(Wow, this is cool!)
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And let nothing ye dismay!
Seeing my kids get all hopped up with Christmas greed in anticipation of Coca-Cola/Norman Rockwell Santa (note the date) has me reminiscing back to my own childhood Christmases as one of six kids in a crowded household in western Nassau County, Lawn Guyland.
My Mom and Dad were freaks for Christmas, you see, even in the bad years when they couldn’t really afford it. They always made it special for us, bills be damned. If we reeeally, really wanted something — even a Red Ryder BB-gun (I asked for and got one even before that movie had made its debut), we’d be sure to get it.
Don’t get me wrong — they were hard as flint the rest of the year, but on Christmas they were marshmallows and couldn’t do enough for their little ones. That’s Irish Christmas I guess. And now that I’m old I can get all Irish-Sentimental about it.
Forgive, for this night at least.
My folks were so strong on the spirit of the Day, and for all its bells and whistles, I don’t know many who can compare in this century. Every season, my dad would string the big, multi-colored bulb lights out on the rhododendron bushes with many a muttered curse, and my Mom would carefully place the white incandescent candles in all the windows, along with the fragrant evergreen wreaths on the front door. Inside, the joint would be festooned with Santas, Frostys, Rudolphs and their incongruous holiday rivals– the myriad somber and serious Nativity collections. On the turntable, Johnny Mathis and Elvis platters dominated the holiday music scene, but even Barbra Streisand got a healthy workout, Christmas-tune-wise.
But for Santa and his over-the-top largesse, my parents carried a special place in their hearts. In analyzing it today, I can only ascribe their fervor for Santa to their pent-up generosity, and their desire to give anonymously so as not to somehow “spoil” us. Even when I was in college, my mother wouldn’t even wink at the notion that my holiday presents came from anywhere else but the North Pole. And as younger kids, year after year, my Dad would go to great lengths to keep us within the ranks of the credulous…
I remember one night in the late seventies, when I was approaching that age when we are all wont to give up on Santa Claus for good. I was the oldest boy in the family and with four brother below me, my Dad had to come up with something that would keep me a member of the tribe. So, long before “Santa Norad” and other on-line Christmas cheer, my Dad came up with the idea of “Calling Santa Control,” on the phone in our kitchen.
He would dial a number on that old long-corded wall phone, listen intently, nod “yes, yes” with an always-serious mein, and then, placing his hand over the receiver, would tell us Santa was just passing Paris, or Madrid, or wherever, on his way to North America. Of course, my closest-in-order brother and I, being of the skeptical age, would ask to “listen in.” He would be obliging, and would then hold the phone up to our ears — one at a time — where we would hear a very official sounding voice telling us something very official that we would not really be able to fully make out. He only held the phone to our ears for about ten seconds, you see.
Long enough. He had my brother and I for at least another year, and with us convinced, the whole brood was satisfied. A magic man, my dad, and at his best in the Season.
Merry Christmas, my friends, Merry merry Christmas to you all.
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God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen : Lyrics
Let nothing you dismay
Remember, Christ, our Saviour
Was born on Christmas day
To save us all from Satan’s power
When we were gone astray
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy
This blessed Babe was born
And laid within a manger
Upon this blessed morn
The which His Mother Mary
Did nothing take in scorn
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy
From God our Heavenly Father
A blessed Angel came;
And unto certain Shepherds
Brought tidings of the same:
How that in Bethlehem was born
The Son of God by Name.
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy
“Fear not then,” said the Angel,
“Let nothing you affright,
This day is born a Saviour
Of a pure Virgin bright,
To free all those who trust in Him
From Satan’s power and might.”
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy
The shepherds at those tidings
Rejoiced much in mind,
And left their flocks a-feeding
In tempest, storm and wind:
And went to Bethlehem straightway
The Son of God to find.
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy
And when they came to Bethlehem
Where our dear Saviour lay,
They found Him in a manger,
Where oxen feed on hay;
His Mother Mary kneeling down,
Unto the Lord did pray.
