OXNARD : Children’s Art Now Bedecks Holiday Cards

Five-year-old Hilario Lambaren thought about presents when he drew pictures of what Christmas meant to him.

The result: a bright red, green and blue Christmas tree with a shining yellow star on top and gift-wrapped boxes at the bottom.

“They’re for me,” said Hilario, referring to the make-believe presents filled with a make-believe red shirt and Power Rangers paraphernalia.

Hilario, a kindergartner at Dennis McKinna Elementary School, is one of eight students in the Oxnard School District whose drawings have been turned into holiday cards.

In early August, district school board member Mary Barreto suggested that the district’s 13 schools sponsor a drawing competition in which students would put into pictures what they thought about Christmas.

So, armed with crayons, markers and pencils, nearly all of the 13,000 students in the district spent a day talking about Christmas as well as drawing pictures, said Connie Sharp, who is in charge of curriculum and instruction in the district.

Each school selected its best drawings and entered them in the districtwide competition. Twelve judges--including parents, residents and professional artists--selected the best eight drawings.

The district had the winning designs printed as greeting cards and is selling them at the district’s administration office in Oxnard and at the Ventura County Museum of History and Art.

Profits from the sales will pay for children to attend a music concert or theater performance in Oxnard, Sharp said.

The message in each card reads “Peace, Hope, Joy and Love” in English, Spanish, German, French and the Filipino’s Tagalog.

Each card includes the designer’s name and age, ranging from 5 to 14, and a short explanation of how the pictures were drawn.

The drawings of the winners from each school that do not appear on the cards will be on display at the Oxnard Community Center during December.

“We were really surprised with the results,” Barreto said. “I’m really proud of the children in our district and I think they will be forever immortalized in their work.”