Have you ever heard a song and it brought back memories? That has been happening a lot to me this year. The very first song that comes to mind is Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer! lol My dad used to sing that song to us. But he always started out a certain way....."You know Dasher...and Dancer..and Prancer and Vixon, Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen.....but...do you recall.....the most famous reindeer of all?" He always had to start the song that way. Every time!! Though my dear dad has been gone 14 years now...wow, is that possible??....everytime I hear the song begun with the reindeer names, I close my eyes and I can hear my dad singing it.
The next song that I remember, and have not heard since I sung it in choir, is SIMPLE HOLIDAY JOYS. It was a song we sung in our Christmas concert in high school. It was short and simple. A girl played the flute between every verse. I have never forgot a single word of that song!! I really can't explain why...unless somewhere deep inside me, I knew that I was a person who would treasure memories and this song is all about memories. I remember our choir teacher trying to explain what this song was about....to a bunch of self-centered teenagers who thought the world revolved around them! I doubt many of us got it...but somehow...I did. I may not have even realized it then. But because the words are still in my heart, I DO get it now. Here is the song:
Simple holiday joys...boys and girls, smiling faces, toys beneath the Christmas tree and a wreath on the door.
Star of gold, ribbons blue and a few fond embraces...how I miss those simple holidays joys I once knew. (here is where the flute played)
To be young, to believe, to wait up on Christmas Eve, through the night, with delight, O, the spell it could weave. (more flute)
To be young, with surprise, to be not quite so wise...watching snow, never knowing how quickly time flies. Did the years pass me by? Where's the sky full of reindeer? (where are they?) In my mind, the joys grow dim, how unkind that they do.
Though they shine like a gem, only memories remain, dear. But I find those simple holiday joys in YOU!!
I sing that to Korie every Christmas. It makes me smile to think of my old choir and I wonder if any of them even remember that song? I think of Mrs. Jones, our director, and wonder if she has been happy though the years. I know she has had some trials and I wonder if has found those simple joys again.
Come Thou Long Expected Jesus is a song that I was not familiar with as a child when our children's choir sang it one year at church. I remember the church kids and the bus kids meeting on Saturday's to practice. I remember the song printed in black on white sheet music and standing on homemade risers. I rarely sing it even now, but when I do, I remember that Christmas pageant in a small baptist church in Ohio.
THE 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS is a great reminder of the Peninsula Rescue Mission Staff parties. Every year for.....too many years to remember....the staff picks a paper with one of the 12 days of Christmas on it. No one ever wants "A Partridge in A Pear Tree"!! When it is your turn, you have to sing! Steve never sings! Someone always sings off key and everyone laughs and has a good time. What a great song!
There is a group of songs that remind me of our yearly youth group caroling. In Ohio, it almost always was cold and snowy in late December. We had a rickety, old church bus that we would board and drive around to older folk's homes. My dad always had a list of people who needed some encouragement and he and my mom always came along. The bus never had time to get warm and we were freezing. We would pile out, knock on the door and always sing O Come All Ye Faithful, Joy to the World, Silent Night and We Wish You A Merry Christmas. Those songs remind me of those days and of being invited in for cookies and apple cider and smiles on those elderly folks faces. They are "caroling" songs to me and I always remember them that way.
One year, when Steve and I had only been married a year or two and we were in Ohio visiting family, we all picked up my grandmother and went to the Ohio Historical Center. It was all decorated up for the holidays with wreaths, Christmas trees, carolers dressed up in 1890s clothes, and hot chocolate. But one thing that I had never seen...an open fire with chestnuts roasting on it! It was so cold that night that we could see our breath! We all gathered around that fire and watched them roasting. I didn't really care for the taste but it sure was neat to see it. Everytime I hear "chestnuts roasting on an open fire....." I can see us around that fire in Columbus, Ohio, watching the fire. It is a good memory in so many ways.
Away in A Manger is a good memory of my girls singing with me in the Christmas Eve Service at our church. Kristin was around 5 and Korie 3. The three of us, for the first...and last time...singing together in public. lol It was a special memory and I enjoy thinking about that evening.
There are many more songs,,,,, songs in our Cantatas, a duet with Jeff of Mary Did You Know?, songs I sing at night in bed with Korie before she sleeps....the list goes on. There are many reasons to enjoy Christmas songs. Mostly, to praise and remember what Christ for us. But there are a few that when I hear them, I can close my eyes and I can go to another place, another time and enjoy a memory from the past. And I know there are new memories to come. I love music...especially at Christmas!
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