T’WAS THE NIGHT before Christmas, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, because mum was chucking her annual Christmas Eve wobbly. “You lazy, useless, selfish kids. Oh no, don’t get up. Don’t get off your fat, ungrateful backsides and help your mother wrap the presents, peel the vegetables, vacuum the house, mop the floor, clean the windows, fold the clothes and set the table. You just sit there watching television while I slave my guts out so you can all have your fancy day tomorrow. Don’t worry about your mother and her bad back, gammy leg, dodgy hip, splitting headache and (slightly louder) inoperable brain tumour the size of an eight-year-old child. I’ll eat the burnt chop, sit on the broken chair in the draught. God forbid you think of anyone else but yourselves.”
So there we’d sit, in front of the Rank Arena, paralysed with fear because not only was she wearing an apron but she was also wielding a knife. As we smelt the pork cooking and heard the Kenwood Mixmaster whipping up yet another pav, Karen Knowles sang Silent Night. Well that’s what we think she was singing. We had to lip-read, what with mum slamming things and swearing. Because what else would we be watching on Christmas Eve but Carols By Candlelight? Church? If you feel like it. But watching Carols By Candlelight? It’s the law.
Where would we be without Carols By Candlelight? Probably somewhere in the Bagel Belt spinning a dreidel or in a cafe in Sydney Road sucking on a hookah.
The subject line of a recent email sent to me read: “Delta Goodrem headlines Vision Australia’s Carols by Candlelight.” The most over-rated performer in Australia will lead a “spectacular line-up of entertainers” in this year’s concert, to be hosted by Ray Martin. Delta and Ray are joined by other people with nice hair and fake smiles, including Bert’n’Patti, Marina Prior, Anthony Callea and Dannii Minogue.
I find an evening full of old songs, fake breasts and small children holding candles while wearing highly flammable pyjamas deeply comforting. It’s a couple of hours of harmless karaoke to get us in the mood for spending an entire day turning passive aggression into an extreme sport. But I can’t bear the soap-stars’ versions of the Christmas classics, complete with Mariah Carey vocal gymnastics, putting an entire scale where just a simple note will do. I like my carols like the Lord meant them to be, drawn-out, turgid and flat as a tack.
Every year one of the “artists” says, “I wish you could see what I see” and they cut to the swaying crowd holding their candles, reminding us of the importance of family, love and giving. When I was young I would think, “I wish you could see what I see. Mum has just thrown a pav at the television and now Grand Denyer looks like Father Christmas. And now she’s screaming at us to put the washing in the car boot because Nana and Pop are coming over tomorrow.”
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Is your New Year resolution to write that thing?
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You know what they say, the most common but pointless thing is dong the same thing and expecting different results.
Don’t die with your music inside you.
On your death bed you won’t regret the risks you took that didn’t work out you’ll regret the risks you didn’t take.
This time next year it could be finished.
How good would that feel?
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