View From The Stage: Christmas at the Beach
Well it finally looks like we are going to have a bit of measurable snow that will stick around for a while. My snowblower is growling in my garage anxious to get going! At least we had a dusting for Christmas so we can keep up our streak of always having snow for the holidays! I’ve lived here for over 23 years now and can only remember one Christmas without snow but I distinctly remember at least two with a blizzard!
I lived and worked in New Zealand for a number of years and down under Christmas time falls at the beginning of summer, our equivalent of June 25th. I never got used to a summer Christmas. It didn’t get dark until almost 10 pm so there was no need really to put up Christmas lights. My real tree sort of melted and wilted in the summer heat. Most people spent Christmas day having a ba-b-que at the beach, something that certainly did not put me in the Christmas mood. And because it was summer, as soon as Christmas day was over, most people went away on their summer vacation. The country pretty much shuts down over the Christmas holidays.
As a working musician in the states, the holidays were full on but things took a deep dive right after New Years so we had a bit of a break in the winter. Not so in New Zealand. You had all of the gigs leading up to Christmas, all of the Christmas parties and such and then you went straight into summer time which was a very active time with plenty of gigs, especially at the beach or out at the lakes. New Zealand has both and for many years in a row I spent my holiday time playing at a restaurant located in a beach resort town and a few at a lake resort town. I played four hours a night and had my days free so I spent a good deal of time ticky touring around at the beach or along the river. I would go snorkeling or out on my friends boat. There were a number of little towns in the area that were always having craft shows to go and check out. And being that most of the people I would run into at my gig were on vacation from Auckland where I also lived, it was great for networking, getting heard and picking up future gigs back home when the summer was over.
There were also many people who came from oversea, particularly Europe and North America who were holidaying down under. New Zealand starts the day and you would always hear roars of cheering and honking from someplace in town the next day about 12 hours later as the New Year arrived in their home country and they were celebrating. Six hours after that is was the North Americans turn as they celebrated the New Year where they were from. Needless to say, New Years day was all quite festive as the New Years countdown and merrymaking never seemed to end.
I think just about everyone will be happy to see 2020 end and are very hopeful for a better and healthier New Year. I was quite excited to book my first gig for next summer the other day and am very hopeful that things will be pretty much back to normal by then.
I would like to send out a great big thank you to all who read my column. I truly appreciate it and I want to wish you all a wonderful HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
So until next time, I’ll see you from the stage.