In front of me as I type these words is Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.  I never miss it.  It has been playing on CBS as long as I can remember.   I never tire of watching it.  There are so many elements of Rudolph we can relate to.  Misfits…we know them.  Some of us are them.  Friends…we know them.  Some of us are them.  Heroes…we know them.  We are all a hero to some one at some time.  I believe that.  Weather…we all know it.  Some of us love snow and some of us don’t.

Every year for many years and in some cases, recently, there are a few other Christmas shows I try to get around to looking at when they come through my living room.

Frosty the Snowman is my second favorite.  The fastest thirty minutes on television.  I still get upset when Frosty melts in the hot-house.  That is just plain sad…pitiful…not right.   Thank God he comes back to life in good time.  Had he not come back the first time I saw it I would have needed therapy I am sure.  I took my babysitter killing over on me when I was five better than watching Frosty melt!

The Little Drummer Boy is another show I try to watch every year.

In recent years there is a movie my family and I have been watching on the Hallmark Channel when it shows up.  The Christmas Card is a movie about an Army fellow that gets a card in the mail while he is deployed to the Middle East.  He takes his card and tracks down its origins and we are entertained by the twists and turns of a predictable story that is still pretty cool…not unlike Rudolph and Frosty.

We can’t forget A Christmas Carol.  I like the Reginald Owen 1938 version the best.  I have a copy of it.  I try to find it on TV.  God Bless Us…Everyone.

There are others….many others.

Along with television there are songs.  I enjoy listening to the Christmas Songs on the radio.  One station in Louisville plays them constantly right now.  I tune for a while every day.

Carrie, my dear wife,  and I have a simple wooden Nativity…a great manger scene… on display in our living room 365 days a year.  I never tire of looking at that either…especially that.  God Bless Us…Everyone.

Songs…one of my favorite seasonal tunes is The Christmas Song…you know…the one that talks about chestnuts roasting on an open fire and all.

I sang that song as a 5th grader at Brownstown Central Elementary School and as a 6th grader at North Harrison Elementary School.  The song sounded much different in year’s time and 50 miles south from one school to another.  In Jackson County the vowel is much tighter and defined than it is in Harrison County where the vowel is much looser and more country sounding.

The difference is kind of like this:

Jackson Co.:  And every mother’s child is going to spy to see if reindeer really know how to fly.

Harrison County:  And ever-ry mother’s chiiiild is gonna spyyyy…to see if reindeer really know how to flyyyyyy.

Me….I have a hybrid accent that can take on any place any time.  That is what I get for being a child of Mississippi born parents who was born in Columbus, Indiana.  South meets North.

Most folks think I have a southern accent.  I have no problem with that.

It came in handy one day in 2011.  I was getting gas in the Village of Amherst, New Hampshire.  The gas station attendant asked me a question.  I answered.  He declared I was not “from around here (Amherst, NH)”.  He asked where I was from.  I told him I was from Indiana.  I can still hear him in his northeastern accent: “Indiana? I coulda swore you were from South Carolina.”  I was most appreciative.  I love South Carolina.

Speaking of Southern Accents…who in their right mind would cast Dan Akroyd as an Atlanta resident…witness Driving Miss Daisy.  This Canadian actor sounded about as Southern as a Walleye Sandwich.  Pitiful.  I still like the movie though.

Enjoy the holiday season.  Tell someone why you love them. God Bless Us…Everyone.

Speaking the Rights.

Danny Johnson