Christmas goes

Monday night, we took down our Christmas tree and decorations, and listened to Christmas music for the last time for another year. It is always a sad thing to do, but it seemed sadder this year. It hadn’t been an easy year for us, and Christmas, with its light in the “Bleak Midwinter” felt especially warm and reassuring this year. So did the music, the various recordings of carols by various choirs took me away from the difficulties the last year brought.

The music lingers in my mind. Snatches of carols and soaring treble voices come to me at odd moments, and will for a few weeks yet. The first year we had recordings like this to listen to was my year as an intern at Snow Lake, Manitoba. Before going to the church in the morning, I would ski for an hour on the trails there. It seemed that long after Christmas, I would be out there alone on the trails with Howells’ A Spotless Rose or some other carol going through my mind, skis running in the track under me and snow-flocked spruces all around on cold, cold days.

Right now, the days are starting to get longer again, and the sun, when it’s out is a little higher, and the “Bleak Midwinter” is slowly taking its leave again. In a few months, the snow will be gone, and the world will look much different than it does now. But the sun will draw back again, the days will shorten, and the promise of the Light in the midst of darkness will come again. New tree, old decorations, and old music will be there again.