Books, Music and Magi

Visions of sugarplums dance in our heads. Actually I don't really remember ever seeing a real sugarplum, but I always liked this line in Twas The Night Before Christmas.

Mama used to read Twas the Night Before Christmas to us and I read it to the boys. My friend, Marie, gave us a pop-up version that is kind of tattered and doesn't pop up in all the places it used to, but it is still a favorite Christmas book. Books of many descriptions are a Christmas tradition. Mama read to us from Ruth Bell Grahams book about living in China and eating Oyster Stew for breakfast on Christmas morning. I loved reading Polar Express and The Great Christmas Kidnapping Caper. Julia gave us a scratch and sniff book called The Smells of Christmas. It has lost some of the scent from overuse over the years, but still has a little peppermint, orange and hot chocolate in there.

One of my favorite short stories at Christmas or anytime is The Gift of the Magi written by a Greensboro native who used the pen name O. Henry. This is a true love story. Google it and you can read it anytime. It is so short it can be read in minutes, but if you are like me you will want to read it slowly and read it over and over. The O. Henry Hotel in Greensboro has the entire short story written around the ceiling in their beautiful lobby. I have never stayed in this hotel, but have been there for various occasions and I always take a few minutes to look up at the ceiling and read the story. I love it everytime.

Besides books, music is a huge part of the Christmas tradition. Music is magic all of the time, but more so than ever at Christmas. This year, I enjoyed hearing an amazing group of high school students perform a concert they arranged and named The Trans-Shelberian Orchestra. Talented students and teachers put a tremendous amount of energy into this performance at the Don Gibson Theatre. It was wonderful and I couldn't stop thinking about Kathie and about how magical it is when teachers and students connect to create such a performance.

A few days later we enjoyed stringed instruments a different way in a garage with guitars, fiddle and upright bass. Harry and friends were frying fish and fries again and we had a down home time there. Music is magic in every kind of setting.

At our house we have a music tradition as well. When we moved into our house 15 years ago, Mama and Daddy gave us the grand piano from their house. They bought this piano in the 1950s because as Daddy said, "We thought Judy was a prodigy." We had a Christmas card picture taken around this same piano back in about 1960. We all took piano lessons and turns out none of us would qualify as a prodigy. But we all love to hear music and especially at Christmas. Fortunately, some people do have musical talent and so this year we had a combo of Jackson on saxophone, Keith on piano and Uncle Frank on trumpet. It is amazing to watch musicians come together, play together, split off to do a solo here and there and somehow wind it all up together again.

We have Christmas songbooks from Aunt Burnette who taught music in Charlotte and who really enjoyed coming over to direct the music at Christmas. I always think of Aunt Burnette when I pull out the songbooks and the pretty silver punch bowl. So, we use Aunt Burnette's songbook and a few others so the rest of us can join in to sing secular and sacred songs. We sing all kinds of things from Frosty the Snowman to Silent Night. With a little Georgia on My Mind or I Can't Stop Loving You thrown in if the mood strikes. We never have been too rigid. Frank can really make a trumpet growl when he does Georgia. Some years Muff played his own version of Jingle Bells and we all loved it a few years ago when Darrell played Robert Earl's Merry Christmas to the Fam-i-ly. Once the entire Honk Band showed up and played a set. Many others have dropped in to play or to sing from time to time and all have been such a gift and such a warm memory.

One of the main music traditions is when we get out the Twelve Days of Christmas ornaments that Geneva brought one time and everybody in the house groups with others as a "Day". Mama and Daddy are traditionally "A Partridge in a Pear Tree". This year they needed to leave a little early because Daddy had a board meeting which is code for another kind of gathering. So, I have included a picture in this post of Mama and Daddy doing their part in 2009. Even though we missed them this time, we had a rousing Twelve Days of Christmas with everyone participating, lots of laughter and a little dancing thrown in.

There are so many visions of Christmas that dance in my head, it would be impossible to post in a single blog. But one that couldn't be left out is the nativity scene. As a child, I remember how I loved to put nativity scenes together - the little animals in the barn, the angels, shepherds, wise men, Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus in the manger. When David and I were married, we recieved several gift cards from Gilliatt's, a locally owned gift store in Shelby. When someone called me to come redeem the giftcards, I saw the Nativity Scene and I knew it was what I wanted for our first Christmas together. The nativity scene is not fancy, very plain and humble with a light that shines on the manger and a music box that plays Silent Night.

We enjoy and hold on to many Christmas traditions. Some we have to let go as things change. Some we have to let go as we change. But one thing that doesn't change is the message in the manger scene from Luke 2. Hope, Joy. Love. Peace. Goodwill toward men.