Monday, December 24, 2007

Just a little Christmas ritual

All households that adhere to Christmas have their own rituals and rites for both the day and, especially, Christmas Eve. I like Christmas Eve because it remains a time of hope and aspiration. The day is all-to-often a kind of anticlimax that can make all the anticipation seem a trifle hollow. But on the Eve, all things are possible. The day to come might unfold as that archetypical Christmas that never seemed to manifest, yet each year we've gone on hoping that it will. That this year will be the one.

Some families make Christmas Eve a sacred event and go off to attend church services. Some years I do exactly that. While not being an organized religion person, I do like the ritual and I love the music.

For other families the Eve is a time of gathering friends and families together. That was always the case with my ex-wife's Christmas Eve, because that was indeed the family time and gift-giving time because she was of Swedish heritage and that's the way they do things. I don't know if I liked that so much because it didn't seem to leave much for the day other than turkey sandwiches and sitting around staring at one another.

I have a special little item on my Christmas Eve agenda, and that is a viewing of A Christmas Carol. Not just any old Christmas Carol, but the one with the inimitable Alastair Sim as Scrooge. Other versions of the Dickens tale interest me not at all. The moody and grim, black and white version with Sim, which was released in 1950 (and ran in theatres of the day as Scrooge, by which name it is still known in the UK) is to me the epitome of the Christmas story in its true meaning.

To work its magic a Christmas Carol must be viewed on Christmas Eve, or the miracles mean less. As I say, the Sim version is remarkable in showing the transformation of a man from the mean and cruel Scrooge, venal and heartless, to the magnificently transformed entity he becomes at the end. Of course, perverse bastard that I am, I am especially charmed by the mean Scrooge, for never did a man have a nastier face that pre-transformed Scrooge as played by Sim. Somehow his big puppy-dog eyes at the end of the tale are almost less enchanting.

I have viewed A Christmas Carol on the Eve every year since I was about 12. For years I've had it on video. I know the dialogue virtually by heart and can irritate family members by reciting the lines before they are uttered. Call it a weakness.

So, that is Christmas Eve for me. As for the day, it calls for my recording of Dylan Thomas himself reciting A Child's Christmas in Wales. Never was a tale so enchanting and nostalgically evocative, especially considering the drunken reprobate who pulled the story together. Anyway, that's it for me. Give me those two and I am content.

Blessings to you all, and thank you for the lovely sentiments you expressed on my 'Merry Christmas' blog. They mean a lot.

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8 Comments:

Blogger jmb said...

I'm glad you didn't say Miracle on 34th Street which I hate with a passion.

Every year since you were 12 does sound like you should be tired of it by now but these traditions are sacred.

Have a Merry Christmas Ian with your lovely Wendy.
regards
jmb

9:53 PM  
Blogger geewits said...

My favorite is the 1938 version with Reginald Owen. When I was in elementary school, we always had an entire afternoon of Christmas movies and that was one of them. So sad, pathetic really, that schools can't do that now. We don't have a Christmas eve tradition. We actually spent tonight watching several episodes of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." We do have a Christmas day tradition and that is to watch The Thin Man. And starting this year, another tradition will be a cajun shrimp boil. Mmmmmm, William Powell, Myrna Loy, shrimp, sausages, corn cobettes and new potatoes! I hope yours is just as happy and fun!
Merry Christmas!

11:52 PM  
Blogger Casdok said...

Hope you have a lovely christmas, Cas and Cx

12:29 AM  
Blogger laughingwolf said...

we followed the scandahoovian trad of xmas eve, including the sta. lucia ceremonies, having lived in both finland and sweden... i miss those times

i feel the sim version of the christmas carol is best, though the muppets' version is fun!

10:18 AM  
Blogger Hermes said...

Christmas eve - Patton with George C Scott. "You might get shot but you're going back up there or I'll drag you out back to face a firing squad." (Probably not an exact quote but... what beautiful Christmas memories).

11:00 PM  
Blogger andrea said...

I hope you had a Merry Christmas, Ian. Happy Boxing Day! Hugs.

9:17 AM  
Blogger Wendy C. said...

I haven't seen the 1950's version of Scrooge, but we usually watch The Muppet Christmas Carol, if that counts - and Michael Caine can be pretty frightening (Oh, wait! I must be thinking of Jaws-4!!)
Ho-Ho-Ho!
Happy Holidays!

9:46 AM  
Blogger Janice Thomson said...

I like that version too Ian and I love that show and always try to watch it every year. Hope you had a wonderful eve.

12:21 PM  

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