Mr. Christmas - Day Fifteen

I have been listening to the Holiday Traditions channel on XM radio. They are playing Christmas songs from the 1940’s, 1950’s and 1960’s. What has struck me this week is that some of the songs I am completely unfamiliar with. Peggy Lee’s “Ring Those Christmas Bells”, The Andrew Sister’s “Merry Christmas Polka”, and Frankie Lane’s “Christmas Roses” are all examples of this. What makes a song popular this Christmas and then makes it unpopular a decade (or more) later? Why are some songs always popular?

Can I ask the same question about Christmas memories? What do people remember and hold dear? Is it the white Christmases? Maybe the years with perfect trees? Possibly the years that they attended lavish parties are memorable (I sort of hope so)? Or is it the quirky not perfect things that are remembered? The movie “The Christmas Story” and the book it was based on are allegedly the semi autobiographical memories of Jean Shepherd and it hardly paints a picture of an ideal Christmas, although it is certainly memorable.

I can apply the same question to my own holiday memories, and to the stories I share here on my blog. What makes going Christmas caroling with First Christian Church in Tucson when my Mom sang the 3 Dog Night version of “Joy to the World” instead of the church hymn a better story than going Christmas caroling with the First Baptist Church Santa Fe youth choir and singing “Grandma got run over by a Reindeer”. I have long maintained that people’s lives are more interesting the way I tell it. So maybe it is just that I haven’t told those other stories yet, so they don’t seem that interesting, and by my standard more memorable.

And this was meant in no way to diminish the memories I have of FBC SF. When I was in HS I had so many good friends there, some I even keep up with today; Kevin, Vivian, Christina, Robbyn, Sherri, Sandi, Paul, Laura, Margie and others. An argument could be made that the issue is the song itself, because honestly I don’t really care for it at all. Except that if someone were to say, “Hey what is your favorite memory of the song “Grandma got run over by a Reindeer? I do actually have one, although it isn’t a Christmas memory at all.

In 1993 when Rachelle Maxwell Sutton, now Hidalgo had her daughter Mackenzie it was snowing like crazy and Elizabeth Norman and I stopped for hot chocolate before we drove from Shawnee to OKC to see them. On the way to the hospital, because of the snow, the local radio station played Christmas music, including that song, even though it was October.

So whatever your story this year, or whatever memory you are holding on to, even if I never get around to telling my version of it, I hope it is wonderful. that it warms your heart and makes you smile.