Alexandria, VA – The Christmas holidays have this high value: that they remind Forgetters of the Forgotten, & repair damaged relationships. (Mark Twain, 30 December 1907)
Just over a decade ago I had the joy of a lifetime. I was cast as Scrooge in a production of A Christmas Carol at the Little Theatre of Alexandria. It was the very first stage production I ever saw as a nine-year-old stationed with my family in Germany and its impression on me opened up a love of the theatre that has burned for over 60 years.
Christmastime, as Dickens wrote in Scrooge’s nephew’s voice, “…men and women open their shut-up hearts freely…and though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!”
We all know from the classic tale that Scrooge experiences visits from four spirits that Christmas Eve – his miserly business partner Jacob Marley and the ghosts of Christmases Past, Present and Yet-to-Come. We learn that his life’s journey of hardship, loss, and pain hardened Scrooge into the cold soul we see before us. Dickens drags us through Scrooge’s miserable story to arrive at his miserable present. We learn how life hardened him and we are frustrated that he doesn’t see the joy and light around him despite the best efforts of the spirits visiting him through the night.
There is a cold, steely, darkness that can creep into life and it is especially pronounced around Christmastime – a time normally of family, gifts, togetherness, joy, and light. But if darkness is allowed in, it can defeat the light. This is Dickens’ message, it’s what he prods us with – no matter what life deals you, don’t lose sight of the light. And Scrooge is his catalyst.
Stationed overseas as an Army family during the Cold War, Laos, and Vietnam, Christmas was a time to get our Sears Catalogue “Wish Book” and order great toys and other hot items from “Home” back in the States. It was a wondrous experience making our picks, circling what we wanted Santa to bring, and hoping that the APO (Army Post Office) got it all there for the magic morning.
In Thailand our Christmas tree might be aluminum with a rotating light at the base of the tree, but the gifts under it were right from good ole’ Sears Roebuck and a silver tree could just as well be a coniferous painted that way. The added fact that military families tend to hang close together in our shared sacrifices only ensured a life-long glow of the holidays. Christmas to a military family has a whole different, sometimes deeper meaning.
Over the years, however, Christmastime sometimes takes a toll. It has been a time of loss for us. Pamela lost both her parents within two years of one another to various cancers. In his photos, her father (Roy), a rugged, outdoorsy Utah hunter and angler, looks the movie-star image of the cowboy. Her mother (Tess), an up-by-her-bootstraps daughter of Greek immigrant sheepherders come to America to work in the coal mines, became the #1 cash register sales rep in the western U.S. Yet, despite the family’s good fortune, years later, Pam’s eldest son severed relations with her and she has not seen her granddaughter in years.
I lost both my parents in the same supposedly magical time. Dad (Stan), a hard-knocks-kid from Cleveland who served in WWII, picked up a love of the theatre during his GI Bill college days, acting in countless productions before embarking on a career that included Korea, Laos, and Vietnam. Dad left us in 2013. At his passing one of his soldiers remarked, “Suddenly, the world got less bright and cheerful.”
Mom (Trudy), was a gifted ballerina and on her way to a promising life in the performing arts, when economic realities interfered and she had to knuckle-down and help support her mother, brother and sisters financially as a legal secretary. She branched out into the role of mother of four and military wife through 14 moves in 20 years and was still able to knock Christmas out of the park. We lost her, too, just four years behind Dad.
It was a Christmas years ago, however, that marked my last contact with my daughter. Despite a divorce, it seemed that we would be able to maintain the chain that sparkled every year despite the dark clouds of the past. But it’s been 15 years and the email, text, and phone remain silent.
Over the years all the siblings have flourished, grown their families, and the generations have blossomed into three now with cousins expanding every year. The yearly trek to mix with siblings and cousins adds a particular luster, overshadowing the darkness that can creep in to veil the true spirit of the season. These family and friend collisions make Christmastime especially bright as all the kinfolk get together, eating, laughing, hugging, joking, remembering, and just – loving.
Dickens spun a story for the Ages. It is one of the most renowned and universal stories of his or any time. He tells us that no matter how dark the past, no matter how trying the loss of loved ones or economic or personal hardship can be, in this season, the spirit of Scrooge reminds us that it is always the light that carries us through and keeps the magic alive.
Dickens wrote, “…of Scrooge, it was always said of him that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man possessed the knowledge. May it be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One!”
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