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.