Christmas meme
I thought this meme out all by myself but...
Since there's a good chance that something similar has been done already I apologize for claiming it.
I've been thinking about this for a few days and I finally had to get it out of my system.
Christmas Meme:
Think of two or more different categories that somehow define you or that play a big part in your life ( for example: Family, Friends, Work, Movie, Dance, TV, Music...) and name your five all-time favourite Christmas things related to the category.
Feel free to copy this meme and do it yourself!
My five favourite Christmas Movies:
# It's a wonderful life (1946)
Don't you just have to love this movie? James Stewart was one of the best actors ever (I remember being devastated when he died) and seeing him as Mr. Nice Guy George Bailey... a classic. Angel Clarence truly deserves his wings, don't you think?
# Three wishes / nuts for Cinderella (Czechoslovakia, 1973)
Drei Nuesse fuer Aschenbroedel (German title) isn't even a Christmas movie and still, it's been shown on German TV every Christmas again and again and I simply love it. The main music track of the soundtrack gets me every time.
# Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)
Charles Dickens' classic of Ebeneezer Scrooge being visited by three Ghosts the night before Christmas acted out by the Muppet's... if that's not a true classic then I don't know what is. Kermit as Bob Crachet... Miss Piggy as his wife...Tiny Tim... Gonzo as Charles Dickens himself... and last but not least Rizzo the Rat... awesome.
# While you were sleeping (1995)
I love this movie, I love Bill Pullman (especially his boots... I remember, the first time he appears, when he sets just one foot out of his truck, my friend Corinna and I were already screaming "There he is, there he is!" and then we would scream and blush and fawn over him like... well, like lovesick teenagers, and Corinna's twin Kirsten shaking her head at us all the time... oh, good old times). Do I have to say more about that movie? The leaning thing... Joey junior... "You stood me up!"... gah, I'm fawning again, and now I wanna see it again!
# Love actually (2003)
The sheer amount of celebrities appearing in this movie is just one reason why I like it so much. Alan Rickman, alone is another. The story is the third, Bill Nighy's awesome act as a fading rock star is a cake and Mark's confession of love to Keira Knightley is the icing on top. The sweetest Christmas stories ever.
My five favourite Christmas Songs:
# Christmas is now drawing near at hand by Steve Winwood
It's actually more of a poem or prayer than a song... there's not much of a melody to go with, but what little tune there is somehow makes the wonderful lyrics stand out even more. "So proud and lovely do some people go, dressing themselves like players in a show, they patch and paint and dress with idle stuff, as if God had not made them fine enough. Even little children learn to curse and swear, and can't recite one word of godly prayer, oh teach them better oh teach them to rely, on Christ the sinner's friend who reigns on high."... That's just an excerpt but... isn't it awesome?
# Christmas by Blues Traveler
This song is quite the opposite from the one I mentioned before. The melody is just... awesome. It starts slow and soft and gets bigger and bigger and in the end there are several different verses sung at once and different instruments also play different melodies (the flute stands out quite nicely) and one would think it's chaotic but... it's not. It's fantastic.
Loving this song may have also something to do with a certain memory ... I don't know.
# White Christmas by Bing Crosby
Clearly one of the classics... old, soft and slow... and it makes me think of snow and mulled wine... and the orchestra my brother-in-law plays in. Simply makes me smile and want to dance.
# Greatest time of year by Ali & AJ
One of the more recent songs I've come to like... it's rocking and the lyrics are great and... simply true. And I've always thought it to be a perfect song for Ryan and Sharpay to sing. I don't know why, it just reminds me of them.
# Oh du froehliche, lyrics written by D. Falk (1768-1826), melody composed by ???
This is the most popular German Christian Christmas Song after "Silent Night". Everybody sings it in church every year, my folks and I sing it under the Christmas tree every year... it's traditional and simply a true classic. And I love it. And it's also the only song I know how to play with two hands on the piano (I never learned playing the piano, a friend taught me this song only in a one-time lesson and I somehow still remember how it's done).
I wanted to also list my five favourite Christmas Memories but... first I'll link two other great traditional Christmas songs here I've actually found on youtube
Transeamus and Tochter Zion (the last one performed by the Kelly Family very very long ago it seems :-) cute!
My favourite Christmas memories:
I had a lot of trouble thinking of anything here. It's not that my Christmasses have been bad so far, far from it, it's just... I really have trouble remembering details... why I liked something... my memory is not the best, you see. It's always been troubling me.
But I think I found some memories.
# The red bicycle
I remember one Christmas Eve, when I was around five or six or so, there was suddenly, completely out of nowhere, a shiny new red bicycle standing in front of the electric stove in our living room. It looked wonderful!
Though the bike wasn't for me (it was for my older sister) this is one of the best memories I have. Seeing something so beautiful in our living room... it still sends a warm glowy feeling through my body. And - the best part - a few years later I inherited the bike and it still looked good (not too much second-hand).
# Hearing the small Christmas bell
This is not so much a memory of one single moment but more... a moment that came every year and it's always been my favourite one. Something like the true beginning of Christmas.
Every year on Christmas Eve, after my parents (and whoever of my siblings went with them) returned from the Christmas mass... I'm thinking of the times when I was too young to go to church with them, I stayed at home with my grandma... there was this moment when my dad would vanish into the "good" living room while everyone else was waiting outside. He would prepare the room (light the candles on the tree, shut the blinds... last minute preparations so to say... and then, to let us know Santa had been there, he'd ring this small silver bell and we'd all follow inside.
That moment, right before the bell would ring, standing there outside, excited and happy... that's when Christmas would always begin for me.
# The Christmas mass
When I was old enough to go to the mass with my family... I loved it. Every single part of the (quite long) mass. The orchestra playing Christmas songs outside while we were already sitting inside the Church in the dark... the moment the lights would go on... the first few words of the nativity play... the moment the choir would start singing Transeamus (and me always trying to single out my mother's voice)... the crowd singing all those lovely songs (Menschen die ihr wart verloren, Tochter Zion, Oh Du Froehliche)...everything.
And afterwards, shaking hands and wishing everyone merry Christmas... and then rushing home to start celebrating. The Christmas mass will always be my favourite mass, forever.
# Sharing a secret with my dad (part one of breaking the rituals)
A few years back (when I was still visiting home quite frequently and it didn't feel like living somewhere else at all) my dad took me aside one day, it was a few days before Christmas, and he asked me to go shopping with him for a Christmas gift for my mom. We went to a jewelery and I chose a necklace for her (or was it earrings? I don't remember but... that's not important at all. The important thing was that my dad had asked me along).
As a child Christmas was all about "the parents conspire against the children to make Christmas good" and now, suddenly, my dad asked me to help him. I felt like I'd finally arrived in the grown-ups circle so to speak. I can't explain it the way I want to... but, it's a happy memory for me. Feeling accepted, grown-up at last.
# Decorating the Christmas Tree (part two of breaking rituals)
Christmas in my family has always been very much about traditions. Traditions and rituals. Like the bell ringing, going to church, everything. And decorating the Tree was another tradition, one that was always done by my dad alone. It's just the way it was, the tree had to be decorated by him and nobody was allowed to see it before the bell had announced Christmas. It even went so far that we all had to close our eyes if we had to go into the room to collect something or to answer the phone stationed there (that was before we got a cordless phone).
And a few years back (I guess it was the same year my dad asked me to come along buying a gift for mom) I was allowed to help decorate the tree.
I remember, I was sooooo excited! It was a wonderful feeling, me being allowed to help creating such an important item for Christmas.
Okay, I guess that's all for now. Feel free to think about these things yourself. It's fun!