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy
Now to the Lord sing praises,
All you within this place,
And with true love and brotherhood
Each other now embrace;
This holy tide of Christmas
All other doth deface.
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy
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Great Christmas story, Jake. Our parents had very similar holiday turntables. Big ups to your Dad and Mom.
Merry Christmas and all the best to you and your family in the new year. And God bless you, too, merry Gentleman.
Anton
Best to you and yours as well, Anton. Don’t be a stranger in 2011.
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brn in garden city-franklin court-loved that town-same situation -jake, the best to you on christmas.stay warm.
As the Yorkshire Gentlemen would say… You were loooky! We woulda dreeaaaaamed o’ livin’ in Gaaarden City!
Unless you mean Franklin Square? That was about our speed….
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Great story. Your mom and dad were awesome. We do the same stuff down here.
We have a White Christmas down here, if only a dusting.
Merry Christmas, Jake.
We got about an inch. Merry Christmas to the Nash Vegans!
Aside: Hey Music Man, howabout that rendition of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen?” Is it not the most fantastic you ever heard? Leave it to the Scots to get those Olde Celtic Caroles a rockin’, eh?
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Great post Jake.
In a couple of days I’ll be visiting my Yorkshire-born, 96 yr old mother. Right about now she has gone up to the fourth floor to play piano for the “old people”.
Merry Christmas and thanks for the insight over the past year.
God bless your Mum, Muk. They make some hard stuff in Yorkshire, and I don’t mean the puddin’.
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nice x-mas story Jake
and in light of the celebration of the one dubbed by Paul ( formerly Saul) the “annointed one”, a few of his words … see if they make sense to y’all
14. “Truly, I say to you, wisdom must be learned from the laws of Creation,
which humans may recognize in nature.
15. “But if humans do not think and seek, they will not be able to attain
wisdom and will remain fools.
16. “The wise do not moan about lost things, about the dead and about
events of the past.
17. “Fools, however, cry over things that are not worth crying over,
and thereby they increase their grief, privation and misery.
18. “Those who have acquired sufficient wisdom and live according to the
laws, permit not even the slightest harming of creatures, when they are
without fault.
19. “Half-wits and fools who are not masters over their senses mistake harm
for benefit, benefit for harm, and great sorrow for joy.
20. “Because people are not dedicated to wisdom and do not seek knowledge or
recognize the laws, they harbor foolishness and vice.
21. “The dishonest, the stupid, grumpy, greedy, unscrupulous, uncouth and the
angry will suffer harm for being poor in consciousness.
22. “When people duly receive daily just a little wisdom in their consciousness,
they will grow like the waxing moon during the first half of the lunar month.
23. “Wisdom is the greatest asset of humanity and so is the created will,
which is lord over love and happiness; but all of this is meaningless
without the power of the spirit.
24. “A fool who idly rests and waits for fate goes to ruin like an unfired
pot in water.
25. “Those who take care of a cow always receive milk; likewise, those who nurture
wisdom and apply it through the power of the spirit bring forth rich fruit.
26. “Recognize each law of Creation and once you have recognized it, adhere to it
and live accordingly, because the laws are the greatest wisdom.
27. “There is no eye equal to wisdom, no darkness equal to ignorance,
no power equal to the power of the spirit, and no terror equal to the poverty
of consciousness.
28. “There is no higher happiness than wisdom, no better friend than
knowledge, and no other savior than the power of the spirit.
29. “Those who have intelligence may grasp my speech so they will be
wise and knowing.”
Jake, Merry Christmas to you and your family. God Bless.
I dropped 2 copper kilo bars in my 2 boys stockings. I thought they would get a kick out of it, and they did for a while thinking they each had a bar of gold, but alas, at the end of the day, the kinect got all the attention. I’m up about 75 cents on each kilo by the way. Big Whoop!
You couldn’t put them in a stocking, but for that money, you could have purchased some silver options and been up 5x. And no shipping charges.
Yikes, tough crowd.
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