A Christmas Hallelujah
For the remainder of this week, I am writing a series on specific Christmas songs and the memories they invoke for me. It’s unapologetically the holiday I celebrate, though I enjoy reading and hearing about others in the spectrum. Throughout the week, please leave your favorite songs from the daily genre in the comments. At the end of the week, I will draw a name, and the winner will receive a CD or download of one of the genres mentioned to enjoy next year (and I will up the ante with some Cootchie Hooch.) The more you comment, the greater your chance to win.
Where Her Majesty is today.
Our Christmas tradition. For nine years running, MTM and I have spent Christmas in Montreal. The same room at Hotel Gault. The same Christmas Eve gastronomy. The same Christmas Day routine.
(For those of you wondering which one of us has family in Canada, neither of us do. Our secret to a happy marriage is not spending family holidays with family.)
Christmas Day, we tune in to Radio Classique Montreal. They always broadcast a version of the complete Handel‘s Messiah. (To download the best one ever, follow this link to the Dunedin Consort’s Grammy-winning version.) Without Handel, Christmas is incomplete. The whole pomp of it has come to represent the day for me.
We listen to the Christmas speech by Queen Elizabeth II, recorded prior to her decampment to Sandringham House and broadcast on Christmas Day. Always, we order room service, sometimes breakfast and dinner, others breakfast only. Movies are always on the agenda. This Christmas, MTM is suffering through the entire BBC version of Pride and Prejudice. I take a bath or two. We nap, and we watch the snow fall. With all my being, I try to beat MTM at cards and Yahtzee.
We never leave the room. Nue de Noel is the only way to celebrate the day. 
If you’re around today, please share your Christmas traditions in the comments.
Merry Christmas! I love going to the movies on Christmas Day. Thinking about seeing War Horse or My Week with Marilyn.
I want to see both of those, Vera. Please let me know what you think. Merry Christmas to you and Patrick.
Merry Christmas! Awakening early this morning, I’ve lit a fire, and am drinking my coffee. Quietly enjoying the early pre-dawn glow.
I don’t believe we have a Christmas Day tradition, other than trying to be together. That’s all I want. The rest of the day, the food, and or gifts and or other folks are the cherries and the whipped cream on a wonderful “Sunday” of Christmas.
Wishing you and MTM the most glorious day of togetherness. And when they play the Pastoral section of Messiah, think of me! I love Messiah, in all it’s parts; “For He is Like a Refiner’s Fire” is another fave section; as is “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion” which I’ve always wanted to sing. Messiah was the first adult community choral “production” with orchestra in which I sang…in Anderson as a freshman in high school, singing with the community chorale. And when we got to “I know that my Redeemer liveth” the hair stood up on the back of my neck.
For those who (may be like me) here is the link to the Wikipedia entry about Messiah. Lots of facts and bits of information. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messiah_(Handel)
Just be sure you don’t nus dans la neige!
The version of The Messiah was very good this year, Cheryl. Some of them drag, but this one kept up the brisk pacing I prefer.
I hope you and Bill are basking in your Christmas Day.
The Lovely Miss TK and I don’t have any special traditions for Christmas other than our 27 bells. We have a small 4 inch silver Christmas bell from Reed & Barton that are engraved with “Christmas” and the current year. for each of the years we have been together.
This year they line the steps going up to the upstairs and are a daily reminder of all our Christmases together.
I must also say that “Nue de Noel” sounds like a great way to spend Christmas.
And now another Santa tradition.
27 Bells and counting sounds pretty special to me…Merry Christmas Lou and the Lovely Miss TK.
Thanks, Shadow Ninja, enjoy Montreal and the snow.
Lou, have never seen this show but this was very funny. Thanks for sharing.
Hahaha. I love the bells. That is a lovely tangible way to commemorate your time together.
Christmas would not be complete without knowing how my friends are celebrating the holidays. Knowing that everyone is safe and sound and with loved ones gives me great pleasure. Katy and I wish each of you a very merry Christmas and a prosperous new year. The holidays are always bittersweet around our house since we are ever mindful of our Jessica not being with us. The fact that she will always be a part of our family makes Christmas special. Katy and I typically let the teenagers open their presents on Christmas eve so we can all sleep in late on Christmas morning. The coffee is brewing and I have read my favorite blog entry for the day. My morning is complete. Hugs to everyone reading this. Have a splendorous day.
Merry Christmas to you and Katy, James. I hope the day is full of quiet and peace.
What a lovely sentiment, James. Merry Christmas!
Traditions come and go over the years, but memories and love endure. Merry Christmas to you all.
Merry Christmas to you, Karen.
Loved playing Handel’s Messiah when I was in the band in high school My junior and senior year we coordinated with the high school choir….which means about 3/4 of the school was performing. Small towns/schools are the best.
Stress free Christmas is the best way to celebrate and that is exactly what we have done this year. Just me and Lou enjoying each other and the day like we want.
Joyeux Noël ! Have a wonderful day, Andra and MTM!
Merry Christmas to you, TK. May you ring Lou’s bell for decades to come.
Are you sayin I act like someone who’s bell has been rung one too many times?! I resemble that remark.
Nothing wrong with a little bell ringing, Lou.
Merry merry Christmas. That sounds positively glorious, and I hope to someday convince my husband to do something similar. Our kids are small, (and his family is actually really fun to visit) so right now we haven’t got a choice. But ohhh there will come a day when I won’t have to be near my home on my least favorite holiday and when I can be enjoying some kind of adventure. (Even a peaceful one with lots of baths.)
