Christmas Archives - thegoodwills.com

Carols and Christmas lights

Bob’s annual playlist of Christmas songs and a few things you never knew about the 12 Days of Christmas Take care on the roads, dear readers.

christmas-lights-carols — Photo by Laurel Wilson

We did a drive-by of Warwick’s Christmas lights last Saturday night. It would melt the Grinchiest heart. By that I mean even if you are deeply cynical about the nativity story, Santa, Elf on a Shelf and rampant consumerism, Christmas lights are a joy. Not at all energy-conserving but joyous without a doubt

She Who Took Pictures in the Dark (SWTPITD) came up with a couple of good ones. I drove and the passengers navigated, which was ‘interesting’

We had just finished two weeks of carol performances with East Street Singers. We are having a break from choir until January, so cruising the Christmas lights hotspots was the next best thing.

Lavish displays of Christmas lights cost multiple thousands, not to mention the additional burden on the household energy bill. The comparison website finder.com.au did a survey on Christmas spending which did not mention Christmas lights at all. Nevertheless, those surveyed said they were planning to spend around $1,361 on food, alcohol, presents, eating out and travel.

Two-thirds of Australians (72%), however, are slashing their spending, mindful of the impact of inflation and what the New Year may bring.

About 38% of respondents said they would start buying food and presents early to help control their spending. One quarter went shopping for bargains on Black Friday,(the US version of Boxing Day sales) with 25% implementing a gift-giving limit.

Almost a quarter of the 1,054 survey respondents said they would have to go into debt to cover their Christmas costs (up from 23% in 2021).

Inflation rose 6.9% in the year to October 2022 and there appears to be no signs of it easing. Inflationary pressures, particularly the steep rise in fuel and energy prices, prompted the Reserve Bank of Australia to raise the cash rate by 3.00% in 2022 (it’s now 3.10%). What this might mean for people with huge mortgages in 2023 is anyone’s guess.

Long-term FOMM followers will know I usually trot out a Christmas song playlist and this year is no exception. But I am swayed this year to include songs with a sentimental or even reverent message. This offsets the somewhat cynical tone of my contribution, ‘Christmas in Australia’ which can be found here.

Our five Christmas carol performances this month included a mix of traditional songs, a few which are rarely heard and that jolly old tune about figgy pudding and not going until we get some.

Number one on the 12-song FOMM Christmas playlist is the Sussex Carol with its clever counterpoint section where the men vocalise in a different time signature while the women sing the verse (then vice versa). ‘The Sussex Carol’ is performed by the choir of St Martin’s in the Fields conducted by Sir Neville Marriner.

The Sussex Carol brings to mind the wry observation in Tim Minchin’s timeless ‘White Wine in the Sun’ (number 2).

I get freaked out by churches
Some of the hymns that they sing have nice chords
But the lyrics are dodgy.

Minchin released this song in 2012 as a tribute to his baby daughter. He released this 2022 live version, all the more poignant because his child has been diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum. Minchin donates proceeds from this song over the Christmas period to Aspect (Autism Spectrum Australia). This is a touching, live rendition, just Tim and piano.

‘Once in Royal David’s City’ (3), is performed in folk style by The Seekers. This is a happy, lapsed-Methodist memory. I was given a harmonica in a Christmas stocking (I was 8) and was playing that carol by lunchtime. Later I found Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee.

Next is the much-loved ‘How to Make Gravy’ (4) by Paul Kelly. Note for guitarists: Paul plays a guitar tuned to an open D. In ordinary tuning you need to span three or four frets to make those chords. Just saying.

‘O Holy Night’(5) is a classic Christian carol, favoured by sopranos who can hit the high note (A flat). My trusty editor Laurel Wilson is well capable of executing (ie singing, as opposed to ‘murdering’ Ed.) this song. Mariah Carey, Celine Dion and Kate Miller-Heidke are among those who have recorded Adolphe Adam’s composition, based on a French poem. This version is by the honourable Luciano Pavarotti.

‘The Christians and the Pagans’ (6) takes me back a bit – Dar Williams singing about cousin Amber (and her friend), turning up unexpectedly for a traditional family lunch.

The food was great, the tree plugged in, the meal had gone without a hitch,
Til Timmy turned to Amber and said, “Is it true that you’re a witch?”
His Mom jumped up and said, “The pies are burning, ” and she hit the kitchen,
And it was Jane who spoke, she said, “It’s true, your cousin’s not a Christian, ”
“But we love trees, we love the snow, the friends we have, the world we share,
And you find magic from your God, and we find magic everywhere.“

Song 7 was recommended by the convenors of U3A Warwick’s Music Show; indigenous man Mitch Tambo singing ‘Silent Night’ in language. I shared this with my niece in New Zealand who is a big Marlon Williams fan. Mitch’s voice is equally impressive.

