Christmas carols

My two younger kids are singing in church on Sunday, along with all the rest of their Sunday school. They’re doing Away in a Manger, and Silent Night.

Away in a Manger is to a different tune to the one I know. How can that be? Shurely shome mistake. How can you have Away in a Manger, not to the Away in a Manger tune? Actually, I’m rather glad, since the usual tune makes me cry. You know how it is. You go and see your child in some preschool or school event, and you put a tissue in your pocket but you’re absolutely determined not to use it. You’re doing really well, and it’s almost over, and then - oh they’re so clever these teachers – right at the end, a child steps forward and lisps “Now we’re all going to thing Away in a Manger, the firtht time on our own, and then pleathe join uth when we thing it a thecond time”, and the familiar music starts. You’re sitting there, thinking “This is SUCH a cliché. I’m so NOT going to get emotional just because it’s Away in a Manger, and my little darling is dressed as a shepherd/angel/lamb. It’s just Christmas, for heaven’s sake, and I’m NOT going to succumb to the cheesiest old favourite in the book. Absolutely NOT.” It rather depends how slowly they sing it, and how many verses they have learned, as to whether you can keep these stern thoughts going for long enough, or whether the tissue has to emerge from the pocket.

What is it with Away in a Manger? I’m wondering if mothers put it on quickly when their baby daughters start to cry, so that the association becomes ingrained Pavlov-style at an infant age, and then somehow lies dormant till motherhood. I didn’t know about this, so I didn’t do it for my daughter. She’ll have an easier time at her children’s nativity plays.

Silent Night. That’s a nice one (apart from the rather screechy way you have to slide up the scale on “pee-eeace” in the last line). I was getting 8-yo to sing it to me, to make sure he knew the words, and half way through, he stopped and said “What is an infantso?” You know that bit: Holy infantso, tender and mild. I told him it was a kind of reindeer (I didn’t really).

It reminded me of one of my own childhood Christmas carol puzzles. There was this really confusing bit in “While shepherds watched” which said Thus spake the sheriff, and forthwith appeared a shining throng. I knew it couldn’t be a wild west type of sheriff, in Bethlehem. In any case, men can’t be angels. Girls are angels, as eny ful no. I remember being confused, but I can't remember how I resolved the issue. I probably concluded the sheriff was the angel with the bright golden star.

Ah, innocent times. These days, kids are probably more confused by why forthwith a shining thong would appear.

Do you have any childhood festive misunderstandings you’d like to share?

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