I dedicate my Christmas song today to my Facebook friends, Helen Chambers from Doncaster and Lynn Greenwood from Wilsden, West Yorkshire. Both ladies are celebrating their birthday today. Have a super birthday and leave room for some birthday cake and suitable refreshments. Love Bill x
Today’s Christmas song is one that Elvis Presley sang, ‘Santa Clause is Back in Town’. This Christmas song was written in 1957 by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. It was first recorded that year by Elvis Presley as the opening track on ‘Elvis’ Christmas Album’. This was to become the best-selling Christmas/ holiday album of all time in the U.S.A. The song has become a rock-and-roll Christmas standard.
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There is no snow today in West Yorkshire unless it’s hiding away up in the Pennines or somewhere up in Scotland. Santa Clause was back in town for me and Sheila yesterday, along with my daughter Rebecca who is staying for four days before heading off down south to see her mum.
With me being 77 years old now and Sheila at 63, and knocking on the ‘old age pensioner’s door’, we have both grown quite sensible when choosing gifts for each other. One tends to need fewer things as one gets older and we usually fall back on buying some clothes for the other. Where we have changed in our Christmas shopping practice is that we usually select each other’s main Christmas present while out shopping together. That way, we always buy each other what we want and most need, and in the correct size. Naturally, we wrap up the gifts and place them under the Christmas tree for the obligatory unwrapping ceremony on Christmas Day (We do this as much for Rebecca as for ourselves). We do always get an extra present for each other that the other doesn’t know about.
If there is one thing in life that represents the stage of development when a child starts to lose their innocence, it is when they stop believing in Santa Clause because they believe that their parents have been conning them all along. Well let me tell all of you, adults as well as children, Santa Clause does exist and always has. Santa is ‘the spirit of Christmas’ and he comes in all shapes and form. Santa can be a parent, a spouse, a partner, a family member, a friend, a neighbour or a stranger whom you pass in the street. He can even be a beggar who makes you feel better when you drop a £1 coin into his empty cup. Santa is sometimes present in the non-human shape of a pet or Santa can even be embodied in the shape of a woman who does something for you that makes you feel good at Christmas time.
Santa first comes to each child as a jolly rotund man with a white beard and carrying a sack of goodies as he travels the skies in a sleigh pulled by reindeers. As we get older, Santa begins to take on a different shape and manner of appearance at Christmas time, but Santa always gives us something we want, and which makes us feel better. Sometimes it is a present or some item we need but whatever Santa gives us makes us feel better for the having of it, whether it is a tangible gift-wrapped present, money, food, clothes, shelter, conversation, commiseration, consolation, friendship, good advice or even as Scrooge discovered, the confrontation with his past, presence and future, and thereby the spur and encouragement to change one’s life for the better. In many ways, it would not be remiss to view one’s God as Santa who is ever-present in our lives and who gives us the best present one can ever receive, not just on Christmas Day but on every day of the year; love.
Sheila and I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Love and peace Bill xxx
Today’s Christmas song is one that Elvis Presley sang, ‘Santa Clause is Back in Town’. This Christmas song was written in 1957 by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. It was first recorded that year by Elvis Presley as the opening track on ‘Elvis’ Christmas Album’. This was to become the best-selling Christmas/ holiday album of all time in the U.S.A. The song has become a rock-and-roll Christmas standard.
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There is no snow today in West Yorkshire unless it’s hiding away up in the Pennines or somewhere up in Scotland. Santa Clause was back in town for me and Sheila yesterday, along with my daughter Rebecca who is staying for four days before heading off down south to see her mum.
With me being 77 years old now and Sheila at 63, and knocking on the ‘old age pensioner’s door’, we have both grown quite sensible when choosing gifts for each other. One tends to need fewer things as one gets older and we usually fall back on buying some clothes for the other. Where we have changed in our Christmas shopping practice is that we usually select each other’s main Christmas present while out shopping together. That way, we always buy each other what we want and most need, and in the correct size. Naturally, we wrap up the gifts and place them under the Christmas tree for the obligatory unwrapping ceremony on Christmas Day (We do this as much for Rebecca as for ourselves). We do always get an extra present for each other that the other doesn’t know about.
If there is one thing in life that represents the stage of development when a child starts to lose their innocence, it is when they stop believing in Santa Clause because they believe that their parents have been conning them all along. Well let me tell all of you, adults as well as children, Santa Clause does exist and always has. Santa is ‘the spirit of Christmas’ and he comes in all shapes and form. Santa can be a parent, a spouse, a partner, a family member, a friend, a neighbour or a stranger whom you pass in the street. He can even be a beggar who makes you feel better when you drop a £1 coin into his empty cup. Santa is sometimes present in the non-human shape of a pet or Santa can even be embodied in the shape of a woman who does something for you that makes you feel good at Christmas time.
Santa first comes to each child as a jolly rotund man with a white beard and carrying a sack of goodies as he travels the skies in a sleigh pulled by reindeers. As we get older, Santa begins to take on a different shape and manner of appearance at Christmas time, but Santa always gives us something we want, and which makes us feel better. Sometimes it is a present or some item we need but whatever Santa gives us makes us feel better for the having of it, whether it is a tangible gift-wrapped present, money, food, clothes, shelter, conversation, commiseration, consolation, friendship, good advice or even as Scrooge discovered, the confrontation with his past, presence and future, and thereby the spur and encouragement to change one’s life for the better. In many ways, it would not be remiss to view one’s God as Santa who is ever-present in our lives and who gives us the best present one can ever receive, not just on Christmas Day but on every day of the year; love.
Sheila and I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Love and peace Bill xxx
