Christmas Spirit

• STEVE WEST –

Maybe it’s the lack of snow. It most certainly has something to do with the fact that there have been several deaths of family and friends in the last month that have hit my wife and I particularly hard. Some years all it takes is the first couple of Christmas songs on the radio to put me in a festive mood, but I’ve had a little trouble finding the Christmas spirit this year. 

Yesterday, it found me.

I was giving a guitar lesson. Typically, I spend the month of December teaching my students how to play Christmas music.  Frosty and Rudolph are usually in the mix because they’re not too difficult, and the younger kids really enjoy them.  One of my students is an 11 year old boy who happens to be a huge fan of The Beatles. Last week, I thought he might be able to handle John Lennon’s, “Happy Christmas (War is Over.)  The song is in 12/8 time, and has a few difficult chords, but he’s been taking lessons with me for a while and Jingle Bells wasn’t really holding his interest.  He took the challenge with excitement.

Yesterday when I arrived for his lesson, I asked the boy how he felt about the song. He nonchalantly said, “ok, I guess.”  I told him to let me hear how it was coming, and to put it mildly, the kid blew me away. I offered a couple of small stylistic pointers, but otherwise I had very little to correct.  I gave him a big attaboy.  He was trying to act like it was no big deal, but I could tell he was proud.  His father and mother were standing just around the corner while he played, and I could see them both beaming.  They later told me he hadn’t put the guitar down all week, and he was very excited to be taking his guitar to his grandparents’ house on Christmas Eve so they could all sing Christmas carols together.  That’s the instant the Christmas spirit hit me.

Music is such an important part of the holiday season. Nowadays when the radio stations start playing Christmas music right after Halloween, we can become numb to what the music can really mean to us. There are religious based Christmas carols, secular holiday or winter songs, novelty songs, and even anti-Christmas songs that one can listen to.  Each may have a different meaning to us, but the fact that they have any meaning at all is what’s important.  Sometimes just hearing the music can bring the Christmas spirit. Other times it takes realizing what that music means to someone else is what it takes.

Here’s wishing you a wonderful holiday season, and a happy new year full of music and good cheer.

• Steve West is a regular contributor to Owl Light. His gigs (online performances and Live shows) and other info. can be found at: stevewestmusic.com/ He and his wife also own Aubergine in downtown Canandaigua. For a related article visit: owllightnews.com/setting-the-table/