December 2022 Newsletter
Dear Trinity Family and Friends,
Christmas. The very word conjures up memories and connects us to other related words. Christmas trees,
Christmas bells, Christmas cookies, Christmas carols, Christmas candles, Christmas presents, Christmas parties, and Christmas pageants and programs, Oh yes. Christmas pageants and programs. For parents they invoke happy moments of seeing your child in the pageant, rejoicing that he/she remembered all of their lines, or causing you to blush slightly as you remember your sweet shy little daughter swinging her multi-ruffled skirt over her head showing off everything underneath. There are adult women still looking back with some sadness, or bitterness, that they never got to play Mary and there are adult men playing the part of wise men who rebel at carrying beautiful perfume looking bottles because they refuse to believe that frankincense and myrrh were fragrant oils. And of course there are those who have directed Christmas pageants/programs. They are equally divided into two groups; those who look forward to the experience year after year and those who would rather have root canal work without anesthesia than direct another pageant. I fall into the later category. However the two most memorable pageant/programs for me are not ones I had to direct, but were rather Christmas program/pageants in which I participated as a child and a teen.
Memory #1. I was in nursery-kindergarten Sunday School class which meant we were the group that all had little verses to memorize and recite. Our church had just gotten its first PA system. Everyone was excited. Children are always thrilled about using a microphone and parents were excited because for the first time, they were actually going to be able to hear the recitations. Our teacher was the sweetest most genteel older woman you can imagine. She had rehearsed us lovingly and well. The very first little speaker to use the microphone was a child who came from a rather difficult, rough-around-the-edges family. She was to step to the mic, with a toy telephone in hand, which she was then to ring while saying, “I am calling to wish you all a Merry Christmas:” Simple. No problem, right? Wrong. She tried to get the little telephone to ring and couldn’t; in her frustration, the very first words to come through the new microphone were these. ‘I can’t get this d. . . m phone to ring.” The poor teacher was mortified; the congregation could not restrain their laughter-or shock-and the rest of us were simply bewildered because we didn’t use words like that!
Memory #2. When I was in high school we had a very active and good sized youth group-at least for a small church. Many of us in that youth group played instruments in band so someone got the bright idea that we had enough clarinets, flutes, coronets, and saxophones, plus a drummer and tuba player to form a little
Christmas band. The organist would accompany us. We had practiced and it seemed that all would go well.
Things are seldom as they first seem. The problem was created by the logistics of the organ and the sound box. The organ was at the front of the church but the sound box was at the back of the church, which made it difficult, if not impossible for the band to hear the organ. The second problem was created when the organist got the order of the carols mixed up. We started to play….that is…the organist started to play one carol while the band was playing another…both totally unaware of the situation at first. Let’s just say it was not a joyful or harmonious sound About midway through the carol, the tuba player heard the organ, and realizing what was happening, started to play the carol she was playing. The drummer, who was seated directly in front of the tuba had no choice but to change the beat! Now, if you are following the story you understand that the wind and brass instruments were playing one carol while the tuba player and the organist were playing a “duet” of sorts, and the drummer was trying to keep time with everyone. Needless to say, we were never again asked to play for Christmas….or anything else!
During this Advent and Christmas season please take time to recall and share some of your favorite
Christmas pageant and program stories…but most of all, don’t forget to remember and to share the most wonderful Christmas story of all. Because of His great love for us, God sent His Son to us, to bring us back into God’s glorious presence and to give us life, now and forever!! Merry Christmas. pjr
