“‘Tis the season to be jolly.”
That is perhaps the single short verse that musicallly defines the Christmas season. The song that started it all did not originally have any words. The tune is Welsh and dates back to at least the 1700s. The melody may be much older. At the time the notes was first strummed, carols were danced and not sung. In Wales, the sign on the dancehall door read in bold black letters: “No Singing Here.” It was only later that neon was invented. Before that happened, the audience simply couldn’t wait. The tune was just so good. People started humming along and then they added a word or two and a line and eventually, well, one Christmas season, they took the sign down and everyone started singing.
Deck the halls with boughs of holly,
‘Tis the season to be jolly,
Don we now our gay apparel,
Troll the ancient Christmas carol.
See the blazing yule before us,
Strike the harp and join the chorus.
Follow me in merry measure,
While I tell of Christmas treasure.
Fast away the old year passes,
Hail the new, ye lads and lasses!
Sing we joyous all together,
Heedless of the wind and weather.
That’s it. That’s “Deck the Halls.” “Yule” or “Y
Those weeks before Christmas are referred to as “Advent.” The word “advent” is Latin for “to come.” This is the time of year we wait for Christmas to come. In the West, Advent traditionally starts on the fourth Sunday before Christmas and ends on Christmas Eve, December 24th. The start date varies from year-to-year and place-to-place, but not on my Advent Calendar. On my Advent Calendar, Advent always starts on December 1st.
Advent Calendars started somewhere else, probably in Germany, and sometime earlier, possibly about 200 years ago, around the year 18-00-something. No one knows these things with precision. I suspect the first Advent Calendar was invented by a candy store owner as a way to dispense chocolates, because my first Advent Calendar years ago when I was a small child had tiny chocolates hidden behind each door. That’s right, each day of the month of December is a door that opens to reveal a surprise behind it. The surprise can be a toy or a chocolate or a Star Wars Lego figure or speeder or flier.
My 2018 Advent Calendar is a shallow box decorated with an alien, intergalactic landscape and twenty-four small doors on one side that each open to reveal a small Star Wars Lego construction. The Lego pieces are so tiny they hurt my fingers to assemble. Instructions are, I feel, minimal and more suited for the nimble fingers and minds of the young. Nonetheless, I have prevailed and built to this day’s surprise.
My Advent Calendar is gratifying and unusual and something of a conversation piece. “You’re doing what?” my guests question. “And what are those weird little creatures and things?” they point. “It’s Advent,” I respond, “It’s how I’m keeping track of the days to Christmas.” “Oh,” they answer and move quickly to the kitchen with concerned looks on their faces and muffled questions for my wife.
Not everyone understands. I love Christmas, the season, the preparations and the Advent Calendar. I love that this calendar is not the same as the one I had when I was a kid — although I do miss the chocolates. It’s the anticipation. Every day, there’s another door on the way to Christmas day. It’s a little like the melody of a song without the words, where the melody is so good and so much fun that you know when the words arrive they’ll be better yet, better each year and really worth the wait of opening all those little doors.
“Tis the season to be jolly.”