What a Life!

I love Christmas concerts. In a way, it’s a part of the music thing. But concerts are even more special.

When I was a kid, of course, there was always the school Christmas program. We went to a school that had a very strong music program. In the early years, we just had the usual Christmas program, but as attendance grew and we were lucky enough to have kids that were musically talented as well as teachers who were devoted to teaching music (not just the school music teacher), we had our choir along with a school band and even a bell choir. In fact, we were good enough that the Christmas season meant performances – as in, more than just the school Christmas program.

There was Church Street Christmas up in Dade City. There was this street that had a lot of beautiful historic houses as well as a number of churches on it. The churches would have open houses and host concerts and various events during one week of December. Our school music teacher played the organ for one of the churches, and we always performed at that church on one of the evenings during that week. Afterwards, we would walk up and down Church Street and enjoy the sights and sounds of Christmas. Such fun!

There was always a big Christmas program at our church. Sometimes we even went down to Tampa and participated in the Christmas program of one of the churches down there. They had a [church] school that was larger than ours and which also had a strong music program, so joining them meant being a part of a much larger group. Oh, the wonder of it all!

In the years immediately after I graduated, our school choir even performed for local events such as the hospital Christmas program. The hospital Christmas program was a big event – they were known to bring in good entertainment for their employees, so our school choir performing at that event was quite a big deal. We were not your average school choir, though, so it was not a surprise that such invitations came about.

Such performances do not come about without a lot of hard work. We practiced months ahead of time, and then we had live practices, especially when we joined the group down in Tampa. All of that performing and traveling was big deal – and it was so much fun. Now when I go to concerts, I have an appreciation for what the performers have done to prepare for the performance.

I haven’t gotten to attend many Christmas concerts since I graduated from college. I did go to the White House Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony once when I lived in Maryland. But when I lived there, I was single and short on cash. Once I moved here, concerts like I was accustomed to weren’t a big priority to Steve. And then we had children. Attending concerts with small children is not my idea of fun. Either you have to keep the children up late if you take them with you or find a sitter, something which I am not good at since my mother-in-law moved to Colorado.

You can write me off as completely loopy if you want, but part of the fun of Christmas concerts is getting all dressed up for them. When I was a kid, occasionally Dad would buy tickets to a concert at Ruth Eckerd Hall to see people like James Galway and other classical musicians perform [during the year]. We always had to dress up in our nicest clothes when we attended those concerts, and I loved watching people and seeing the beautiful gowns many of the women would wear. Such fun! But alas! I married a man who hates to wear a suit and does it only for weddings and funerals. Maybe wearing a suit and attending a formal Christmas concert needs to be one of his obligatory gifts to me every year. I could start planning what I am going to wear now – a simple gown with a beautiful hand knit shawl over my shoulders. Ah!

I would love to see the Nutcracker. I would love to see the local orchestra perform. I would love to hear a brass ensemble do a Christmas performance. Even the local college Christmas programs would be wonderful. This year, though, I am lucky enough to have a video tape of my parents church Christmas program, with my parents and other people I know performing in it. I haven’t watched it yet, but I am so looking forward to it. For now, that will have to do.

Part of why I am doing this series is to leave myself a reminder for next year of the things I want to make sure I do. Attending a Christmas concert of some kind or another is high on my list. Christmas may be twelve months from now, but I can hardly wait.