Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Day 12 - Christmas and the Arts

On the 12th Day of Christmas,
my true love accompanied me
to witness a Living Christmas Tree!

1) Did your family attend any special events or performances during the holidays?

As a child, the only special performances we attended were the school plays and sing-alongs with myself or my brother trying to remember the words and not sing too badly off key.

As a parent, we attended quite a few of the school plays and other events that our daughters were involved in - they at least could sing pretty much on key.

Our church had a "Living Christmas Tree" program for about 15 years (performed two or three times each year) - with tableaux, actors and narration telling the Christmas story, and the choir singing Christmas songs. Because of my beard (probably the only real criteria), I always got to be a "wise man" - one of the Three Kings who brought gifts to the Christ child. We walked down the aisle, presented the gifts, and looked adoringly at the plastic Jesus in the small wooden manger. We even got to sing a bit in the final act - always "Adeste Fidelis" or "Angels We Have Heard on High." However, if I got too exuberant, they always told me to try to sing in some key other than my normal J-sharp.

When she was a young teenager, my daughter Tami was the "Angel" in these productions, and got to "fly" over the congregation once, I think.

Linda and I have attended several Lamb's Players Theatre (a local theatre group) Christmas productions at their theatre in Coronado and the dinner production of "An American Christmas" at the Hotel del Coronado. Both are excellent, and we try to do this every so often.

Participating in the Living Christmas Tree always gave me a calm and reverent attitude during the Christmas season - I felt good doing it and it created in me a spirit of thankfulness, and of giving and receiving gifts.

This post will be part of the "Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories" carnival - organized by Thomas MacEntee at the Destination: Austin Family blog. Please go to Thomas' blog and read the submissions for each day.

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