Advent Calendar December 13: Seasonal "Arts"

Christmas Pipes Christmas Pipes
Calling us home on Christmas Night
Calling us far, calling us near
Oh play me your Christmas Pipes

...

Christmas Choir, Christmas Choir
Christmas carols 'round Christmas Fire
Holy night, Angels on High
Oh Round up Your Christmas Choir....
Words and music by Brendan Graham (Acorn Music Ltd.)

The above lyrics are performed by Celtic Woman on their CD, "A Christmas Celebration". It's a great CD, by the way.

But I reprint those lyrics because ... well, because I wanted to. Hey, I needed something to serve as a segue to the only way the Arts have played a role in my Christmases past: In the form of Christmas Caroling.

As a child, we made a few attempts of strolling the neighborhood singing Christmas Carols door-to-door. Usually this meant bundling up as we did to go sledding, since Western NY winters tend to be cold. I remember getting to the house behind us and to the right and being invited in after our carol for a cup of hot cocoa. (This same woman would invite us in for hot cocoa when trick or treating, too which wasn't unheard of to happen in snow). It was a time and place where that type of interaction was safe.

In high school in Tempe, Az I took two years of guitar. The second year, we strolled the hallways of the English and History building, strumming and and singing secular holiday songs. It was a time and place where we could still get away with that.

As an adult member of a church group, one year we strolled the neighborhood of the church, singing carols as part of a holiday activity they called Las Posada (forgive my spelling). It was at ime and place where we could still do that in a public street. In fact, we probably still could.