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It’s Christmas again, and I’m reflecting on my Christmases past.
‘The Isolated One’
‘The Isolated One’ – Christmas Day in Dublin 2004 while waiting to depart on a tour the next day was a low point. Dublin was totally closed. Nothing – and I mean nothing – was open other than an Asian-run convenience store and a pharmacy. My partner and I joined a few non-Christian tourists wandering the lifeless streets enjoying the intermittent snow flurries before returning to our hotel to eat the free stollen and drink the mineral water the hotel had generously supplied. The €180 hotel meal was not a financial option.
‘The Retail One’
‘The Retail One’ – New York, leading to Christmas, is about merchandising. Decorations and piped music everywhere, men in Santa Claus suits, drinks in crowded bars, and especially partaking in the full campiness of visiting Radio City Music Hall for the annual “Christmas Spectacular”.
This show is genuinely a wet dream moment for any gay Broadway aficionado. The massive stage – no, make that three stages – rise and depart with each stage more lavishly set than the last. Imagine a complete ice rink, an opulent Nativity scene including real donkeys and camels, and a chorus line of perfectly trained dancing Rockettes. Schmaltzy, stunning, over-the-top production values – what more could I wish for?
‘Christmas at Home’
But the Christmas I remember with most affection was the ‘Christmas at Home’ that grew as ‘orphans’ continued to be collected. The returned traveller with a broken arm, the friend who wanted to spend the day away from his wife, and an elderly single gay gentleman friend. What began as a planned quiet lunch for two ended up as a cacophony of stories, laughter and alcohol consumption.
A table for five that brought together the unexpected camaraderie and solidarity of the older gay community, of hilarious life experiences to be shared, of the perceived ignominy for the walking wounded having his food cut up for him, and the warm companionship of our straight ally. The day was about friendship, revelry, story-telling and good food. Even a few popular parodies of Christmas songs snuck in…
“you’d better not pout, you’d better not cry,
you’d better not scream, I’m going in dry.”…
The issues of the outside world disappeared.
That Christmas Day reflected our best values as human beings. Gay or straight, life is about love, sharing, friendship, cooperation and understanding. Maybe that is why I so vividly remember it. It was the people.