‘Carol of the Bells’(8) is an old Ukrainian folk tune. This version is from the soundtrack of the 1990 hit movie Home Alone.

As we think about Ukraine, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and other countries which need peaceful thoughts, here is John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s ‘Happy Christmas/War is Over’ (9).

Macca is broadcasting his last Australia all Over for 2022 on Sunday so it’s a fair bet he’ll include ‘Carol of the Birds’. (10).

This delightful Australian song with authentic Down Under imagery is from the album Bucko and Champs (Colin Buchanan and Greg Champion).

I mentioned to my niece’s witty 15-year-old last month that I’d not heard the Mariah Carey Christmas song reportedly played to death at this time of year. He replied, “Oh yes, that’s the song you hear in shopping centres, giving their poor workers PTSD.”

I’m sparing you Mariah’s vocal gymnastics on ‘All I want for Christmas is You’ in favour of a traditional Irish folk song. This recording of the ‘Wexford Carol’ (11) features Alison Krauss, better known for collaborations with bluegrass band Union Station and duets with husband Robert Plant (Raising Sand). Here she is joined by master cellist YoYo Ma and an ensemble of class musicians.

Finally, the ‘Twelve Days Of Christmas’, an annoyingly repetitive song which in 1984 gave birth to a quirky set of economic indicators. The Christmas Price Index and the True Cost of Christmas measure the nominal and cumulative values of the gifts given by the True Love. In 2021, the commodity price index assessed the nominal value at $41,205 and the cumulative value at $179,454. An example is the four calling birds (they use canaries), which are mentioned nine times. Canaries go for around $300 in the US so the cumulative value of the gift from Ms True Love is $10,700. You follow?

Not that this would have occurred to Bing Crosby when he recorded the song with the Andrews Sisters in 1949. Bing’s been dead for 45 years but regardless has 25 million Spotify followers. Now that’s what I’d call a commodity.

Have a great Christmas and drive carefully.

Christmas cards or emails?

christmas-cards-emails — The world over, the mail must get through – image by Brazilian photographer Alexandre Fukugava www.pixabay.com

Last week I posted a handful of Christmas cards to New Zealand. The woman in the post office frowned and said I’d missed the deadline for international post.

“But it’s only New Zealand, so they will probably get there,” she added, with a slow, small country town smile.

I’m not so confident. The record time taken for mail exchanged between my sister and I was 17 days in 2020. Blimey, I could have flown over and hand-delivered it, enjoying a two-week holiday at the same time.

Those of you with family members living abroad know of the annual dilemma. Is it Christmas cards in the post and/or calendars, an animated ecard or an email with a word document of the family’s highlights through the year?

The problem with the annual epistle is that some years are just crap. Nothing good happened and you didn’t go anywhere, right?

I have more or less faithfully kept up the tradition of sending cards in the mail, not expecting one in return, since moving to Australia in the mid-1970s (stamps then cost 10c).

When we were both working, we’d shop for Australian calendars and post them to relatives in New Zealand, Canada and the UK. We stopped doing this once the cost of postage became more than the cost of the calendars.

Last month, I had a reminder email from animated ecard producer Jacquie Lawson, who offers cards for all occasions. The reminder was that my $20 subscription was about to lapse. It was a shock to find I had sent only five ecards in 12 months. I must be old school after all.

I’m not renewing, but if you decide (on December 23, after counting the unsolicited cards on the tree and mantel piece), that you should reciprocate, it’s easy to sign up and deliver an impressive ecard.

The first Christmas card was issued in 1843 by UK civil servant, inventor and entrepreneur Henry Cole, the first director of the Victoria and Albert Museum. Cole was instrumental in reforming the British postal system, helping to set up the Uniform Penny Post. This system encouraged the sending of seasonal greetings on decorated letterheads and visiting cards. Struck by the idea of creating a greeting card of his own, Henry asked his friend, artist John Callcott Horsley, to illustrate it.

Horsley’s design depicts the Cole family raising a toast in a central, hand-coloured panel surrounded by a decorative trellis and black and white scenes depicting acts of giving.

Cole commissioned a printer to transfer the design onto cards, printing a thousand copies that could be personalised with a hand-written greeting. The issue (at a shilling each), was described as a commercial failure.

Cole would have been fascinated to see how his idea blossomed into a multi-billion-dollar business. The greetings card industry is in a spot of trouble now, as digital options make sending greetings cheaper and faster.

