Posted 2:51 am Saturday, November 03, 2012
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Sometimes we need a little early Christmas
BY REBECCA HOEFFNER
rhoeffner@tylerpaper.com
Nothing will incite indignation among my friends and family like the idea of pre-Thanksgiving Christmas music.
rhoeffner@tylerpaper.com
Nothing will incite indignation among my friends and family like the idea of pre-Thanksgiving Christmas music.
“Quit that!” my mom would scold if I sang even two notes from any Christmas classic before the dawn of Black Friday.
I always swore when I grew up, I would sing Christmas music any time of the year I wanted.
Theologically, the Christmas story is one of the most romantic ideas anyone ever dared to believe — God coming to Earth as a human to show us how to live and save us from ourselves. An atheist friend commented to me once that she loved Christmas because, though she didn’t believe in it, it is a darn good story.
There’s also universality and nostalgia about Christmas music — even if you have nothing else in common with someone, it’s more likely than not that if you start singing a Christmas carol, they will sing with you.
But something has happened that the little girl who bounced around in her mother’s kitchen to “Carol of the Bells” did not expect.
Not only do I still adore Christmas music year-round, I occasionally need it year-round.
The sentiment is expressed in “We Need a Little Christmas,” in the musical “Mame.”
“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.
Theologically, the Christmas story is one of the most romantic ideas anyone ever dared to believe — God coming to Earth as a human to show us how to live and save us from ourselves. An atheist friend commented to me once that she loved Christmas because, though she didn’t believe in it, it is a darn good story.
There’s also universality and nostalgia about Christmas music — even if you have nothing else in common with someone, it’s more likely than not that if you start singing a Christmas carol, they will sing with you.
But something has happened that the little girl who bounced around in her mother’s kitchen to “Carol of the Bells” did not expect.
Not only do I still adore Christmas music year-round, I occasionally need it year-round.
The sentiment is expressed in “We Need a Little Christmas,” in the musical “Mame.”
“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,
Need a little Christmas now.”
So, when something makes me sad, I need Christmas music because I need to be reminded of all the things it represents that I mentioned, and the general warm-fuzziness that it still brings. And I’m trying to break that pesky habit of adhering to a rule for the rule’s sake.
So occasionally throughout the year, and especially after fall starts carrying in the colder air, you will hear me humming a Christmas tune. And if it makes you as happy as it makes me, I hope you’ll sing along.
Right this very minute,
Need a little Christmas now.”
So, when something makes me sad, I need Christmas music because I need to be reminded of all the things it represents that I mentioned, and the general warm-fuzziness that it still brings. And I’m trying to break that pesky habit of adhering to a rule for the rule’s sake.
So occasionally throughout the year, and especially after fall starts carrying in the colder air, you will hear me humming a Christmas tune. And if it makes you as happy as it makes me, I hope you’ll sing along.
