Christmas and the Arts

The topic for the December 13th installment of the Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories hosted by Thomas MacEntee is: "Christmas and the Arts. Did your family attend any special events or performances during the holidays?"

The Arts? My family? The closest my family ever got to "the arts", "special events" or "performances" were the Christmas Concerts at school. We're not what you'd call an artful or culturally enlightened family. After all, we lived in rural Indiana, in a time where those things were not all that important. In elementary school, my brothers and I participated in the school concerts, along with our classmates, but our teachers didn't voice any complaints when we "silently" sang the songs. I'm sure that if any of us kids had shown any inclination towards or talent in the arts or music or whatever, our parents would have supported us in those endeavors as much as possible.

Let's see, my Mom and I went to see Andy Williams in his Christmas concert one year, that would have been in the mid-1980s. My niece, Tami, and I went to see Kenny Rogers' Christmas concert several years ago. Both would have been in Fort Wayne. One year while in high school, one of my teachers sponsored a trip to Chicago to see "The Flower Drum Song". I don't remember if that was during the Christmas season or not, but it was sometime in winter ;-)