Christmas 2008
On Christmas Eve at midnight mass we sung in the choir at the local Catholic church. This came about because Tiziana, who plays the organ in the church, decided it would be a nice thing if a couple of carols were sung in English, by the English-speaking community hereabouts. We did a practice run on the 22nd and that didn’t put them off, and so on the 24th, or really the very early hours of 25th, we formed a part of the choir, joining-in on some of the Italian songs and doing a couple of verses of Oh Crumble Ye Faithful (or at least it is when I sing it) and Silent Night. Hilary tells me that I did a kind of Max-Bygraves-in-a-pub act complete with the arm movements – well you want to make sure it doesn’t sound too turgid, it can often sound so turgid.
At the end of the service the priest asked that we all join him for a drink in the bar next door, but then someone discovered that, it being after one in the morning, the bar was closed. Some local people were all for getting the owner out of bed but we thought this unkind, and so in a somewhat haphazard and shambolic manner, we drifted away.
Tiziana had heard one of our group sing, a 26-year-old American girl, and had said that she had such a good voice it would be nice if she’d do a solo. OK, replied the American girl, what would you like me to sing? Can you do I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas? One or two of the Brits advised Tiziana against this, pointing out that Irving Berlin is not really considered, by them what know, to be a writer of Christian devotional songs, but Tiziana was not to be swayed, and so it was that the American girl did a solo on, yep, I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas, in the Catholic Church, as part of midnight mass.
But scoff ye not, for we woke up on Boxing Day to six inches of snow!
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