We were eating at Parkside today when the following song played:

 

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas
Everywhere you go;
There’s a tree in the Grand Hotel,
One in the park as well
The sturdy kind that doesn’t mind the snow.
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas
Soon the bells will start
And the thing that will make them ring
Is the carol that you sing
Right within your heart.

Pine cones and holly Berries
Popcorn for you, apples for me
Red striped candy, nut cracker handy
Kettle a-bubblin’ hot as can be.
Snow clouds hang low and threatening
Maybe it won’t, praying it may
The brightest fireplace glows in every face
Waiting for Christmas day…

It brought so many memories…

I first heard this song in 4th grade when we were required to memorize it for the Christmas performance. In our version, the boys sang the first first and the girls sang the second. Then, all of us would sing our parts at the same time. When it’s done correctly, it sounds amazing.

Of course, we couldn’t…but we succeeded after many tries.

I distinctly remember Ms. Yamamoto telling the boys, “Can you hear that? The girls are making their part sound really sweet- put more feeling into it!”

Since then, I’ve loved this song. It always brings me back to my elementary school days.

I would repeat the words to myself even when it wasn’t Christmas for years after that, and would sing along with it when the next year’s class did it.

In my 6th grade year, they changed to another song. That was the year that I forgot some of the girl’s part of the song, but knew the guy’s part perfectly.

In my 7th grade year, my brother brought the lyrics home. I hungrily devoured that crumpled piece of paper, and have known the song ever since.

If each year could be embodied in a single song, this would be the song of 4th grade.

That 4th grade year we also memorized the entire “The Night Before Christmas” poem. To this day, I still have no idea how I did that. It seems very long in retrospect. I even remember doing little gestures at specific parts of the poem, like stomping our feet at the mentions of the reindeer on the roof.

Fourth grade…sometime, I need to go through every year of my life and type up as much as I can remember. I’m sure that would be an enlightening experience.