Sounds of the Season

My feelings about the holidays vary year to year. This year I made a commitment to embrace all that I love about the season instead of bemoaning the things I don’t.
I love holiday music. I remember my first Christmas concert performance. My fourth grade choir had little white cotton smocks with huge red bows on the front. That was the year I sang the lead for “O Holy Night”. I will never forget our Hummel-like mouths singing “OOOOOOOO Ho-o-o-ly Night”.
I remember Christmas caroling in my neighborhood in Anchorage, Alaska. Kind neighbors offered us sugar cookies and hot cocoa as we trudged from house to house with our pink cheeks stinging from the cold and our tummies warmed by sweet treats.
Then, my high school choir performed Handel’s Messiah. “And He Shall Reign For Ever and Eh- ver and and E-e-verr, King of Kings and Lord of Lordz…” The sweeping parts, the alto, soprano, tenor and thunderous baritones merging together for ”A-Le-Lu-Yah!”
I like that at least once a year we feel benevolent with concern, reaching out to those who need shelter and warmth.
I love my children coming home.
I like that my adult children wake up before me, still excited to peek in their stockings.
I like turning all the lights out in my house except for the Christmas lights to watch them illuminate the night.
I like calling my sister on Christmas to find out if our packages made it safely to her Louisiana home.
I enjoy cooking holiday dishes from recipes handed down from generation to generation.
I love dressing up our very large dogs with reindeer antlers and bells and watching them try to remove them as quickly as we put them on.
I love the opportunity to play acoustic holiday music on The Folk Show like Joni Mitchell’s “River”, Harvey Reid’s “Heart of a Minstrel on Christmas Day” and John McCutcheon’s “Christmas in the Trenches” based on the Christmas Truce of 1914. I will love playing some Christmas Spirituals by Odetta, the soulful folk diva who passed away recently at the age of 77. I can hear her singing mightily, “Children Go Where I Send Thee”.
So, let us indulge in a few too many sweets, a little too much peace, and harmony in spirit and song.