Some of my friends don't like Christmas music. 
I love it. 

I can understand how certain Christmas songs could seem corny 
when analyzed from a critical point of view, 
but they have melody, harmony, and words, 
which is more than a lot of today's popular music. 
Anyway, I love Christmas music for completely different reasons. 

This is the most emotional season of the year, 
and those songs bring back powerful memories, 
both happy and unhappy, 
but packed with emotion. 
The ghosts of past Christmases often blur my vision in December. 

My family was a partying bunch... 
each holiday an excuse all the relatives to get together 
and have a special time. 
Even my grandparents would dress in outrageous costumes on Halloween, 
and on July 4th's we would drive the neighbors nuts with fireworks. 
New Years Eve meant champagne and "blind robins". 
And on and on. 

Later in my life I experienced some very rough Christmases, 
some even tragic, 
and also some wonderful times with Misty and the small family we had left. 
Every experience at this time of year is magnified and extreme 
in my memory. 

Hearing the old songs at Christmas 
makes me happily sad. 
They evoke feelings I don't even understand, 
and yet it's my favorite time of the year. 

My tough guy facade cracks right down the middle, 
and my sentimental guy takes over. 

"It's a Wonderful Life" was on TV the other night. 
We watched something else because we've seen it so many times. 
The show we were watching ended early and Jimmy Stewart was still on, 
so we decided to see the last hour of it. 
We both sat there like idiots with lumps in our throats 
and tears in our eyes 
when George Bailey got his life back. 

Christmas makes me weak, I guess. 
A good kind of weakness. 


Copyright © December 18, 2006 by Jack Blanchard, Reprinted By Permission. All rights reserved.

---