lovely and daring designs, and was a wonderful part of our Christmas celebrations!