Marketing group researchandmarkets.com released projections that showed global greetings card sales would drop 17% from $23 billion in 2020 to $20.9 billion in 2026. Reasons for the decline include the popularity of social media platforms and messaging apps such as WhatsApp.

“Despite the challenges posed by the growing social media and e-cards, there still exists a niche consumer base for physical greeting cards,” a spokesman said.

“Giving and receiving these cards continues to matter to a set of consumers, albeit a shrinking one. For this niche group of consumers, a physical greeting card on special occasions means much more than a Facebook message or an e-card.”

Last year, the Australia Post network delivered around one million fewer letters every working day than prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020.

A spokesman told FOMM the network did not differentiate between Christmas mail and regular letters so could not produce meaningful statistics. But as a guide, the annual Santa Mail program last year received more than 118,000 letters bound for the North Pole!

Australia Post is one of Australia’s most successful companies, posting revenue of $8.3 billion for 2021 and pre-tax profit of $100.7 million.

“This is a strong result, with our domestic parcels business continuing to go from strength to strength, while we retained our position as a market leader with parcel and services revenue growth of 17.7%,” acting CEO Rodney Boys said in the 2021 annual report.

Revenue was driven by a record peak period, with more than 52 million parcels delivered in December alone. The organisation is continually finding new ways to take advantage of the growth in ecommerce (more than one million households now shop on-line each month). Australia Post has developed well beyond a simple service for mail delivery. The network supports banking and bill-paying services for major institutions.

My recent application to renew my Australian passport (at the post office), for example, cost $307.00 plus $27.95 for passport photos, taken by Australia Post.

(Ed: He has some spares if you’d like an autographed one).

The Australian Passport Office delivered my new passport by registered mail ($4.45) in just under four weeks so obviously the Passport Office/Australia Post collaboration is working well.

The strong growth in ecommerce and parcel home delivery has coincided with an ongoing decline in the volume of letters, however. Revenue dropped from $2.33 billion in 2017 to $1.77 billion in 2021.

As a trustee of a self managed super fund, I can vouch that all companies which issue shares promote electronic delivery of annual reports and other correspondence. All of the institutions and government agencies with which we have dealings also push hard to convert their clients to on-line interaction.

Despite my earlier observation about the time taken for mail to arrive in New Zealand, Australia Post boasts a 94% delivered on time record for letters and parcels. If the letter/parcel you are expecting is late, it is probably someone else’s fault.

There are 7,950 postal routes in Australia, some requiring a marathon effort to traverse. We should be grateful for the 10,000 ‘Posties’ who battle rain, hail, bushfire smoke, steaming hot days and aggressive dogs.

No laughing matter that, with Australia Post confirming that more than 1,000 posties have been attacked by household dogs in the past six months. Nibbler used to bark at the postie, or more accurately at the scooter as it whizzed past. I went out one day to introduce the dog, thinking it would make him less likely to bark and run along the fence. Our local postman said it was ‘traditional’ for dogs to bark at posties.

I hope this has inspired you to get out your address book and start writing in cards (buy a box of cards from a charity and do two good deeds in one).

A study by the University of Limerick concluded that the act of sending (and receiving) Christmas cards can help alleviate depression. Moreover, if someone who always sends you a card suddenly doesn’t, this can be a red flag.

“If you do not hear from someone who regularly sends you a Christmas card, it might be worth checking in with them to spread some Christmas cheer,” said Dr Jennifer McMahon, a lecturer in psychology at UL and study co-author.

You have seven days.

Postscript: I wrote an irony-laden Christmas song which has been described as ‘a bit dark’ by someone who saw a preview. Not suitable for children.

Some notes about the Christmas feast

christmas-feat-pavlova — Pavlova photo Kathysg www.pixabay.com

We were at the butcher shop, 18 days before Christmas, buying enough for this week’s meals and also a month’s supply of dog meat. Before he even knew what we wanted, Wayne the butcher asked – “How are you going for pet mince?” Since I’d just cooked the last one, this was most prescient of him.
Then I spotted a leg of ham in the display cabinet. I nudged She Who Organises Almost Everything.
“Have you ordered the Christmas ham?
“Ah, no, I haven’t. Thanks for reminding me.”
Then She and Wayne got into a technical discussion about the preferred size, did she want the leg end or the other end and, did we want it scored (scored?).
“Yes,” says SWOAE, “And put the flap back on it. Please.”

