"The children sleep upstairs and Santa works below."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzT2QuRTW7I
In my childhood, Christmas Eve and Christmas morning loomed very large. Christmas Eve in particular was a flurry of activity because, for many years, we waited until that day to put up the tree. Oh, we already had it, and by Christmas Eve day it would have been resting on the front porch for a few weeks, just waiting for its big moment. But it was Christmas Eve -- and, yes, the evening to be precise -- that the tree got to be front and center for a few hours. I have vivid memories of my father first rearranging the furniture to clear the bay window area. Then he would drag in the tree which was wrapped in old throw rugs and such to avoid scratching the floor or door jams. Next, he would judiciously saw off some lower branches to prepare it for the tree stand. The scent of pine filled my nostrils and the sounds of Christmas music floated throughout the house.
Later that evening, after a visit to church (yes, there was a time in my life when I attended church) and a helping of Christmas sausages, my father would read a story. The story was always a choice between 'The Night Before Christmas' or 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.' I'm not certain how we alternated between them -- maybe even years for Night and odd for Rudolph, or maybe my sister and I took turns choosing the story -- but the important thing is that, as far as we kids were concerned, that story concluded all family work for the evening. After the story, my sister and I would be sent to bed.
Did you notice I didn't mention anything about decorating the tree after it was put up? I hope you caught that, because it's an important element in the magic of my childhood. You see, in my house, Santa visited not only to bestow a bevy of gifts, but also to decorate our tree! Well, at least he did until (ahem) we were old enough to be part of the decorating ritual.
As clearly as I recall my childhood Christmas Eves, I have a less vivid recollection of when I first heard "The Man Who Would Be Santa." Like many folks, I probably didn't even hear of the artist, Vertical Horizon, until their breakout single, which was the second single and title track of their third studio album, EVERYTHING YOU WANT (1999). Vertical Horizon had been around since 1991, when Matthew Scannell and Keith Kane formed an acoustic duo at Georgetown University. I loved EVERYTHING YOU WANT so much that I dug back into Vertical Horizon's catalog. And there I found "The Man Who Would Be Santa" sitting inconspicuously on their second studio album, RUNNING ON ICE (1995). Now, it is not as though Vertical Horizon is known for Christmas songs. But they are, in my opinion, quite adept at crafting songs that tug at memory and bespeak the ties that bind people together. And, so, every time I hear "The Man Who Would Be Santa," I am taken back to those childhood evenings in my Elk County hometown. But only the first verse is tied to that memory. The next two verses focus on later stages of The Man Who Would Be Santa's life. And it is because of this long story arc that the song so very much reminds me of my father, particularly now that I spent my 40s watching my father become that old man who "sits and tells of days when time stood still."
I think I may be getting a little misty eyed just thinking about it.
"The Man Who Would Be Santa" was never released as a single, so there is no official music video. For your entertainment, the link at the outset of this post is for a video of Matt Scannell, the frontman of Vertical Horizon, performing a solo acoustic version of this song at the Atlantic Auto Mall in West Islip, NY. For your reference, this next link is for a YouTube video that features the version of the song that appears on the album: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kz4K0uvjBfU
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// THE MAN WHO WOULD BE SANTA //
And the man who would be Santa slips into the room
And the hour of daylight's yet to come but he hopes they don't wake too soon
All the presents wrapped in paper and tied with a bow
The children sleep upstairs and Santa works below
And he can hear the children dreaming
[Chorus:]
And he says
All I want is for you to have
A life you love and live
Take from me all I have to give
Because you are in my heart
And the man who would be Santa tells his son to write
And to call him if he needs him in the middle of the night
Don't you worry don't you cry now you'll do just fine
Your mother and I love you
We think about you all the time
And he can see the train is leaving
[Repeat Chorus]
Now the old man sits and tells of days when time stood still
The hours always seem to fade but the memory never will
All the love that you gave me
All the dreams in the night
And I just want to thank you while the day's still light
But I can see the sun is setting
[Repeat Chorus]
_______
Notes:
- I adapted this post's details about "The Man Who Would Be Santa" from my 25 Days of Holiday Music blog post for December 4, 2012, and posted it to Facebook on December 24, 2022.
- The attached image contains two photos:
- Photo of an undecorated Christmas tree found online.
- Photo of a Whitman Giant Tell-A-Tale Book edition of "The Night Before Christmas." This is the very copy that my late father would read to us. I took this photograph at my parents' home in June 2018, during the prep to get their home ready for the market.
