December 2020 was my first Christmas without my husband. He had passed away five months before, quite quickly. He still had many projects he wanted to accomplish. One of those would certainly have been a new Christmas show. That was his passion.
I could tell when he would get that glimpse of Christmas inspiration, often early in the year. That glimpse would soon turn into Christmas fever, and there he was, working till late at night writing the script, sewing costumes, assembling the props, recording the background music, and tending to the many details that putting a show together entails.
November was always practice month, and in December, the shows would start to roll, eventually completing around 50 shows in a season! After this marathon we were all exhausted, but extremely happy and fulfilled. We had brought the spirit of Christmas to many children, the elderly, and the disabled. That was the best part of our Christmas.
Christmas 2020 wasn’t only the first Christmas without my husband and his shows, but due to the pandemic, it was also the first Christmas when we were stuck in lockdown. In November, two coworkers and I sat down to discuss this abnormal, empty Christmas.
What could we do? What would my husband have done? For sure he would have done something!
Finally, we realized we had our phones and the internet. We could still share the spirit of Christmas somewhere. After all, most of our friends were in the same situation; actually, most of the world was!
So, we set up our Christmas stage in the living room, and improvised a simple, rudimental show. Just a few songs and our heartfelt Christmas greetings. We felt odd creating such a simple show, but that was all we could do. When we watched our production on video (in three languages, mind you) it wasn’t so bad!
We sent it all over the world to hundreds of friends and relatives. We sent it to nearby institutions where we had performed our shows for years. They managed to at least have a little bit of us and most of all the Christmas spirit. Through our little video we crossed many physical boundaries, and the response was overwhelming.
On Christmas Day we invited a single mom and her son to have lunch with us. We weren’t allowed to have more than a certain number of people under the same roof, so we really treasured that table for five!
Truly, that was the Christmas of small things!