SWOAE ordered an organic leg of ham last year and was disappointed. As I recall it was a bit dry and a sort of drab grey colour. So yeh, this year we’re going with the standard 4kg leg of ham, a jolly pink colour, which, as you may gather, is artificially added.
Our small Christmas family gathering is a co-operative affair. Everyone brings something. We are bringing the ham and the pavlova. Son Number One doesn’t know it yet, but he’s bringing Bon Bons and those nuggety chocolates with a French name.
Our sister-in-law will no doubt cook up one or more of turkey, duck, pork and chicken and my brother-in-law and/or nephew will go on a quest for prawns. Salads will mysteriously appear, with ingredients from our combined gardens.
One thing about Wayne the butcher, he makes sure the legs of ham are produced locally. None of this ‘contains ingredients from Slovakia’ or whatever. When did that start happening? In case you did not know, 70% percent of processed ham and pork sold in Australia is made in other countries (source: Australian Pork).

This week’s FOMM was inspired by this encounter at the butcher’s shop and a classic movie we watched on Monday night –”Babette’s Feast”.
A French chef, exiled during the Franco-Prussian war, is taken in as a housekeeper by a pair of pious sisters who live in a remote village in Denmark. After winning 10,000 francs in the lottery, Babette determines to spend it all on a French banquet for the village’s small, cloistered community. The strictly religious villagers deduce from seeing Babette take delivery of a turtle, live quails and crates of wine, that the banquet will be the ‘devil’s work’. But they make a pact to say nothing about the food, in which case they won’t be struck by a bolt of holy lightning. Something like that.
That strange, allegorical movie got me to thinking about the Christmas lunch/dinner and why we go overboard on rich food, most of which we only eat at this time of year.

Take Christmas pudding, for example. In recent years my niece has turned out a traditional boiled pudding from a 1930s recipe handed down by Nana Ruby. She has a little stash of sixpences which are hidden in the mix and latched upon by the children (who swap the coins for real money).
According to various accounts, Christmas pudding evolved in the 14^th century in the UK, at that time, more of a porridge. In poorer parts of the UK it was regarded as the main Christmas meal.
Nutritionist Hazel Flight, writing in The Conversation, describes what was then known as ‘frumenty’. It was made with hulled wheat, boiled in milk, seasoned with cinnamon and coloured with saffron. It was associated with meatless days, lent and advent and was often served as a plain dish. Other recipes included beef, mutton, raisins, currants, prunes, wines and spices. Ms Flight says the Christmas pudding evolved further in the 17^th century, thickened with eggs, breadcrumbs, dried fruit and beer or spirits. The Victorians tweaked the recipe further to produce what we now know as the traditional Christmas pudding, usually served with brandy sauce, brandy butter or custard. (Ed: 21^st century additions include lactose-free cream and/or icecream).

Ms Flight’s research into Christmas pudding uncovered the religious connotations. A Christmas pudding should have 13 ingredients – representing Jesus and the 12 disciples. Traditional ingredients in modern times include: raisins, currants, suet, brown sugar, breadcrumbs, citron, lemon peel, orange peel, flour, mixed spices, eggs, milk and brandy. Brandy is poured over the pudding and set alight. The flaming brandy is said to represent the passion of Christ. Assuming you have not set fire to the tablecloth or decorations and the flames have fizzled out, this is the best time to say Amen.

My Dad the baker put a lot of work into turning out Christmas goodies, including his famous fruit mince tarts. He would make up a dried fruit mix at least a month before Christmas, steep it in alcohol and leave it to mature. One thing about Candyland (the family bakery), there was never any waste. Everyone in town knew about the old-school baker from Scotland who produced high-quality cakes and pastries. By 2pm on Christmas Eve, everything had been sold.
In Australia, Christmas lunches have veered away from the British tradition of roasted meats and vegetables. Aussies favour seafood, barbecue-prepared foods, cold meats and salads, followed by pavlova and fruit.
SWOAE says she is going to top the pavlova with kiwifruit, one of the four common fruit toppings (passionfruit, strawberries or blueberries). I would like to point out that the kiwifruit did not evolve in New Zealand, despite its name. The fruit was originally known as Chinese gooseberry and had been grown on China’s mainland for centuries. New Zealand has appropriated the small hairy fruit and made it a national treasure. It grows well in the north of the country and can evidently be exported to Australia at a price that competes with locally-grown produce.
The fruit has been known as kiwifruit since Auckland-based agricultural company Turner & Growers shipped its first consignment to the US in 1959.

This example of cultural appropriation is one thing, but what about pavlova, the origins of which are claimed by both Australia and New Zealand? The meringue cake dessert was named after the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova, who toured both countries in the 1920s.
New Zealander Dr Andrew Paul Wood and Australian Annabelle Utrecht met while debating pavlova’s origins on a mutual friend’s Facebook post. They started digging deeper and were surprised to find the history goes back a lot further.
They spent seven years piecing together what Utrecht described as a “culinary jigsaw puzzle”. A BBC travel feature said the pair originally planned to make a short documentary, but they realised the pavlova story was not just a trans-Tasman battle. They decided to write a book, Beat Until Stiff: The Secret History of the Pavlova and a Social History of Meringue Desserts.

