The Death of Christmas, Part I

The Death of Christmas, Part I

I admit I go back awhile. (That’s a euphemism for getting old.)

As George Burns famously said, getting old ”beats the alternative.” I sometimes question that wisdom but I’ll let that thought go for now.

Age has a few benefits aside from Social Security, including the capacity to hearken back to the good old days when things were far from perfect but still a damned sight better than they are today in almost every way, except maybe for the blogosphere.

I was recently reminded of those pretty good old days, not of the Harding Era but of a generation or so ago, maybe a quarter century back.

I understand that our younguns may consider that to be ancient history and in a sense it was ancient, the Reagan Era, a time when tradition and family values meant something and most of America felt a new pride in itself and a strong hope for the future.

One tradition of that bygone age was the annual Christmas Shows in our public high schools and junior highs.

That’s what they were really called, disbelievers, before they devolved into the “Winter Shows,” “Winterfests,” “Holiday Shows,” or whatever other secular title is applied today.

This was the time when my now-grown kids attended and performed in those always-festive, always entertaining presentations.

As was proper in public secondary school venues, those annual events didn’t feature strictly Christian religious song and music, although orchestral renditions of “Oh, Little Town of Bethlehem” and choruses singing “Silent Night” were not unheard of.

They were generously supplemented by more secular but still Christmas-y fare.

The high school-level bands, orchestras, and choruses invariably concluded those Christmas pageants with moving renditions of Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus” during which past performers joined the newcomers onstage to sing and play their hearts out to the delight of a standing, applauding audience.

Readers may recall its final, stirring verse:

And He shall reign forever and ever,
|: King of kings! and Lord of lords!
And He shall reign forever and ever,
King of kings! and Lord of lords!
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

The “He” was the reason for the season but that was then. Those days are no more, at least on New York’s Long Island. This is now: . .

(Read the rest at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1371)