If you’ve been documenting your holiday stories for very long, you may notice they begin to look alike. The traditions are repetitive. But there’s almost always a story that goes hand-in-hand with the tradition, making it more memorable and standing apart from other years. And your feelings about the holiday will differ. There’ll be things to solve and stories about rescued traditions.
Storytelling Around Traditions
We have a Christmas-concert tradition with the youth symphony conducted by my husband. Here are three stories from different years.
The Return of the Scandalli
Three days before the Christmas concert, my husband was determined to get back his much cherished Scandalli accordion. He was on the program to play duets with a violinist. The accordion had lingered in the repair shop for several years without success. And as a stand-in, the shop owner lent her ladies’ accordion with narrow, cumbersome keys. Although he had pleaded for the Scandalli’s return through phone calls, texts, and emails, she was relentless to keep it until she’d completed the repair. But days before the concert, he came up with a different approach. He offered to purchase her accordion for three hundred dollars on the condition she returned his. She arrived a few hours later with a box of accordion parts. His Scandalli. He paid cash for her accordion, sold it to an accordion student, then took his accordion to a master repair person who repaired it for eighty dollars.
Rescuing a Performance and a Toddler
The youth symphony gives a concert at the mall every Christmas. They set up downstairs in a little alcove between two escalators. One going up, the other going down. Shoppers on the second floor stop to watch over the railing. That night I was watching from the second floor. The concert pieces are intricate. They begin work on featured solos in September. This night, during a violin solo, a group of women proceeded down the escalator but left a toddler at the top. His arm hugged a large cup of ice and pop, too big for his hand. He was screaming, which echoed through the mall. A flood of tears because there’s no way he’s gonna step on and ride down by himself. The women were belly-laughing at his upset. My first inclination was to stop the screaming and the echo because, believe me, he was louder than the violinist. Can you imagine perfecting a sonata and a toddler screaming the whole way through? I left my shopping bags with a friend, grabbed the sleeve of his jacket; he was wearing a diaper, and I wasn’t sure what it held and rode beside him. He stopped crying the minute I grabbed him.
It Was Christmas 2020
That year all Christmas concerts were canceled but one. When the musicians finished the Christmas music, they invited the crowd to sing Silent Night, a cappella. I got choked and overwhelmed and wept over hearing their voices. I’d listened to a lot of recorded music that season, but only once did I hear a live crowd sing in unison. I was overcome with despair that something almost choked them out.
Add More to Your Story
This season, add more to your story. Make the tradition the setting of a story. Or describe your feelings about the holiday. Elaborate.
Photo by Roberto Nickson via Unsplash