many tapes and a crib

FYI: a post about christmas again. skip it if you don’t like to read about it.

left: reader’s digest family album of christmas music. together at christmas. right: reader’s digest christmas sing-along. one of the tape from inside the boxes can be seen outside.

many years back (when CD were not popular yet), i bought a set of christmas carols in cassettes form from readers digest (the one on the right). it was about RM80 for 5 cassettes tapes. a tape being about 15 carols, thus there are about 80 carols, therefore i have more than enough already so no need to buy new ones. and this set of tapes came with a book of lyrics too. well i did bought a CD of carols sung by children 2 years back. i like carols sung by children especially that cute “mama chita, donde de santa claus” song.

at the same time that i bought this set of tapes, my friend also bought another set (the one on the left). this set contains more music than songs, and the songs that are sung, have an orchestra backing. kind of like the classical music type. there is this famoouos chorusees form handel’s messiah, play by the royal choral society, the royal philarmonic orchestra. others are like peter knight and his orchetra, and the john mccarty chorus. some people like this kind of songs, some don’t. me? i’m in between.

now the thing is, my friend only listen to these tapes once, then she gave them away to me. so yippy! i have 2 sets of christmas carols (10 tapes!). the first set (belonging to me) all the tapes are still ok despite being many years, but for the 2nd set (my friend’s but now belonging to me) 2 of the tapes were not in good condition.

i also have 2 tapes of christmas carols sung in mandarin. very nice! all the carols are same tune as the english carols. i guess some people might not like the carols of english tune sung in mandarin. they would say er… what’s the word… ‘mutation’? mutation of the original english carols. just like last year when i blog on chinese new year (CNY) songs in mandarin which had been composed and sung in english, some people (like huai bin of sixthseal) squirm at the thought of it. well, to me it’s ok. they are all for fun, so doesn’t matter if a particular song in that particular original language is turn into another language song.

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ok enough about carols (for now!). remember once i mentioned (dunno in my blog or someone else’s) that now i don’t put up christmas tree? it had been more than 20 years that we put up christmas tree every year (3 foot high), and i was the one who decorated it. well, about 3 years ago, i decided not to have the christmas tree up but the crib instead. the crib shows the nativity scene, and nativity means ‘birth of jesus’, so the crib shows the stable with ox and lamb (or whatever animals different nativity scenes have) and baby jesus with his parents. some scene will also show the shepherds or the 3 wise men. this is the crib that i have, which i have already put up but without lights yet. i will put up the lights on 23rd. dec.

the snowmen are candles! lovely decorative candles which normally people will feel ‘sayang’ to use. so we are not using them too. this is a very small crib. about 15cm in height only (less than a foot). it cost about RM50. you notice the animals there? in front are 2 lambs (i think) and behind are the cow and horse. those er… brown stuffs that surround the crib are sawdust. many of the sawdust had dropped off already! in no time, i’m afraid the ‘house’ will become ‘botak’ of sawdust. 🙂

here is a close-up of the crib (so that you can see the animals):

i like to have a bigger crib but too broke to buy one. big lovely cribs are expensive. oh and actually i also don’t mind if i can get my hands on a mini christmas tree. you know, a very small one that doesn’t need decoration. long ago we used to have a one foot tree that can revolved and play the music ‘jingle bell’ as it revolves. one have to turn the base round and round to let the music start playing. somehow or other, the tree become defective when it can’t revolve anymore and the ‘leaves’s started falling out! so we had to throw it away. well a small xmas tree next to the crib (or somewhere) would be good. guess next year i should shop for one. thank god now i don’t have to put up 3 foot xmas tree as it is so troublesome. must set up (assemble) the tree (its trunks and leaves) and decorate it. then after christmas over, took down the decorations and keep in a box, ‘unassemble’ the tree. ok ok i’m a lazy person. maybe one of the reason i switch to crib instead of tree. haha. another reason is because i feel crib give more meaning than a tree. well, if my sister or mother wants to be the tree assembler/decorator, by all means, i love having a big xmas tree!

my brother who has a much bigger apartment, has a 4 foot singing xmas tree! xmas tree (esp. the huge ones) are of course more appropriate for big houses, business office, hotels, supermarkets, churches. oh speaking of which, i must one day take a photo of the huge xmas tree in our church to show you. the xmas tree is in the church office while the crib (huge life size one, self-made) is in the church itself. sorry lah. me in christmas mood so am going to bombard you people with christmassy posts. 🙂