Getting Carded

I set some time aside for making out my work Christmas cards.  I seem to remember that this was a big job that took a lot of time and so I prepared accordingly. I got hydrated, I put on my most comfortable sweats, I worked out my signing hand and I made sure I had a good pen. I was ready for work.

It was twenty minutes.  I've been at this place long enough that most of the people I know no longer work there. They got new jobs, they retired or they have since retired and then died. I used to know a lot more people. This should not be a surprise, every year it is a surprise.

Its kind of sad. I still have cards to hand out, but nothing like the good old days when I was obligated to give everybody cards. I could say that now I can be a lot more selective about who gets cards or I could say that I don't know any of these people and they don't know me. The job has changed, I changed jobs and  in the mean time the whole culture there has changed. There are a whole lot more home based staff now and the handfull of people who do still work in the building, we don't know each other from Adam and there is no reason to exchange cards. I like exchanging cards! I need the validation.

I tried to look up carols about Christmas cards but the only one that came up was White Christmas and thats just about depressing as hell, not as bad as I'll be home for Christmas - which is just terribly, terribly depressing and then you think about when it was popular and you just wonder why more people didn't just kill themselves if depressing Christmas Carols were that popular. But then I thought about it, after ten years of the  deprivations and humilations of the depression and then years of open warfare and endless causalites and news of horrors, I would guess the population would grow a bit morbid and really depressing themes would be natural. I bet White Christmas and I'll be home for ChristmasM/i> didn't even register as sad songs - they passed as Christmas Carols!

Its like the dead teenager songs that were so popular in the fifties. So wrong.

So. Instead of sad songs, I decided on a more seasonally appropriate, if manic choice of happy, happy Christmas Carol

Dashing through the snow,
In a one horse open sleigh
Over the fields we go
Laughing all the way.
bells on bob tail ring
making spirits bright
What fun it is to ride and sing
A sleighing song tonight.

Chorus:
Oh jingle bells jingle bells
jingle all the way!
Oh what fun
it is to ride
In a one horse open sleigh, Hey!
Jingle bells jingle bells
Jingle all the way!
Oh what fun it is to ride
In a one horse open sleigh

A day or two ago
I thought I'd took a ride
And soon Miss Fannie Bright
Seated by my side
The horse was lean and lank
Misfortuned seemed his lot
He got into a drifted bank
And we got upsot

Oh jingle bells jingle bells
jingle all the way!
Oh what fun
it is to ride
In a one horse open sleigh, Hey!
Jingle bells jingle bells
Jingle all the way!
Oh what fun it is to ride
In a one horse open sleigh

A day of two ago
The story I must tell
I went out on the snow
And on my back I fell;
A gent was riding by
In a one-horse open sleigh
He laughed a there I sprawling lie
But quickly drove away

Oh jingle bells jingle bells
jingle all the way!
Oh what fun
it is to ride
In a one horse open sleigh, Hey!
Jingle bells jingle bells
Jingle all the way!
Oh what fun it is to ride
In a one horse open sleigh

Χτυπάτε κουδουνάκια

ΑΚΡΙΒΗΣ ΜΕΤΑΦΡΑΣΗ / ACCURATE TRANSLATION
από τον Αντώνη Δερνέλλη / by Anthony Dernellis

Ορμώντας μες το χιόνι
μ' ένα μόνιππο ανοιχτό έλκηθρο
πάμε πάνω απ' τους αγρούς
γελώντας σ' όλη τη διαδρομή.
Χτυπούν τα κουδουνάκια στην κοντή ουρά
φωτίζοντας τα πνεύματα.
Τι χαρά για κάποιον στη βόλτα του να τραγουδά
ένα τραγούδι έλκηθρου απόψε!

(η χορωδία)
Χτυπάτε κουδουνάκια, χτυπάτε κουδουνάκια,
χτυπάτε σ' όλη τη διαδρομή.
Ω! τι διασκεδαστικό που είναι να βολτάρεις
μ' ένα μόνιππο ανοιχτό έλκηθρο.
Χτυπάτε κουδουνάκια, χτυπάτε κουδουνάκια,
χτυπάτε σ' όλη τη διαδρομή.
Ω! τι χαρά που είναι να βολτάρεις
μ' ένα μόνιππο ανοιχτό έλκηθρο.

In Greek! Whee!