Christmas — the commercial version — is wearying. But then you hear a group of kids singing in the middle of Lehigh Valley International Airport and the spirit of the true Christmas wriggles its way up from the bottom of your soul, where it's been hiding from the mirthless minions of the market.
It has good reason to hide. When you want to know how wrong things have gone in the celebration of this beautiful holiday, simply watch the commercial where the Best Buy shopper confronts Santa Claus on the roof by the chimney and — well, she threatens him. Kicks a light-up plastic Santa onto the front lawn. When I imagine the advertising agency meeting that gave birth to this abomination, I smell sulfur.
Anyway, back to the airport. The choir and band from Allentown's Dieruff High School were there Tuesday morning as part of LVIA's holiday concert series, which began in the mid-1990s as a way of giving student musicians some exposure and experience while cheering harried travelers on their way to here and there.
There weren't, in truth, many travelers on hand to enjoy the music. I saw only a handful of people trudging through the terminal with luggage. But the ticket sellers and the TSA agents seemed to appreciate the effort. It must have made a nice change from those incessant recorded announcements about not taking luggage from strangers.
"We usually do a small group but this year I brought the whole shebang," band director Frank DiSimoni said as his flutists and woodwinds and drummers took their places outside the Allegiant Airlines ticket area. "We want to start getting out in the community more and raising awareness of our programs. We have good music programs at Dieruff."
The whole shebang amounted to about 20 band kids and another three dozen choir singers. One member of the latter group was Amelia Tognoli, a senior who opened "All I Want for Christmas Is You" with a solo. She had a fine, strong voice, and surprised me by telling me later that she had only started singing a couple of years ago.
As you know, this song was made famous by Mariah Carey. It is a measure of how cheerful the student musicians had made me that I didn't even think about throwing myself in front of a taxiing plane when they launched into it. Turns out it isn't such a bad song after all when it is being sung and not wailed.
The students, many in festive red Santa hats, smiled engagingly as they played and sang other Christmas standards — "Adeste Fideles," "Silver Bells" — and, for Hanukkah, a piece in Hebrew called "Al Shlosha D'varim."
That song, choir director Jennifer Dodd said, tells us that the world is sustained by three things: truth, justice and peace. I don't speak or read Hebrew, but as far as I could tell, it doesn't say a thing about buying a Lexus for your wife or a smartphone for your kids.
Nor does "Adeste Fideles" make any such recommendations. Instead, it tells of a gift beyond price, born in a manger.
LVIA spokeswoman Paula Bonstein said the airport will host three student groups Wednesday and three more on Thursday, so if you are heading anywhere by plane, be sure to lend an ear for a while.
daniel.sheehan@mcall.com
610-820-6598
IN THE BURBS
At LVIA, student musicians take wing
Dieruff band and choir perform as part of long-running holiday music series.
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