Hard Candy Christmas! When I was in high school ...every Christmas my church youth group would always go Christmas Caroling for the holidays to the Nursing Homes, Hospitals and to selected homes in our small hometown community where we knew the elderly lived who may not have family or friends for the holidays. We were all instructed to bring a few small paper bags tied with a pretty bow to leave as a gift for our seniors and patients. In our bags we were instructed to bring an apple, an orange, and ....some hard candy. I never knew the significance of bringing hard candy since I thought that was odd because many of the seniors we visited did not have some or all of their teeth?! I finally figured they could at least suck on it and make it last a long time and left it at that. The years went by and life happened and I had not done any caroling for a long time until I went in the Army. I was stationed in Germany one Christmas and I remember all of us soldiers were so sad and homesick and missing our wives and families especially during the holidays. It dawned on me that we were having a Hard Candy Christmas of our own just like all those seniors and patients were having that had no family or would not be home for the holidays. To make the most of the situation about six of my best army buddies from my medical platoon got together in our barracks and using our keys for bells, Combs and wax papers for kazoos, pencils for drumsticks, and medical supplies for various instruments we made a cassette tape of about a dozen Christmas songs and sent them home for our wives and families to let them know we were missing them and thinking about them for the holidays. We werent the best singers and a lot of songs were out of tune or even had the wrong words but our hearts were in it and it was actually very amusing to listen too and it lifted our spirits a bit to have done that. After I got out of the army I returned home and saw that the world had changed. Or maybe it was me that had changed. The kids had grown, a lot of friends had moved on and even my special girl had even moved on. Then one day I heard this bittersweet song sung by Dolly Pardon called Hardy Candy Christmas and it reminded me of the hard candy that we put in our brown paper bags to give to the seniors and patients and it all started to make sense! I remembered the tears of joy...and maybe tears of memories of days gone by of family and friends (some who were no longer with us) from Christmases before of some of the seniors and patients when we would sing Jingle Bells, Silent Night, We Wish You a Merry Christmas, etc. to them. I remember hugging some of the seniors and they would hug you back like they did not want you to go home. They would hold our hands and wouldnt let go. Indeed some of them would invite us in for eggnog and stories as if we were their only family....and for one evening...maybe we were all the family they had! Fast forward and it is Christmas 2014. Christmas has evolved and is so Hi-tech now so I was youtubing for some Christmas songs from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, the Christmas Scene from Mean Girls, John Lennons And So This is Christmas and the newest holiday songs from Jackie Evanko, etc. to share with family and friends and ran into Hard Candy Christmas by Dolly Pardon. I stopped and did a quick google search and found the term Hard Candy Christmas is a term that was used in the early days, especially during the Great Depression when the family was so poor that all they could afford was a penny bag of hard candy (anyone remember Penny Candy!) to give their kids. Yes, Hard Candy actually used to be a Christmas treat, and still is to some. And the kids in that family would love it because that would be the ONLY time of the year the family could splurge on something like candy. In retrospect...many of the seniors we sang to grew up during the Great Depression and probably knew first hand what a Hard Candy Christmas really was. No wonder it brought back so many tears and memories for them when we did it. Even though they lived through some tough and challenging times they bounced back and made the best of the situation which is very symbolic and a great life lesson to learn ...and share!!! So please do me and yourself ...and the whole community a huge favor. It wont take much time or money I promise. Get a group of friends from church, work, family, friends, etc. and go to the dollar store and by a bunch of lunch bags for a dollar and put an apple, orange ...and some hard candy in each bag and a short note and go to a childrens hospital, Veterans Hospital, nursing home, senior center, or the home of someone you know that may not have family for the holidays and wish them a Merry Christmas. You will be honoring me and making a difference to someone special ...including yourself! Happy Holidays to all my extremely wonderful, amazing, caring and loving family, friends and students! I hope you are surrounded by a lot of family and friends and .... have the best Hard Candy Christmas...ever!!! Merry Christmas Dolly Parton! Henry Carrejo, U.S. Veteran
Posted on: Wed, 17 Dec 2014 16:53:30 +0000
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