I sang Torches for the first time in the choir at the church choir I used to be in, and was quite happy to have another opportunity to sing the carol; it's a lot of fun.
Another one of the songs which my choir is singing in our upcoming concert is Torches, which is a modern carol. It was written by John Joubert, a British composer who wrote this piece in 1951. It was a surprise to me when I realised that Torches was a fairly recent piece, because it has an older, robust sound to it. The tune is very catchy, and will stick in your memory once you've sung- or listened- to it. The lyrics tell of people (presumably the shepherds) running to Bethlehem- with torches- to see the newborn Christ child. I sang Torches for the first time in the choir at the church choir I used to be in, and was quite happy to have another opportunity to sing the carol; it's a lot of fun.
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The above image is from the 1947 movie Miracle On 34th Street, which is a Christmas classic starring Natalie Wood, Maureen O'Hara, John Payne, and Edmund Glenn. Glenn plays Kris Kringle, who is hired by Doris Walker (O'Hara) to be Santa in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade when their original Santa turns up drunk. The new Santa proves immensely popular and Macy's wishes to hire him for the Christmas season. Doris is less enthusiastic, because Kris claims to actually be Santa Claus, and she has always been firm about telling her daughter Susan (Wood) that Santa isn't real. She doesn't want her daughter getting confused, and also figures that Kris is either refusing to tell the truth, or is crazy. It turns out that Kris lives at a nursing home, and the doctor there assures Doris that he is harmless. The home is a considerable distance from the store, however, so they need to find Kris a place to stay in the city for the duration of his employment. In the end, Doris' neighbour Fred (Payne) who is trying to thaw Doris' cold and cynical heart and also bring some joy into Susan's very pragmatic and unimaginative life, lets Kris move in with him. Before that, however, the plan had been for Mr. Shellhammer- the head of the toy department- to ask Kris to stay with him and his wife. Shellhammer is afraid that his wife won't agree, so gets her liquored up before asking, then puts her on the telephone with Doris. In a giddy haze, she blurrily informs them that "We'd love to have Santa Claus come live with us..."
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