“Silent Night”

One Christmas, Dad decided we should sing carols. There we all were, encircling Dad on the front room floor. He played his Gibson ES-150 sunburst hollow-body electric guitar wearing no shirt, just pajama bottoms. We had all been bathed, and only Mom was still dressed. There were “chestnuts roasting” and “Frosty the Snowman” –he didn’t know all the chords, so we sang those parts acapella. Dad used a Christmas carol book for a few of the time-honored songs.

That started a family tradition. “Here Comes Santa Claus” and “Jingle Bells” became favorites, with Dad strumming his guitar. Sometimes Mom played piano, but mostly she sang along. We didn’t harmonize. We all sang the melodies as loud as we liked. Tears fill my eyes as I recall Mom and Dad singing together, smiling at us and one another.

As years went on, Mom created lyric sheets of Christmas songs, and we sat on chairs and couches. We even sang simple harmonies. But early on, there were just the lit Christmas tree in the corner, the piano on the opposite wall, and the bunch of us in between on the carpet singing any words we could remember, with Dad strumming the chords he recalled or faking it if he couldn’t. Who knew we would sing carols at Christmastime for the rest of our lives?

This year, my brother Dave, brother-in-law Joe, and niece Jessie played guitar and nephew Randy played piano. “The Twelve Days of Christmas” is a family favorite, and a bunch of us acted out six geese a-laying, five golden rings, etc. Keeping with tradition, we ended with “Silent Night,” as it was Mom’s favorite. We sang it at her funeral.

“Silent Night” was written in 1818 in a rush to create a Christmas hymn for an Austrian church where the organ was broken. Father Joseph Mohr felt distraught, and it came to him that he could write a new song. Lord brought one to mind. He wrote down “Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright. . .”

That night “Silent Night” was sung for the first time, accompanied on guitar to a tune organist Franz Gruber composed at Father Joseph’s request. If it weren’t for a broken organ, there would never have been that beautiful remembrance of Jesus’ birth that reminds us “Jesus, Lord at Thy birth” is who Christmas is all about.