The "Ho, Ho, Ho! Merry Christmas" Story

It was an ordinary day. Christmas morning! And ...... a Merry Christmas to you!! The shopping for gifts is completed for what seemed like the multitudes as well as planning for the traditional Christmas dinner at our house today. Worked at the Gallery in Neffsville yesterday, to help pay for the gifts, listening to the radio and singing along to the Christmas carols that now fill the airways. Since I normally work alone, I can sing as loud as I want, or until the guy that runs the weight-lifting shop next to the Gallery pounds on the wall. I had just finished singing a song that I had heard both at Thanksgiving as well as Christmas. Goes like this: "Over the River and Through the woods" ....... Remember that one? The last part of the song on the third stanza can be sung with: "Hurray for Thanksgiving Day" or "Hurrah for Christmas Day." The song came from a poem written by Lydia Maria Child in 1844 and was titled "A Boy's Thanksgiving Day." Most know it as a song instead as a poem. And, most know it as; "Over the River and Through the woods, to Grandmother's house we go", but it was originally written as "Grandfather's house we go." The poem/song still remains a reminder of a simpler time when the mere thought of seeing relatives at a holiday meal was as exciting as the meal itself. And for LDubs family, it is still that way on Christmas. When I taught school I taught a unit in hand lithography methods and for many years the students had a chance to produce a limestone lithography. They would draw on a prepared limestone tablet with a grease crayon or pen, moistened the stone with water, ran a roller with an oil-based ink on it over the limestone and placed a piece of paper over that and rolled with a dry roller. Pulled the paper off the limestone and viola! You had a lithograph. The reason I am telling you this is that the two fellows known as Currier and Ives made this procedure famous. Their lithographs were produced on lithographic limestone printing plates on which the drawing was done by hand. A stone often took over a week to prepare for printing. Each print was pulled by hand. Their earliest lithographs were printed in black and then colored by hand and represented every phase of American life, and included the themes of hunting, fishing, whaling, city life, rural scenes, historical scenes, clipper ships, yachts, steamships, the Mississippi River, Hudson River scenes, railroads, politics, comedy, gold mining, winter scenes, commentary on life, portraits, and still lifes. One of my favorites that Currier and Ives did was called "Home to Thanksgiving" and was based on a 1867 painting by John Schutler. Well, getting to the good part of my story for today, I love music so much and I enjoy the "Over the River and Through the woods" song so much, and since it is Christmas day, I wrote my own lyrics to the song. It is a reminder of the simpler times, past and present, when my daughter Brynn and son-in-law Dave and two granddaughters Courtney and Camille traveled on Christmas morning from their home in Maryland across the bridge over the Susquehanna River to our home in Lancaster to celebrate with Christmas dinner and opening of gifts. Are you ready for my rendition? Please sing with me. Here goes .....

Over the river, across the bridge,

To Tampah's house we go;

Our Dad knows the way to steer the car

through the white and drifted snow.

Over the river, across the bridge,

To Tampah's house away!

We hold our breath as we cross the bridge,

For this is Christmas Day.

Over the river, across the bridge—

Oh, how the wind does blow!

It stings the toes and bites the nose

As over the bridge we go.

Over the river, across the bridge,

With a clear blue winter sky,

Rocco will bark, and children hark,

As we go jingling by.

Over the river, across the bridge,

To have a fun-filled day.

Hear the bells ring, "Ting-a-ling-ding",

Hurrah for Christmas Day!

Over the river, across the bridge,

No matter for winds that blow,

For if we drive the car too fast

Into a bank of snow.

Over the river, across the bridge,

To see GG and Tad.

We will kiss them all, and play snow-ball,

And throw one at our Dad.

Over the river, across the bridge,

Drive safe, we all will say!

We’re across the bridge and almost there,

For this is Christmas Day.

Over the river, across the bridge—

Make sure that we’re not late,

We seem to go extremely slow,

It is so hard to wait!

Over the river, across the bridge,

Old Otie hears our bells.

He shakes his head, with a loud meow,

And thus the news he tells.

Over the river, across the bridge,

When Amah sees us come,

She will say, "Oh, dear, the children are here,

Bringing gifts for everyone."

Over the river, across the bridge—

Now Amah's face I spy!

Hurrah for the fun! Is the ham all done?

Hurrah for the pumpkin pie!

Corny I know, but I love it! And in a few minutes my daughter and her family will be on the road to my house , surely singing my song. Have a Merry Christmas everyone! It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.