"It's Christmas time and time for a carol,
time to sing about the little king.
To fill the bowl and roll out the banel,
have ourselves a fling.
We greet a friend or welcome a stranger,
let him sing or cheer him on his way,
and celebrate the child in a manger,
born on Christmas day.
Good cheer, for you and for me
with pleasure and glee to share.
Oh we're so happy to be,
together in yuletide square.
It looks like snow and falls like snow,
take a moment, take a look around,
and say as snowflakes fall.
Merry Christmas, to one and all."

You'll forgive the lyrics, and I'm pretty sure a couple words might be wrong, but that's all done by memory, as the song was learned when I was a child, listening to my mother's collection of holiday records, which invariably began being played on December first, every year. Nor do particularly feel the need to look up the lyrics to correct any errors - it makes sense, and it's a bouncy, lively tune that I've had stuck in my mind since the beginning of this month.

Everyone has traditions for the holidays - more than the food and what house is gone to. Religion may or may not be a part of it - even within a family, there are degrees. My mother is a devout Catholic - and before anyone out there curls their lip, I'll tell you right now, she's a good person, and she's not obnoxious about her beliefs. She tries to convert no one, doesn't preach, and doesn't infect her daily speech with religious references. Nor is she judgmental about personal choices. Being Catholic doesn't mean you think everything the Church and the Pope say or do is right. I may not really agree with the Church on much of anything, being, at best, a "lukewarm Catholic" as I put it, but I will always respect that my mother genuinely and honestly believes, and actually tries to follow the tenets of the faith that boil down to 'love thy neighbor'. People like her are the only reason I haven't given up on organized religion altogether, and get overlooked because of all the loud, attention-grabbing nutso fanatics out there.

But, getting away from a budding rant, and back to my thoughts of before - traditions. Whether it's doing your best to find out what you're getting before the alloted time to open presents, a certain breakfast meal or dinner, or even just watching a certain movie, everyone has them. One of my family's was singing carols. It was a sort of a game, that started, like the holiday music, on December first, whenever we had to go somewhere in the car. Now, these days, I really can't stand any religious music - it tends to stick in my craw and hurt my ears, and leave a bad taste in my mouth. I can't say I've ever liked the genre. But Christmas carols were completely different. For one thing, some of them are among the most beautiful pieces of music I've ever heard. And somehow, despite the many obviously religious lyrics, they never seemed - to me, anyway - overbearing about it. Perhaps that's just because they're familiar since I grew up with them, but eh.

End result was, I always enjoyed it, and it became a sort of game. Which was handy, I would guess, keeping a kid occupied on the half-hour or hour long drives to relatives' houses, and to and from the shorter distances of school, store, etc. The rules were fairly simple - you couldn't repeat a song, if you couldn't think of a song you were 'out', you had to know all the words to at least two verses... unless you started The Twelve Days of Christmas, in which case you better damn well know all the verses correctly and in order. It would go by turns, and if you knew a verse to another's song that they didn't, you got a 'point'. Not that score was kept, it was basically just kind of an ego boost. The person who could come up with songs the longest won - but many games were never finished, since each car trip, even if coming back and the game was played on the way - was the beginning of a new game. Now, when I was young, I was obviously quickly 'out', and my singing wasn't that great. But I come from a musical family - we all play an instrument, or several. Vocally, in my mother's case, she sang when younger, my father is a band director, but also teaches choir. Gradually, I learned about pitch and matching it with my parents, and when I was older, while no trained singer, we could harmonize and sound pretty decent together. And, obviously, I have a larger than normal repertoire of carols stored in my thick skull, even now. All three verses of Silent Night, baybee, for 2 points. Ha!

Well, those days are long gone, I drive myself where I need to go now. But December first, I found myself starting a game, to see how many songs I could remember on the way to work... and I'm still dredging the depths of my mind for the remnants of my once vast mental library. It always takes a couple weeks to really remember them all. And maybe I'll be able to cram in a few more before this holiday season is done.

Feliz Navidad, mis amigos.