And so this is Christmas. The Asian lady from the Davis Square T stop is in Harvard Square singing Christmas carols. For months, this lady, with her wooden guitar had always been in the Davis Square T stop whenever I was there. Always there, and always singing “Annie’s Song” without hint of irony or satire. She seems happy, so I’ve always liked her. Now, as I’m running from Davis to Porter, Porter to Harvard and home again, I hear her in another station singing other songs.
In Concord, when the center of town was the site of two holiday traditions. The first was the night when they kept the shops open into the night. Not a very eventful event, but it was fun. We walked through the bright, dark, cold streets seeing friends, visiting stores, and shopping. And then, there was Christmas Eve.
On Christmas Eve, people gathered to sing christmas carols in Concord center. It was always cold, a thin, sharp cold, and the cold, and I was usually wearing a dress and party shoes. My family stopped in the center on our way to friends’ home for a traditional Feast of the Seven Fish. We sang, “Joy to The World,” or “We Three Kings” from out of booklets that we’d hung onto over the years. Everyone sang loudly, not everyone sang well. Remember all the Whoes in Whoville singing hand in hand? That’s what it was.
In Concord, when the center of town was the site of two holiday traditions. The first was the night when they kept the shops open into the night. Not a very eventful event, but it was fun. We walked through the bright, dark, cold streets seeing friends, visiting stores, and shopping. And then, there was Christmas Eve.
On Christmas Eve, people gathered to sing christmas carols in Concord center. It was always cold, a thin, sharp cold, and the cold, and I was usually wearing a dress and party shoes. My family stopped in the center on our way to friends’ home for a traditional Feast of the Seven Fish. We sang, “Joy to The World,” or “We Three Kings” from out of booklets that we’d hung onto over the years. Everyone sang loudly, not everyone sang well. Remember all the Whoes in Whoville singing hand in hand? That’s what it was.
That's beautiful. Our holidays moved around a lot. I remember the Dickens Fair in San Francisco being a constant--my dad's family made the bangers for the bangers and mash guy, so we went a lot. But the eve and the day were hard because one year we might be at the farm, the next at the slough (long story), the next at home... the rest of my family is in the True North but Chris and I are in Oregon, quiet... had Doctor Who, though!
Posted by: June Schwarz | December 25, 2009 at 09:17 PM