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My Christmas song today is ‘Santa Claus 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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Santa Claus is not just a symbolic white-bearded man with a sack of jollies thrown over his back who dispenses Christmas presents to every child in the land on Christmas Day, but he represents the loving charity which exists in all open hearts, everywhere on Christmas Day. Beneath his December red clothes lies the true spirit of Christmas, the true humanity that exists across the world, the sheer pleasure that is to be found in giving as well as receiving; in helping others as opposed to helping oneself!
The most unfortunate thing about Santa Claus when he comes to town each Christmas is that he leaves very soon after he has arrived, and is not seen again until the following December. It is not coincidental that after the departure of Santa in our lives each Christmas, we forget about what he truly stands for and represents in the life and development of mankind. And so it appears after most Christmases also.
There is a seasonal spirit of goodwill during the week running up to Christmas, but no sooner than the turkey has been eaten, the family has started squabbling again about what to watch on the box, and dissension starts to gradually be resown in households across the land. The seller of the 'Big Issue' magazine or the homeless beggar also feels the brunt of the Christmas spirit dropping back out of our lives by the turning of the old year to the new. We may drop one lucky beggar our seasonal £1 coin in his hat in the run-up to Christmas while feeling sanctimonious that we’ve done our bit, and walk past the same man for the following 51 weeks of the year while consciously averting our eyes from theirs. Perhaps a few of the less charitable among us might even be thinking, “The £1 coin I dropped in his hat last Christmas didn’t do him much good as he’s still sat in the same spot a year later looking for another handout! He probably pi…ed it up against the nearest pub wall at the first opportunity?”
Just as the saying goes, “A dog is never just for Christmas”, it equally follows that Christmas is just not for the month of December either!” Once a person allows the true message of Christmas to enter their lives, that message remains in their hearts forevermore, and just like the deposit of an ink stain upon the white cloth, it will never come out!
Sheila and I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Love and peace Bill and Sheila xxx