This topic brings back a memory of Dad in the bakery performing his party trick. He’d take an egg in each hand, crack them and in one motion separate the white from the yolk – a perfect result every time. Egg whites are, of course, the classic ingredient to make meringue cake.
My contribution to Christmas lunch will be loading eskies in and out of the car and making sure I have a goodly supply of de-alcoholised wine.
Someone has to drive!

Footnote: It has come to my attention that some episodes of FOMM may be lurking in gmail’s promotions folder. If you manually transfer them to your inbox the email should then be delivered there.

‘Tis the season of charitable giving

charities-hunger-relief — Image: Hunger relief charity Foodbank Australia

When our internet landline rings (rarely), I know for certain it will be my sister in New Zealand or Guide Dogs Australia asking for “Mrs Wilson”. She Who Gives to Charity Sometimes is like most of us. If she feels inclined to donate to a charity, she likes to do it on her terms. Guide Dogs Australia is a worthy charity that we support in several small ways (calendars, Christmas cards and so on). In the weeks leading up to Christmas, Guide Dogs volunteers will offer gift wrapping at selected shopping centres. There is usually a dog to pat too.

If you have an email subscription to a charity like the Salvos, Lifeline or Red Cross, they do like to remind you that they’re there. On Monday I had an email from the CEO of Lifeline, Colin Seery. He began: “Christmas is upon us. People will need us. We have to be ready for what could be the busiest days we have ever faced.

“The festive season brings additional challenges to charities which support people in need. In 2021 Lifeline received over 98,000 calls in December, a record for that time of year.

“It’s sobering to think that of all the hardship we’ve faced over the past few years,” Mr Seery wrote, “The festive season remains overwhelming for so many.”

Lifeline says it needs to raise $328,000 to ensure people find the support they’re looking for when contacting Lifeline.

The major problem for fund-raisers – and who knew there are 57,5000 charities in Australia – is that there is a lot of competition for a limited pool of money set aside for ‘giving’. Organisations which offer similar services to Lifeline (The Salvation Army, St Vincents, The Smith Family, Beyond Blue etc), all have their collection tins out at this time of year.

On a global scale, there are the large charities like Red Cross, Save the Children and World Vision. They draw funding from affluent Australians and those who donate as their means dictate.

As the weeks roll by, you can expect to hear about the need for Christmas food hampers and why flooding in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia will make them difficult to deliver. The ABC reported on events unfolding in southern states as suppliers struggle to source food hampers.

Hunger relief charity Foodbank said it had “real challenges” supplying its 1,000 charity partners and schools in New South Wales and the ACT. Chief executive John Robertson said fresh produce and sources of protein were particularly hard to secure when the pressures of natural disasters were factored in.

Foodbank Australia, which organises food hampers for needy Australians on a regular basis, has a big demand this year for its Christmas appeal. Mr Robertson told the ABC that even though production had been lifted from 20,000 hampers last year to 30,000, it was still not going to be enough. Christmas hampers include canned leg ham, Christmas cake, pudding & custard, along with a range of staple foods such as pasta, cereal, canned fruit and vegetables. Foodbank also does this in other states and territories, along with organisations including Anglicare, The Salvation Army, OzHarvest and FoodAssist.

A Foodbank spokeswoman told FOMM the supply chain issues include the recent freight train derailment, which will cut off a main route. The floods in both Victoria and New South Wales in very rich food-producing areas have also disrupted operations, she said.

There is clearly a demonstrable need for charitable organisations to provide food, clothing and shelter for those whose needs are not being met. It is comforting to know the scale of the not-for-profit sector, as outlined by its regulator, the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC). As of 2021, there were 57,500 registered charities in Australia and another 600,000 not-for-profits. The latter are commonly small community groups put together for a specific purpose and not all are charities. If they are incorporated they can raise funds if needed, but fund-raising is not usually their core business.

The difficulty for smaller charities is that when they do need to raise funds, for whatever reason, they are competing with the big end of town.

The ACNC report on Australian charities shows that 65% of them are rated small (annual revenue of $250,000 or less). Medium charities are ranked as those with annual revenue of $250,000 to $1 million (16%). Large charities (19% of the total), have annual revenue of $1 million or more. One-third of small not-for-profits are uber-small – revenue of $50,000 a year or less.

The charity sector in Australia overall employs 1.2 million people – 10% of the country’s workforce, the majority employed by large charities.

