Back To The Holiday Pops

     For a number of years the Christmas season began for me on the first weekend in December with a performance of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra Holiday Pops.
     Actually, four performances.
     That was back when my daughter Theresa was  a member of the Columbus Children's Choir.

     Theresa, here with Columbus Children's Choir Director Dr. Sandra Matthias.

    Christmas was back then - and I assume, still is - a busy time for the Choir, especially the most advanced section of the choir, the red-coated New World Singers, as, on top of the standard twice-weekly two-hour practices, they performed at holiday festivities around the city, such as the lighting of the Columbus Zoo lights, the lighting of the City Hall Christmas tree, several city and corporate events, and, always the highlight of the season for the Choir, the Columbus Symphony Orchestra Holiday Pops.

   The Holiday Pops is a festive yearly holiday program of classical pieces, Hanukkah and Christmas songs and ballet interpretations of Christmas themes performed in downtown Columbus at the Ohio Theater by the Columbus Symphony Orchestra with the Symphony Chorus, members of  Columbus Ballet Met, a singing Santa and Mrs. Claus, And the Columbus Children's Choir, all under the direction of CSO Chorus Director Ron Jenkins.

    There are four performances over the first weekend in December and when Theresa was part of the Holiday Pops I'd watch all four performances since parents of members of the Children's Choir could get discounted (or maybe free, I don't exactly remember now) tickets.
     The Holiday Pops is a long haul for the Choir kids, with a Friday night performance, Saturday matinee and evening performances, and a another Sunday matinee.
      And yet my daughter and her Choir friends loved the excitement of the Holiday Pops, especially the Saturday performances.

     Back in those days there used to be attached to the Ohio Theater a beautiful downtown shopping mall called the City Center (now long gone, sadly, replaced by a parking garage),

...where the young Choir members would snack, hang out, and sometimes gigglingly sneak an ice cream (dairy and soda being verboten to the singers before a performance) between the matinee and evening performances,

...chaperoned, of course, by us parents,  though we did strive to stay in the background.

     I always thought it added to the holiday cheer and color of the City Center at that time of year to see the red-coated youngsters strolling the mall that day between the Holiday Pops performances.
      Much as I used to love the Holiday Pops during those years when Theresa sang with the Columbus Children's Choir, after she left the Choir in high school I never went to another Holiday Pops performance.
         Until this year.
        This year for some reason I had a hankering after a 15-year gap to go see the Holiday Pops again.

        So a couple of Saturdays ago Tom accommodated my wish,

...and we headed downtown to the Ohio Theater to see the Holiday Pops.

    The Ohio Theater was crowded and decked out for the event,

...though this theater is such a neat old place in and of itself even without added adornment.

    Before the main performance a group of singers from the Santa Maria section of the Children's Choir sang Christmas Carols in beautiful harmony, getting us all in the Christmas spirit,

...and already bringing back memo-ries for Tom and me.

     The first half of the Holiday Pops program was, as usual, a mix of lovely instrumental, choral, and dance pieces,

...the music provided by the orchestra and chorus, everyone accessorized with a splash of holiday red.

     But during the second half of the program,

...when the New World Singers joined the orches-tra and  chorus on stage,

...and the Santa Marias sang from the balcony,

...I felt myself getting emotional with memories, seeing in all those young faces, (and seeing Dr. Mathias, Former Director Emerita of the Choir, singing in the row directly behind the children),

...the face of my Theresa all those years ago.

...and when, with the arrival of Santa and Mrs. Claus,

...all the performers donned Santa hats and a row of singing, swaying "reindeer" lined up across the front of the stage,

(looking more like bunnies than reindeer),

...I recalled how excited Theresa was the year she was chosen (or maybe volunteered) to be a reindeer,

...here horsing (reindeering?) around with some of her fellow 'deer.

     The cheery, upbeat tune "We Need A Little Christmas," with which the singers and orchestra  closed the show made me tear up.
     But then I guess that's what happens when you come for the memories as much as the music.

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