I hope you are enjoying the day with the family, and I hope the kids love their new beds.
Merry Christmas, Jessie.
Since my husband died, I have not kept up the traditions we had, but I’d still like to share one that is not from Christmas day, but from the week before.. The first year we moved to Florida, we couldn’t get in the Christmas spirit since it was 85-90 degrees. So we planned a Christmas Carol party. I played the carols on the piano passed down from my grandmother to my mother to me. We would have 50-70 people over and everyone would bring food and we’d sing carols. We also had funny skits and poems (some quite raunchy) The first year we moved to Charleston, we were only here 2 weeks, but we still rounded up enough people to have the carol party. When we knew it would be my husband’s last Christmas, I asked him if he’d still like to do this and he did, so we sang and surrounded him in his bed, singing carols. (Don’t want this to sound too sad because it really wasn’t.) However, since he died, I have not felt like I wanted to continue this tradition, but maybe one of these years I will. Another tradition is that my husband would make a special kidney dish that was from his British mother. He would prepare it on Christmas Eve and put it in a low temp oven overnight. We would go to Christmas Eve services and then Christmas morning, the kidneys were ready and we would have them on toast. Then we’d have a big Christmas dinnner and we’d always invite someone who didn’t have a place to go. Merry Christmas everyone!
These are both lovely stories, Margaret. Every time you talk about John, it is obvious how much you loved each other, how you still love him. I will be happy to come and sing carols at any carol party you want to have. Merry Christmas.
Thanks Andra. Merry Christmas to you and Michael!
Merry Christmas to each of you! What a glorious day. I loved reading the ways in which you all celebrate Christmas. For us, it is blessedly simple. We start with my birthday on the 23rd, usually marked by a nice dinner out and some of the pre-Christmas activities of wrapping and baking my mom’s pecan pie, and a tradition from Daves family, pork pie, which is eaten on Christmas Eve. On Christmas Eve, I assemble the side dishes to bake in the oven on Christmas Day as Christmas music serenades us in the background. I also label gifts wrapped by me that have been under the tree, whose contents and recipients are known only to me prior to that time. The evening brings Mass, some time with friends, and corny Christmas shows like Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Christmas morning we open gifts. Since the only close family I have here now is an older brother, he comes over for dinner. Dave fries a turkey marinaded in butter creole sauce – he has fine tuned this recipe over many years, and it is poultry perfection like no other! After years of big, fun family gatherings on Christmas Day for many years, we now enjoy keeping it small and simple on the Big Day and look forward to visiting extended family later this week prior to New Year’s. Wishing each of you a lovely week!
Liz, it sounds like you have an exquisite Christmas tradition. I know that turkey is gone by now. How yummy it sounds. Have a lovely evening and a great week.
Merry Christmas and have a great time in Montreal.
Since we finished cleaning up after the party at 3 am and then i had to play Santa, we started the morning – late (yes, we have teenager in the house, sleep in heavenly peace, indeed) – as we always do with Emmylou Harris’ “Light of The Stable” CD, followed by a “Hawaiian Slack Key Christmas”.
Then A and K watched Style Wars and I went to the river. Since then it has been a slow but steady flow of teenagers coming over to pick up forgotten items, see what Abigail received, and eat all the left over desserts.
Robert, that sounds like a delightful day to me, the perfect mix of many of the things you enjoy. Merry Christmas Evening. MTM endured 5 hours of Pride and Prejudice so that he could watch the Packers.
Andra, what a perfect way to spend Christmas! I can hear the comfort of the routine permeating your words, and the wonderful solitude the break affords you both. We,too usually go away. It’s taking a bit of getting used to being around the family at this time again.
A wonderful Christmastime to you both. Thank you for all those posts: your fiery passion for life, your steadfast regard for MTM, and your amazing bunch of friends. A more generous blogger I have rarely met.
I am glad the pudding was a success, Kate. I count myself very fortunate to have met you this year.
It sounds like you have created your own tradition. Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas Joan!
Your room service Christmas sounds heavenly… I hope you and MTM enjoyed it all (love P&P – and all in one sitting!) Our Christmas day is usually a mix of gift opening, playing with said gifts, a walk on the beach, sometimes some friends stopping by, and a movie or tv shows – yesterday was the Dr. Who Christmas specials, of course! We voted on lasagne for lunch. We’re all still sniffly and coughing, so this year was an indoor Christmas, and more low key, but really our tradition is just a day of being together.
Sounds like the perfect path to getting well. MTM and I are both down with colds, too. I slept 11 hours last night. Can’t remember the last time I did that.
You are so intriguing! I can’t wait to meet you and MTM next month.
Imagine going all that way to sit in a hotel room, listening to the radio and watching TV.
And not a family squabble anywhere around.
Don’t forget watching snow fall outside. We have to come all this way for that sight.
It sounds like a wonderful Christmas. I had my parents, children and grandchildren–four generations together. This really does bring me joy…but I could truly enjoy and I think FULLY appreciate a quiet and restful get-away, too! And congratulations to the winners of your delightful contest. It was a fun series of posts, Andra!
Debra
Debra, your day sounds lovely, with all those generations together. I loved the stories of the Santa “ice cream truck.” (That is what Santa visiting the neighborhood reminded me of – catching the ice cream truck at the right time.) I am so glad I found your blog this year and look forward to getting to know you in 2012.
I’m a little late to the party….All my children were here. It was a most pleasant and lovely day.