Christmas has always made me happy. When I was a little girl, I would get so excited during Christmas Eve that I would wake in the middle of the night, and go and sleep beneath the Christmas Tree. My mother always made an effort to make our Christmas Tree pretty impressive, and the lights would make me feel happy and safe to sleep under.

As a child I loved all the effort my mother would put in, she was nearly always nice to me on Christmas. Oh I know how pathetically sad that sentence seems, but it’s the truth, she made an effort to be nice to me on that day, something she pretty much didn’t do on any other day save my birthday – until I was about 12 I suppose – and Easter.

I love going out and seeing all the houses with lights up, it’s beautiful and joyful, in my opinion, though I can’t help but think of all the power used. But part of me doesn’t care.

I also LOVE to sing Christmas carols! They’re so beautiful and happy, and they suit my little bird voice. I don’t know how anyone can not love this time of year, and all that goes along with it. I’m not talking about all the shopping and forced family functions, I’m talking about taking joy in what you already have. In my case, a man that I love with all my heart and that loves me just the same way back, two gloriously fun kitties who are lovely, and a snug little home to share with them all, and knit to my arthritic finger’s content. Ahhh, that’s it, that’s the stuff. Add some carols in the background and I’m just stupidly happy.

Of course the knitting pattern here has to be a Christmas Tree! This Evergreen Tree pattern is so cute and open to so much adornment!

You see, singing actually releases calming, de-stressing chemicals in the brain so good to do in so many situations! Now, there are a couple of parameters that must be met for me to want to sing along with the song. Firstly that I like the song, secondly that the song suits my voice in some way. I’ve got a bit of a high, not very strong, sort of voice… think old movies, Disney movies, and Christmas Carols, they suit my voice.

Lately I’ve been listening to a lot of Celtic Woman’s work, and there are a few songs that I love to sing along to. Spanish Lady is one that I can sing along to with no worries, it’s fast, but once you’ve learned the lyrics – still working on it – you can go with it. I also really like Dulaman, Si Do Mhaimeo I, and Siuil a Run, all of which have heavy – if not total – Gaelic components.

Now, I don’t speak Gaelic, even though it’s a lovely language. I spent a few years working to learn Japanese and eventually gave it up as a lost cause. Anyway, one important aspect about Japanese is when it is written in our characters, referred to as Romanji by the Japanese, there is always a vowel and a consonant, and the sounds don’t change from ours. It is a very clear case of ‘Ah, Ie, Oo (U), Eh, Oh’ for each of them. Gaelic, however, has a whole bunch of accents and all sorts of groovy things going on… and I suck at interpreting them, and only suck a little less at mimicking what I’m hearing the singers say. I’m still having fun singing along, though, so that’s cool.

Now for a musically inclined pattern. I think this pattern here, for fingerless gloves called Musica, is really rather pretty. Very detailed!