A CHRISTMAS CAROL, ETC.

December 10, 2019

We saw A Christmas Carol at Sacramento Theatre Company on Saturday.  Some critics are tired of reviewing this show -- this is the eighth time I've reviewed this production over the years I've been reviewing, but I still love it.

Matt K. Miller has played the role of Scrooge 8 times now.  I've seen four of his performances and he just gets better and better.  He has become "my" Scrooge and most others (except in films) pale in comparison.

I am pre-programmed to like A Christmas Carol because one year my mother read it to my sister and me over several nights by the light of the Christmas tree, before we went to bed.  That stands out as one of the most special things I remember about Christmas  growing up.  I was always sorry that she only did it the one year.  I thought listening to it every year would have been a wonderful tradition, but I never said anything at the time.

Later, when the kids were in the children's theater, they were in a production of A Christmas Carol where Ned played Scrooge, Paul was the young man Scrooge and Tom was the young Scrooge. 

When our kids were small, Walt started reading "The Night Before Christmas" to them on Christmas Eve before they went to bed.  He read it for the first time in 1973

And read it every year after that.  This is from 1975.  I don't know where David and Tom were when I took the picture that year.

He continued the tradition into their teen years and when we had foreign students, they, too, gathered around to listen to the story of Santa and his sleigh.

In the group are Pujol and Marcio from Brasil, Ndangi from Zaire and Felix from Yugoslavia. Ned is missing from this photo because he was in Brasil that year. The trombone sitting on the piano tells me that there had been rehearsal for the Egg Nog Gala to be presented on Christmas night.

I love the traditions that we established here through the kids' childhood.  And when I see the enthusiasm with which Ned is making the house ready for Christmas this year and listen to his memories of Christmases past, I smile as I remember that even though each year came with "Mom's Christmas crisis," on the whole they were pretty special events.