Tuesday, December 22, 2020
Brad Lown
Christmas Traditions
In the 1870’s the Sanderson family of Littleton Massachusetts began gathering in mid December to sing Christmas carols. It was, and still is, a way to pause during a busy time of year to celebrate the season with traditional music and to reconnect with each other. My maternal great great grandmother was a Sanderson, and she was at the first caroling party. As a child I went to the party every year and saw the Sanderson relatives, who arrived from all over New England. My aunt, Ellie Sanderson, has played the piano at the party ever since I can remember. Every year we sing “We Three Kings” (“sorrowing, sighing, bleeding dying, sealed in the stone-cold tomb”) and “Good King Wenceslaus” (“Bring me flesh and bring me wine!”) and someone is assigned a part to sing. For many years my mother sang the part of the “Page” in Good King and at some point I was assigned a part and did my best to belt it out. I complied out of respect for tradition. I played a small part in a very long tradition that connected me with my Sanderson relatives and about 150 years of unbroken annual carol singing.
Sometimes young people don’t appreciate tradition, or don’t want to be burdened by it. Our daughter Franny didn’t appreciate the tradition of the Sanderson caroling party and announced in her early teen years that she would no longer attend. I managed to get her in the car and to the party, but she refused to get out of the car. My mother had to cajole her to come into the party, which eventually she did, and had to explain to everyone what she had been doing, sitting in the car by herself. I had the thought that someday she might appreciate it that I dragged her to the party, but I don’t think that day has yet arrived.
The party didn’t happen this year. The virus is still in the air, and singing is a great way to spread it. Group singing is prohibited in California. But the party will go on next year, and I’ll be there, thinking about the farmers in the Sanderson family who got together in the 1870’s to start a tradition that connects us to them. Like all traditions, it brings a sense of comfort, continuity and connection to the past.