I was thinking long and hard about whether to have a Christmas entry or not and if so how should it be? Joyous? Cynical? Dismissive? Then I was listening to two of my favourite Christmas ‘pop’ songs and I realised how I was to approach it.
The first song is a (relatively) rare song by a band called The Wailers (not that one). The song is called She’s Coming Home and it tells the story of a boy who is waiting for Christmas as his love ‘went to school last September’ and how he is glad ‘it’s finally December’
He then tells of all of the fun things that they will do together in the short time before she goes away again ‘we’ll have lots of fun, singing Christmas Carols with everyone, my love for her I’ll show when I catch her under the mistletoe. ’ and even the refrain ‘o, can you see what a merry Christmas this will be… she’s coming home to me’ is heartbreaking in its diction. And the second verse ‘(kiss) her every day until she has to go away, I’m walking in the snow, wishing she wouldn’t have to go, o, can you see what a merry Christmas this will be she’s coming home to me’ the longing palpable along with the certainty that the happiness will end.
The second song is from the excellent Phil Spector record imaginatively entitled A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector
The song is Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) by Darlene Love.
They’re singing “Deck The Halls”
But it’s not like Christmas at all
‘Cause I remember when you were here
And all the fun we had last year
And as I was listening I realised that this is the crux of the matter. What is the meaning of Christmas? What do people long for most at Christmas? The answer must be surely that people, at Christmas, simply want to feel loved. Whether it is the child opening his stocking from Santa or the homeless man being given food in a shelter no matter who you are, rich, poor, male, female, all other arbitrary distinctions, everyone wants to feel like they belong and that they are loved, not by the world as a whole but by those whom one cannot live without.
Whilst it is important to remember those in the world every day, given the social and emotional pressures and significance of Christmas, whilst we are enjoying ourselves cast a thought to those who are without for as the song goes
Santa knows that we’re God’s children
(and) that makes everything right
But be careful as you walk in the Winter Wonderland (how many song puns can I fit in?! Gah!) be careful, unlike Fraud, not to slip (groan), and to leave you on an actually funny note…
A lady goes into a post office and asks for Christmas stamps. The guy behind the counter asks which denomination? Flustered and surprised the woman replies ‘I dunno, five catholic and three protestant please.’
Merry Christmas!
‘till next time!
thegreaterfool2016 