CORNER The Liarton Light Up

It is a tradition that is almost as important to the Christmas celebration as turkey dinner with all the fixin’s, although it has been decades since we attended a Christmas concert. Our boys have not been in a school concert for years and we have never been able to watch our granddaughter live in concert either, but we have the videos. They are usually held in school auditoriums with students and teachers performing songs, plays and skits to entertain their friends and families. Our community has a slightly different format with some local entertainment chipping in on the evening. The evening is called “The Lairton Light Up” and the whole community seems to be involved. This year, I was lucky to be part of the concert. As a member of a band that did some blues arrangements of some holiday classics, I was allowed to watch from backstage. For an experienced people watcher, I was not disappointed, mostly because of the kids. But watching nervous teachers and parents, who have rehearsed and practiced as much or more than the kids, was a giggle. Then I was able to watch the watchers (the audience) be entertained by songs, skits and even some wonderfully bad jokes told by some of the cutest comedians on the planet. There were 2 choirs, including the pre-schoolers who sang along with a CD player and then some grade two students who were accompanied by a teenaged bass playing sister, a sibling not a Nun. There were three beautiful off-key renditions of carols by pre-schoolers, followed by three much more polished but still beautifully off-key Christmas standards by the grade twos. Some of the grade one kids told Christmas jokes that sleighed the audience. Too short to use the microphone stand, the cute comedic cut-ups were assisted by their teacher who held the mic and gave the youngster kids some helpful cues. A bad joke told by a cute kid will always get a laugh. The jokes were bad, like the depressed Santa’s helper who had low “elf” esteem or the little girl who wanted a cat for Christmas but her mother said, “No…you can have turkey like the rest of us”. After those 3 cute acts, my band of not so cute guys was asked to play until Santa arrived on a firetruck. It was only a few moments, and then there was bedlam when he made his grand entrance. One moment we had a crowd of folks at our end of the hall and the next moment when the jolly old fel- low came in, everyone just turned around and surged towards the man of the hour at the other end of the hall.

While the photo ops were happening and kids gave their wish lists to Santa, the Liarton Lions Club fired-up the extensive lighting display at the Community Center. Then they fired up the bbq and fed everyone hotdogs with hot chocolate. The crowd awaited what the Liarton Lions Club do best, next to beer gardening; they are becoming well-known for fireworks displays and enjoy boosting their reputation with any excuse to set-off the beautiful boomers. Folks were raving about the fireworks display at Halloween. The Lions and Lionesses outdid themselves as they put on a spectacular finale that was indeed grand.

This was a delightful party/concert/ bbq/fireworks! I cannot believe we haven’t attended before. Maybe it was because there wasn’t any fireworks before, but for sure, we will be there with bells on next year… jingle bells.