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Commentary | 13
DECEMBER 14-31,2018 ■ www.ReporterNewspapers.net
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of the Vince Guaraldi Trio playing the
soundtrack from “A Charlie Brown Christ
mas.” I have some collections that are
unique enough to escape constant replays
at the malls and thus remain untaint
ed: the hammer dulcimer album discov
ered at a grocery store in north Georgia,
the Christmas with Reindeer jazz duo that
sounds like a classy cocktail hour, the Ger
man albums our family obtained while
living overseas. As I push “play” each De
cember, it’s like hearing the voice of a dear
friend who visits for a few months each
year.
These tunes ground me and keep me
centered. I’ll be rushing to buy or wrap,
decorate or bake, when my playlist rolls
to “Some children see Him almond-eyed.”
So, I stop and smile. The music transforms
my bustling about into a kind of prayer.
The “Still, Still, Stills,” the “Silent Nights,”
the “O Come, Emmanuels” transport me
to a place where Christmas is truly still,
where Christmas Eve is sacred, where Ad
vent is spent in reverent anticipation.
And though I think that we can agree
that they start it way too early (and in
spite of the fact that while we’re push
ing a cart through Target, Jimmy Boyd is
bound to see mama kissing Santa Claus),
I believe that when our airwaves are filled
with holiday music, we are all bolstered
with a little jolt of brotherhood.
Canned or classic, Christmas tunes
give a jolt of brotherhood
For one season a year, whether we
like it or not, we’re all living to the same
soundtrack. There might be a million
and one different versions of “Deck the
Halls” and ev-
Robin’s Nest
Robin Conte lives with
her husband in an emp
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see robinconte.com.
ery conceiv
able male-
female duo
trying a hand
at “Baby, It’s
Cold Out
side,” but
we’re all
hearing es
sentially
the same 20
tunes, played
over and over
again.
Stores ev
erywhere
have been
hammer-
with
mg us
canned
carols for
months in
an attempt
to ramp us
all up into the holiday gift-buying spirit.
But after a few weeks of the pounding, it
backfires. After all, there are only so many
times you can hear Andy Williams belt
ing out “The Most Wonderful Time of the
Year” without going full-on bah-humbug.
And it’s a shame, really, because there
are, in fact, wonderful images and recol
lections wrapped up in the holiday tunes.
Songs evoke memories. And the songs of
December might evoke the clearest mem
ories of any.
I grew up on the Kingston Trio’s “Last
Month of the Year” album, and I truly be
came weepy-eyed when I recently found
that album again on Spotify. When I was
young, my siblings and I used to bounce
around the living room of our split-lev
el house while the Trio sang a rollicking
rendition of the title track: “You got Ju
ly, August, Sep-tember, October anda No
vember. Was the twenty-fifth day of De
cember, was the last month of the year!”
Hearing that song again allowed me to
reach out and touch those memories as
if I were dusting off a yellow-edged pho
tograph.
Even though the tinned tunes of com
merce are grating, our personal collec
tions are soothing. Our own melodies con
jure images of firesides and sleigh rides, of
comfort and joy, of family gatherings and
holiday feasts.
Once I escape the blaring of the malls,
I slip into my own Christmas music like
a comfy robe. That’s because my home is
a risk-free music zone. In my house, no
grandma of mine or anyone else has ever
got run over by a reindeer, and Wham
will never sing about Last Christmas. Jin
gle Bells will not be barked, meowed or
quacked, and the only Madonna allowed
in is not singing to “Santa, Baby.”
Instead, I cozy up to the warmth of
Rosemary Clooney crooning “White
Christmas” and de-stress to the strains
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