Little Drummer Boy
Happy Holidays! Merry Christmas!
Dear Readers,
Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays!
My favorite Christmas song has always been “Little Drummer Boy.” I think it’s such a lonely song. And I’ve always connected Christmas with loneliness because of my parents.
Christmas is often unpredictable—sometimes wildy so—for the children of alcoholics. During my childhood, there were good Christmas years and there were terrible years. During those terrible seasons, the sadness of the Little Drummer Boy—in the song and in the Rankin Boss TV movie—was comforting.
I thought of the Little Drummer Boy as a sibling and as an avatar.
And he was witness to a miracle.
I’m not a Christian but I believe in the power of stories. And the story of the Little Drummer Boy continues to resonate for me.
Loneliness can also be beautiful.
But I’m not lonely this year. I’m with my wife and sons. My siblings and I are constantly texting. And I have so many close and dear friends.
Life is a miracle and we’re all witnesses.
I have always loved The little drummer boy. I had an alcoholic father who was a loving, lonely, sad man, who I loved deeply. He loved music and one Christmas he had no money to buy my brother and I gifts and was deeply sad about it. We didn’t care a bit about presents. He then got the idea to take us to church down the street that was putting on a Christmas program. He held my brother and I tightly as he cried when the choir sang The little drummer boy. He was never too proud to cry and we held him tightly right back. He passed when I was 8 in an automobile accident. I will forever cherish that memory of us, my brother and my beloved father together listening to a beautiful choir on Christmas Eve in Albuquerque, New Mexico. ❤️ Thank you for stirring the memory as if it was yesterday🙏🏽
Good Yule, Sherman! It's the opposite solstice here in South Australia. It's comical to see an inflatable Santa Claus strung up on a eucalyptus and starting to sag in the late evening sun.
I'm a musician by trade, so Xmas has always been a busy money-making season. My musician friends have a decades-old tradition of competing to "make it through" the holidays WITHOUT ever hearing the Little Drummer Boychik. It's not the most banal of Xmas carols but it's a prime 'earworm' virus, for which we musicians loathe it. Well, hey, amigo, I'd made it all the way to Xmas morning this year ... until YOU jinxed me with your eloquent words about loneliness. Musicians are always lonely except when playing music.