7

I love Christmastime.

I love coloured, lights (and find the mostly white ones in Europe boring) and tacky decorations. I love the neighbourhoods in the USA where everybody totally decorates their houses and can walk around them for hours. Once again, judge me as you as you will, I don’t care.

I don’t like the commercialism of Christmas and really don’t care about the religious aspects.

When I lived in the USA, I used to put up my Christmas tree and decorate my flat the day after Thanksgiving every year, if I wasn’t travelling (the day after I got home if I was). It was a lot of fun, and usually I had friends over for it. They all brought a decoration and a snack, and we used to listen to Christmas carols while decking the halls.

I love Christmas carols also. Some of my favourite are O Holy Night (only when sung well), Silent Night (even though it’s originally a German carol, it sounds awful in German), Carol of the Bells (a cappella), etc.

My favorite Christmas song (I don’t think it can officially be called a ‘carol’) is ‘We Need a Little Christmas’, from the musical Mame (one of my favourite musicals). For those unfamiliar with it, the characters are going through a rough time and then Mame decides that decorating for Christmas (since it's December) will help lift their spirits. I can relate to that, as no matter what challenges life brings me each year, I always look forward to the atmosphere of Christmastime. Here are the lyrics:

We Need A Little Christmas

Haul out the holly
Put up the tree before my spirit falls again
Fill up the stocking
I may be rushing things, but deck the halls again, now

For we need a little Christmas
Right this very minute
Candles in the window
Carols at the spinet

Yes, we need a little Christmas
Right this very minute
It hasn't snowed a single flurry
But Santa dear we're in a hurry

So climb down the chimney
Turn on the brightest string of light I've ever seen
Slice up the fruitcake
It's time we hung some tinsel on that evergreen bough

For I've grown a little leaner
Grown a little colder
Grown a little sadder
Grown a little older

And I need a little angel
Sitting on my shoulder
Need a little Christmas now

For we need a little music
Need a little laughter
Need a little singing
Ringing through the rafter

Haul out the holy
Haven't I taught you well to live each living day
Fill up the stockings
But Auntie Mame, it's one week past Thanksgiving Day now.

But we need a little Christmas
Right this very minute
Candles in the window
Carols at the spinet

Yes, we need a little Christmas
Right this very minute
It hasn't snowed a single flurry
But Santa dear we're in a hurry

So climb down the chimney
It's been a long time since I felt this neighbourly
Slice up the fruitcake
It's time we hung some tinsel on that bayberry bough

For we need a little music
Need a laughter
Need a little singing
Ringing through the rafter

And we need a little snappy
"Happy ever after"
Need a little Christmas now

Finally, one thing that sticks out in my mind is an editorial on Christmas Day evening in about 1992 or so. The newscaster did an opinion piece and said:

Now I’m talking to you…the guy watching this from the bar or the person watching this sitting home alone this evening. Christmas isn’t about presents, it’s in here [points to his heart]. It’s your hope for better times in the future. It’s a hope lives inside of you and always will.

The reason I remember that is because I was sitting home alone that evening.