McCrindle Research says charitable giving is deeply ingrained in the Australian psyche, with 82% of people giving to not-for-profit organisations in some capacity. Of these, 61% believe that not-for-profits are an essential pathway for Australians to fulfil their human duty of providing hands-on-help to others in need.

David Crosbie, CEO of the Community Council for Australia (CCA) said the sector had been transformed in just two decades.

“A charity space shackled with red tape in 2000 and lacking even a legal definition of its powers and purpose has (been) transformed into a vibrant sector with an effective regulator and legally-enshrined advocacy rights.

“But as the number of charities has grown, so too has the sector’s reliance on government funding.

“This in turn has increased the scrutiny on charities to be effective, as more organisations are forced to compete for fewer resources.”

Mr Crosbie, writing in Pro Bono Australia’s annual report in 2020, said the biggest win for the sector was the establishment through the Charities Act 2013 of a clear legal definition of a charity. This definition included advocacy as a core activity for NFPs(Not For Profits).

Charities had fight again to protect their hard-won status in 2017. The Federal Government’s foreign donations bill threatened to curtail the sector’s advocacy rights, by broadening registration and disclosure requirements for non-party political actors including charities. (Could have been termed the ‘Anti ‘GetUP’ bill’. Ed)The sector successfully campaigned to amend the bill, arguing it would stifle advocacy and impose unnecessary red tape on many NFP organisations.

Flooding and subsequent clean-ups in NSW, Victoria and South Australia will make it difficult for families to regroup in time to celebrate Christmas. For those of us who live in places not affected by floods, look around and you’ll become aware of organisations that provide hunger relief for people who need it.

Foodbank, which is based in South Australia, operates nationally. The organisation sourced 48.1 million kilograms of food and groceries in 2021, equating to 86.7 million meals or 238,000 meals per day. Foodbank partners with farmers, growers and retailers including major supermarket chains to deliver food boxes to charities for distribution to those most in need.

A Foodbank report released in October showed that more than 2 million households in Australia ran out of food in the last year, due to limited finances. This meant sometimes skipping meals or going whole days without eating. About 1.3 million children lived in food insecure households during that time. Demand for hunger relief services is now higher than it was during the pandemic – much of it to do with the roll back of JobSeeker in early 2021.

Whether it’s with the aim of helping people right now or to lift spirits at Christmas, you can help. A donation of $50 can provide a hamper to a family in need.

Christmas Lights and Pachelbel’s Canon

It’s Christmas Day so I’m posting this early and directing you to whatever device you listen to when playing a Spotify playlist.

If you do not have an account for this music streaming app, it is free to join up.

I have curated this in the true Christian spirit of peace and goodwill to all people (and dogs), with the inclusion of a few modern songs which have become known for their festive topicality.

I had the idea to do this while seated in the front row of St Mark’s cathedral in Warwick, as our choir waited to perform..“Ah, hard pews,’ I groaned to my fellow tenor as we rose to sing, “That takes me back.”

“What’s your background then?” he replied and I only had time to say “Methodist” before we queued up in the vestry for our first number, Ring Christmas Bells.

I have sat on many a hard church pew for many an hour. Our parents believed we should all attend ‘kirk’ as a family every week. Mum played the church organ, so it was a given that we’d end up knowing all the words of all the songs.

The traditional Christmas ones stay with you, even if in later years if you are one of those who once did and now no longer do.

I don’t mind listening to or singing Christmas music, but I detest being force-fed through the speakers in shopping malls and other public places.

Typically, whoever chooses the playlists for these locations goes with the hackneyed, inappropriate Northern hemisphere ones, or songs that embellish the commercial Christmas myth of Santa as we are all streamed into stores to buy gifts that in truth we rarely want or need.

I will put The Grinch back in his box now and proceed to the playlist, which you can listen to while sweating over a Christmas stove, peeling prawns or sitting with your feet up having a coldie.

1/ I’d never heard The First Noel sung to the tune of Pachelbel’s Canon. Our choir, East Street Singers, obviously knew it, and after two weeks’ rehearsal, so did I. If you’ve never heard it before, there is a 12-bar instrumental before the singing begins. The First Noel is a Cornish song from the early 1800s, lyrics inspired by Luke, Chapter 2.

2/ Ring Christmas Bells, sung by Dublin’s gay and lesbian choir. They sing it a good deal faster than we did, as we slow-marched into the cathedral, carrying candles.

3/ Next up is Mary Did You Know? by Mark Lowry and Buddy Green. We sing the arrangement by Fred Bock, unlike acapella group Pentatonix, who usually make up their own.

