Friday, December 17 at 10:00 am, we’ll meet in the fellowship hall of First Presbyterian Church, 2415 Clinton Parkway. The church is on the south side of the parkway a short distance west of Iowa Street. You turn off the parkway at the traffic light at Crestline Road. There’s ample parking on the east side of the church, and you enter through the front door (also on the east side) and turn to your left.
The fellowship hall is quite large and has a piano. The church continues to function under covid rules, so masks and distancing will be required. Unfortunately, another of the covid rules is that no refreshments can be served and consumed in the fellowship hall at the present time. However, I’ve reserved the private dining room at Perkins Restaurant for coffee and pastry (or, if you wish, even an early lunch) and continued conversation after the singing. Perkins is a very short distance down the road from the church. Clinton Parkway becomes 23rd Street east of Iowa, and Perkins’s address is 1711 W. 23rd Street, on the south side of the street.
We’ll be singing some of the many popular “secular” songs of the winter holiday season in the U.S.–such as “Winter Wonderland,” “White Christmas,” “Silver Bells,” “I’ll be Home for Christmas,” “The Christmas Song,” “Sleigh Ride,” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” These are songs that celebrate common cultural aspects of Christmas, broadly popular activities and traditions that we share whatever our religious views: gatherings of families and friends, and the sentimental longing of those who can’t be with them; the general merry-making and exchanging of gifts; special seasonal food and drink; taking in the festive decorations and light displays; enjoying seasonal music in concerts and on radio and TV. A striking example of this cultural commonality is that a great many of our most enduringly popular American “Christmas” songs (including all but one of those listed above) were written by Jewish composers and lyricists, who were also often first- or second-generation Americans.