As a child born in December, you could say that some of the first music I ever heard was Christmas music. But when I was very little, my mother would sing carols to me, no matter the time of year. My favourite songs as a little kid were all Christmas songs.
As I grew up, I sang them with my mother, and quickly memorized most of the ones I loved best. Then I learned to play piano and violin. What do you know, I started playing the tunes as well. It became a tradition that the morning after my spring piano recital, I would sit down at the piano and play all the Christmas songs I could think of. As the years passed, that number grew.
I've picked up a knack for singing and playing at the same time, which comes in handy as the pianist for our small church. Today, sitting at the piano in the near-dark (it was about six - so the sun had set) I switched on my lamp and pulled out my oldest, and most-loved, book in my possession. It's a carolling book that Mum bought when I was about two, I believe. (She can correct me on the dates tomorrow.)
Half-way through "O Come, All Ye Joyful", I heard Mum's voice behind me. What was started as me just noodling instead of working on Bach turned into a Mum and Daughter carol singing fest.
I may be about to head off to look at music colleges, I may be nearly eighteen, but as we sat there at my piano, in the small pool of light cast by my old lamp, I felt just like I did years ago, sitting on Mum's lap when we sang together out of that book. Back when it still had it's cover. I was a child all over again.
Isn't that the magic of Christmas, though? That our sense of wonder and excitement is given back to us?
For me, it's sitting at the piano and singing out of a book that is in tatters but is held together by the love of a little child whose first memories of reading were from that book, held on her mother's lap. I'm getting in the Christmas mood, just about two months early. Looks like someone forgot to tell me which holiday we were actually supposed to be celebrating today.
The carolling has begun in our home too! I'm longing to sit at the piano with my carols book, but for now the cd's are resonating through my kitchen while I cook or clean. Nice to hear your Mum sang carols to you all year round....... I've been going that with my children since their birth, every night while they go to sleep, and I hope they remember it and treasure the memories when they're grown. Reading your post, I've been given hope. :)
ReplyDelete'O Come O Come Emmanuel', 'Good Christian Men Rejoice', and 'God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen' are my personal year-round Christmas Carols which I sing.
ReplyDeleteAnd I go home for Christmas, so I am awaiting it so eagerly! It makes me feel like a child again too, wanting Christmas to come so much!