4/ Then come The Civil Wars with a sensitive rendition of I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day. Sadly, this duo broke up after recording two sublime albums of originals.

5/ Let’s jump into some contemporary songs of the Christmas season and the emotions it stirs up. The late John Lennon, killed outside his home in New York on December 8, 1980, starts Happy Xmas/War is Over with: ‘And so it is Christmas and what have we done?’ He rolls the traditional song into a refrain: ‘War is over, if you want it’, sung by 35 children of the Harlem Community Choir (who would all be between 50 and 60 years old today).

6/ I’ve previously included Joni Mitchell’s plaintive River in Christmas playlists. Feeling sad at a supposedly happy time, she wishes she had a river to skate away on, introducing and closing the song with Jingle Bells in a minor key.

7/ Following on from that is Paul Kelly’s recipe for gravy, instructions dictated to his brother while he (the writer) languishes in jail.

8/ Macca, host of Australia all Over, prompted me to include the Beach Boys’ ‘Little Saint Nick’ when he aired its cheerful harmonies and danceable tune last Sunday.

9/ I remember being introduced to the songs of Taylor Swift by a couple of young teenage girls who sang one after the other at a karaoke night. This is Swift’s ‘Christmas Must be Something More’ with lyrics worth a second listen.

10/ Switching back to carols, here’s an Australian one (The Silver Stars) intepreted by the stellar vocal group, Ideas of North.

11-13/ Did I warn you this was an eclectic list? Now we have Harry Belafonte with Mary’s Boy Child, followed by Paul Robeson (Ode to Joy – including a verse in German), and Wassail Song, performed by the Choir of Magdalene College. 14/ Closing out the celestial segment, Enya sings the timeless carol Silent Night in Gaelic.

15/ Changing the mood, Norah Jones sings pleadingly ‘It’s Not Christmas until you Come Home’. 16/ KT Tunstall pursues the theme with ‘Lonely This Christmas’.

17/ For the Parrotheads out there, Jimmy Buffett brings a little laconic escapism (and steel drums) in ‘Christmas Island’. No doubt in my mind Jimmy was not referencing our own Pacific gulag, where we lock up refugees and bill the tax payer.

18/ Canadian songwriter Dar Williams intended her 1996 song,The Christians and the Pagans, as a ‘humorous respite from tortured holiday gatherings’. The theme was controversial in its day, a Solstice-celebrating lesbian couple joining their devout family for Christmas.

“The food was great, the tree plugged in, the meal had gone without a hitch, Till Timmy turned to Amber and said, ‘Is it true that you’re a witch?’ ”

As Slate reviewer Karen Tucker observes, although Williams said it was intended as witty social comment, the song nevertheless “evokes rumination on fractured families and societal ills in listeners, some of whom drill deeply into the psychology of the lyric”.

19/ The penultimate song is also an Australian carol, ‘Carol of the Birds’, sometimes called Orana, sung here by the Sir Peter Chanel Choir.

20/ And to take us out, Coldplay’s Christmas Lights is a reminder to cut the guide out of the free newspaper and go for a drive this evening.

She Who Bought Solar Christmas Lights From The Big Green Shed And Strung Them Along The Fence is joining in this enterprise, in a small way.One has to make a gesture in this town, where there are some truly splendid, even lavish displays.

The best way to appreciate this playlist is to play it in the car while taking the (grand) kids around to see the neighbourhood Christmas lights.

Later, when the kids have gone to bed and the dog is gnawing his Yuletide bone, check out East Street Singers performing Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus. https://www.facebook.com/eaststreetsingers/posts/3787100911353311

All the best for Christmas and see you in 2021

Bob and SWBSCLFTBGSASTATF (aka Laurel)

I won’t be home for Christmas

Christmas-expats-covid19 — Image: ThePixelman, www.pixabay.com.au

Every year at this time, Australians who live and work overseas are making plans to visit their families for Christmas. When you live and work in places like New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Auckland, Hong Kong or Singapore, three weeks at the beach in Oz is the perfect escape from chilly winters.

But not this year, dear reader, as the second, or is it third wave of Covid 19 has sent cities in Europe and the UK in particular into lock-down.

The above destinations are where Aussie ex-pats are most likely to live and work, according to employment agency Apply Direct. Using figures from the Department of Home Affairs, Apply Direct singled out the top destinations where many of our ex-pats live. Figures are hard to pin down, but it is estimated that of the eight million Aussies who travel abroad looking for adventure, one million or so will decide to stay and work.

The United Kingdom hosts by far the largest ex-pat population (160,000). Many young Australians can claim parents or grandparents who were born in the UK, which gives them an automatic right to live and work there.

Our extended family is no exception, with family members living in Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Canada, the US and elsewhere.

