20191224

Christmas eve in Alaska

Ali has this thing about Christmas being a commercialised pagan festival forcing many to get in debt, with any allusion to Christ squeezed out, and that anyway Christ wasn't born in December and therefore no respectable Christian should celebrate it.

I'm not convinced. True, over the past few days I admit I've been over stimulated: what with Wasilla's amatuer performance of "White Christmas", a drive to Anchorage to enjoy a concert in which a friend JA performs followed by dinner at his home where we discussed Jacob Collier's rendition of Moon River.

The concert highlights for me were the brilliantly performed solo "What's this?" from The nightmare before Christmas with such evocative lyrics:

What's this? What's this?

There's color everywhere
What's this?
There's white things in the air
What's this?
I can't believe my eyes

I must be dreaming
Wake up, Jack, this isn't fair
What's this?
What's this? What's this?

There's something very wrong
What's this?
There are people singing songs
What's this?
The streets are lined with
Little creatures laughing
Everybody seems so happy
Have I possibly gone daffy?
What is this? What is this?
There are children throwing snowballs

Instead of throwing heads
They're busy building toys
And absolutely no one's dead
There's frost on every window

Oh, I can't believe my eyes
And in my bones I feel the warmth
That's coming from inside
Oh, look - What's this?
They're hanging mistletoe, they kiss
Why that looks so unique, inspired
They're gathering around to hear a story

Roasting chestnuts on a fire
What's this?
What's this?

In here they've got a little tree, how queer
And who would ever think
And why?
They're covering it with tiny little things

They've got electric lights on strings
And there's a smile on everyone
So, now, correct me if I'm wrong
This looks like fun

This looks like fun
Oh, could it be I got my wish?
What's this?
Oh my, what now?

The children are asleep
But look, there's nothing underneath
No ghouls, no witches here to scream and scare them
Or ensnare them, only little cozy things
Secure inside their dreamland
What's this?
The monsters are all missing

And the nightmares can't be found
And in their place there seems to be
Good feeling all around
Instead of screams, I swear
I can hear music in the air
The smell of cakes and pies
Are absolutely everywhere
The sights, the sounds
They're everywhere and all around

I've never felt so good before
This empty place inside of me is filling up
I simply cannot get enough
I want it, oh, I want it
Oh, I want it for my own
I've got to know
I've got to know
What is this place that I have found?
What is this?
Christmas Town, hmm


JA (and others) performing at the Family Holiday Pops concert

And then the duet in which JA performs: O Holy Night with its spine-tingly "A thrill of hope... O night divine" lyrics, arranged by the concert conductor Grant Cochran with unexpected but such beautiful harmony. A piano transcription is available on the internet and I intend to figure out the chords sometime.

Jacob Collier

The Jacob Collier experience was only indirectly connected with Christmas but what got me there was: here's a young man (English, by the way, and good looking) who comes across as being "clean", expertly exploring the mechanics and soul of music and opening and freely sharing his findings with the world. Which I see as a gift he is offering me. And the giving of gifts is a Christmas theme.

And then from White Christmas, not my sort of entertainment and yet the lyrics caught me:

I think about a nursery,

And I picture curly heads,
And one by one I count them,
As they slumber,
In their beds.
If you're worried,

And you can't sleep,
Just count your blessings instead of sheep...

And whilst being driven through the streets of Anchorage I see countless decorations, festive trees (think how many LED's made this year's Christmas!), the admittedly occasional nativity scene. And though Christmas might be good business to some, a time to gorge or just family enjoyment for others, there will be few that do not know that its origin, its very name, is about the birth of Christ around which the whole of history pivots. They've tried to inoculate dating with CE and BCE but really it's too late - the stage was set 2000 years ago.


Mild he lays his glory by,
Born that man no more may die:
Born to raise the son of earth,
Born to give them second birth.
Hark! the herald angels sing,
"Glory to the new-born King !"





It's early morning here in my son's house in Wasilla, AK: stockings pinned up on the mantelpiece, large (artificial) tree adorned with lights and baubles and gifts beneath, a heartly Christmas dinner to look forward to, and the joy of family time. No, I cannot just dismiss Christmas on the 25th of December. Perhaps there are those for whom it has no religious connotations, but I find it's doing something in my heart.

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