Welcome to Tuesday and the Christmas Eve edition of Tuesday's Musical Notes!!!
It is Christmas Eve AND it's Tuesday!!! There's only one way this day could be better! You guessed it! If today were Christmas Day AND it was Tuesday!!! A Tuesday Christmas has happened a couple of times in our favorite blog's history. In 2018 and in the first Christmas of Tuesday's Musical Notes, 2012 ("Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Joy to the World" (Trinity Choir 1926), Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Do They Know its Christmas Time" (Band Aid))
This year we'll make do with the 2nd best day of the year on the best day of the week as we wrap a few presents, roar a few Christmas songs, relish Santa's snacks, rejoice in time with family and friends as we celebrate, and do just a little rockin' around the Christmas tree!
Written in 1958 by legendary composer Johnny Marks, (Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer" (Gene Autry), Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Have a Holly, Jolly Christmas" (Burl Ives)) "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" has saturated radio during the season with countless covers by the popular musicians of the last 61 years.
Brenda Lee's first recording of today's featured song occurred when she was only 13 years old. That recording featured musicians Floyd Cramer on piano and Boots Randolph on sax, as well as others. It became a signature song for Lee and has been featured many times as the backdrop to Christmas television shows and movies. Most notably, "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" was well placed in the 1990 film Home Alone. ("Home Alone" - fake party)
"Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" continues to be a perennial favorite. So far, for 2019 it has hit its highest position on Billboard's Hot 100 at # 8. The song has been downloaded in excess of 1,000,000 times placing it in the 5th place for Christmas/Holiday singles according to Soundscan. Not too shabby for a song that perhaps seems dated with its tomes of "Hops" (dances/parties) and jolly voices singing carols.
Part of the charm of "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" is its sentimentality. It seems to take us back to a simpler time when the innocence of kissing under the mistletoe was alluring. It also reminds us of the splendor that most Christmas trees bring to one's home when decorated well and the fun to be had on Christmas morning as families literally rock around it.
But what does this center of decorating, gifts beneath it, rockin' around it, mean? Is there symbolism to which we should defer (or defir! Sorry, Couldn't resist..)? Yes, Virginia, there is a rhyme and reason for why we display a tree and its adornments (who must be placed in just the right spot...can I get a witness?) during the Christmas season. Here is a brief article that sheds some light or hangs some lights on this time-honored traditional decoration. The History and Meaning of the Christmas Tree by Meg Bucher from crosswalk.com, December 12, 2018
I must confess. The extent of my involvement with our Christmas tree is getting it down from the attic. My wife is exceptional at doing the decorating and truth be told has an addiction to ornaments. I am happy with this "attic" role as is my loving spouse in her decorating role. I fear any tree I would attempt to attire in Christmas finery would wind up looking like Charlie Brown's sad little stick. (Ugh!!! I killed it!!!)
I do, however, ponder each year about the significance of this beautiful addition to our home and look forward to it being in our living room with its beautiful lights and our "abundance" of ornaments. Some of my ponderings are similar to some of the narratives in Ms. Bucher's article, but I feel the need for the restatement of a few.
Throughout the Bible, there are writings of 3 trees in particular. The first was placed in the Garden at the beginning. Genesis 2:16-17 New American Standard Bible/The Message paraphrase of the Bible/King James Version of the Bible parallel This tree was forbidden for the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, to even touch. You may know the rest of the story as Eve and then Adam disobeyed the rule and was punished with separation from the relationship they had originally enjoyed with God and by expulsion from the garden. All the evil that has ever been experienced by humans in this world, is a result of that succumbing to temptation and disobedience.
The next tree is one the Bible only eludes to as it has already been fashioned into an object of purpose. Luke 2:8-16 NASB/The Message/KJV This tree had been fashioned into a useful piece of equipment for the feeding of animals. It was a tool where the "Bread of Life" would be laid as a baby. It would serve as an implement in the process of restoration from the broken relationship seen in the telling of the previous tree.
The final tree is altogether different. It served only one purpose from the moment it sprouted. While it performs as the setting of the most horrific form of capital punishment ever conceived, it is beheld as a thing of beauty by some. Those who would hang from it were considered cursed by the ancient Israelites. This tree, however, served as the final piece of the puzzle to reconcile man back to God. The torn relationship could be renewed, never to be severed again, all because of the Sacrifice that hung on this tree. Luke 23:26-49 NASB/The Message/KJV
Dear friend, there is much joy in the fact that our relationship with God can be restored. We, however, do have to ask for that restoration through admitting that we are at our nature evil and we do things that are wrong. We also must turn away (repent) from that evil and wrong-doing and ask for the restorative power of Jesus' sacrifice to make us right with God. Joy! Exceeding Joy! is the result of doing just that.
Before you rock around your Christmas tree this year, why don't you take a moment? Look at a Christmas tree and ponder. What does that tree represent for you? Is it just something that is a storing place for your gifts and ornaments? Or is it emblematic of something deeper, something life-changing, something more significant than any of the temporal things under your tree?
This year, let the Christmas tree mean more than it ever has. Let the evergreen remind you of the future eternity in heaven you can have with Jesus if you accept His leadership on your life. Let the tree's triangular shape remind you of God, the Father, God the Son (Jesus), and God, the Holy Spirit, who wait for you to accept the ultimate gift that They provide. Remember the 3 trees above and rejoice that we no longer are slaves to evil. Let Rockin' around it mean something different. Let that sentimental feeling be replaced with the feeling of a restored relationship with God and the knowledge of where your eternity future will be spent. Let your dancin' in a new, old-fashioned way have significance. You'll find this holiday WILL be a happy one as you experience Christmas like you never have before.
Merry Christmas from Tuesday's Musical Notes!!!
'Til Tuesday,
Serving HIM by serving You,
randy
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