Many young Australians head for the UK when making their first trip abroad. It is easy enough to base yourself in London, find some kind of job (ex-pats often take the casual jobs the Brits won’t do), and make forays to Europe whenever possible.

As often happens when you are in your 20s and single, matches are made and romance sometimes blooms.

Morocco-based ex-pat Suzanna Clarke uses technology to keep in touch with her siblings.

“My sister is in Adelaide, my brother in Oxford and me in Morocco. (Our parents died a few years ago.) We also have a catch up video call via Skype on Sundays, although sometimes we use the video function on WhatsApp. I love the ease of communication these days. I have kept letters between my great-grandmother and my grandmother, who were living in Brazil and England respectively from the 1930s to 1950s. The letters have two to three month gaps, as they were transported by ship. Even when I was travelling in India and Europe in my 20s, the lag was at least a couple of weeks. We are so fortunate these days!”

Meanwhile, in the worst-hit country by far (the USA), some of the 90,000 Aussie ex-pats, and like-minded Americans, will be self-isolating over Christmas. Most Australians congregate in just three cities – Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York. Fair to say that many of them are people with a talent in some aspect of music production or movie-making. We know a few musicians who have had periodic flirtations with the country music capital, Nashville. We also know one or two who came to visit and stayed.

Musician George Jackson, who lives outside of Nashville with his wife Rachel, says he is keeping a low profile at Yuletide.

“We just cancelled all Christmas plans with any of Rachel’s family and are now planning to basically have it at home by ourselves. Obviously the virus is surging pretty badly here in the US and we decided it was best for everyone if we didn’t risk any gatherings for Christmas this year, particularly to protect the health of Rachel’s parents.

“I’ve been keeping in touch with friends and family back in Australia. I saw my parents in January last year, so it’s coming up a year since seeing them and I know they are missing being able to be with me and my brother, who’s living in France. So that’s tough, but we’re sticking it out and waiting for that vaccine to get approved and distributed and looking forward to perhaps a mid-summer Christmas in July next year with family.”

.It is beginning to sound as if the vaccine will be a prerequisite for people wishing to fly from one country to another. Australia’s major airline Qantas flagged this requirement in an announcement that made headlines around the world.

Forbes magazine reported that Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said his airline would eventually only allow vaccinated travellers to board its flights. The move would essentially allow travellers to move around the globe unhindered by quarantines.

The ready adoption of video streaming technologies has helped families with relatives living abroad (or even on opposite sides of the continent), to connect or re-connect.

A Sydney-based Kiwi friend has planned a holiday in Melbourne, knowing that a visit home would involve a 14-day quarantine stay. She usually travels to New Zealand at Christmas to spend time with family. The only way to do that now is to go into quarantine for two weeks, at a cost of $2,000 on top of the airfare. Like so many others, she is relying on digital connections. Fortunately her family has gravitated to a weekly chat on WhatsApp.

Irish Joe Lynch, a performance poet who lives in Maleny, spoke of the unexpected constraints on travel to visit family members.

“Taking my freedom completely for granted, I returned to Ireland many times over the past 40–odd years, visiting family and friends. I still have five ageing siblings overseas whom I would dearly love to visit, but of course that is not available to me now ever since the outbreak of Covid19. What is most distressing is the knowledge that most of my family are currently undergoing Stage 4 and Stage 5 lock-down restrictions, and are terribly frustrated and lonely.”

You may not know that the UK, one of the worst affected by Covid 19, appointed its first Minister for Loneliness in 2016.

Loneliness is a big deal in Britain, where 45% of people polled in 2016-2017 admitted to feeling lonely “occasionally, often or always”, One in 20 adults felt lonely often or always, which equates to 1.4 million people, a 49% increase on the same survey in 2006-2007.

A mental health survey during the UK’s lock-down in April found that one in four (24%) had feelings of loneliness in the “previous two weeks”. This was more than double the response before lock-down. One in three females (34%) and one in five males (20%) reported suffering from loneliness while working from home during the COVID-19 social restrictions period.

On Sunday, I had my first-ever video chat with my sister, who does not have a computer or mobile phone. We usually talk on her landline (equipped for the hearing impaired). On Sunday, we chatted via a relative who was visiting and who rang me on Messenger. It was good to be face to face again and realise (with some shock) how we have both aged since I was there in 2017. I made a note on the calendar to ring my other sister (who does have a mobile phone) at Christmas, although she has told me she prefers ‘ear-to-ear’.

But as Suzanne said, in the 1950s people wrote letters to loved ones overseas, patiently waiting months for a response. Since we have the technology to simulate face to face communications, we really ought to use it, eh.