For adults, Christmas comes too fast. Even if all you’re planning is a modest celebration (which is all The Mrs. and I ever have), there are a zillion things to do beforehand, and they’re all done with an inexorable ticking in the background. There is never enough time before Christmas arrives. It’s not that way when you’re a kid, though. For a kid, the sand runs through the hourglass a grain at a time, and by this point in the month—December 15, 10 days out from the big day—counting down the days is becoming unbearable.
On Christmas Eve, you’d count the hours, and sometimes the minutes. At my house, the first big milestone would come when my grandparents arrived around 3:00 in the afternoon. Around 4, Mom and Grandma would start preparing dinner while Dad and Grandpa went out to milk the cows, earlier than usual because we had stuff to do that night. Around 6, we’d eat. Around 7, we’d pack up and go off to church. We’d be home by 9 to open gifts, and at 11, it was lights out, to sleep fitfully and listen for St. Nick.
Not long ago, a reader sent me an aircheck of Christmas programming heard on WLS in Chicago during the 70s and 80s. (I posted a bit of it last week.) WLS understood the way people watch the clock on Christmas Eve, because each hour’s legal ID featured a brief vignette about the different holiday activities that might be taking place at that hour. As a young clock-watching radio listener, I was captivated by these bits. They sounded real to me, describing the things taking place at the other end of the hall from my room.
A slice of the aircheck containing several of the IDs is posted below. In days of yore, a legal ID was always followed by one of the strongest records in the station’s music library, and the last ID is followed by one of the greatest Christmas records of all time. The whole song doesn’t appear on the original aircheck I was sent, so I edited it back on. You’ve heard it before, but I’m willing to bet you’ll dig it again, especially when you hear it as we did on Christmas Eve many years ago.
Filed under: Christmas, Radio Tales | Tagged: And what have you done?
Most enjoyable. Thanks, JB. Keep on keepin’ on!
Would you mind please, reposting this and the Larry Lujack Xmas thing — I didn’t catch them! Thanks!