Christmas Concert with Jack Hutton & Darryl Hollingsworth

The hour-long program, which starts at 6 pm, includes some of your favorite carols but it starts with the hear-rending story behind the much loved Christmas song, I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day.

More than 20 years ago my wife Linda and my stepson John Jackson traveled to Cambridge, Massachusetts, for some historic research. While there we visited an historic home where America’s favorite poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, once lived.

The home is now a museum and the guide Paul showed us a downstairs room where Longfellow’s wife Fanny, was sitting beside an open window on July 9th, 1861. She was putting curls of her children into envelopes which she sealed with wax that she heated with a candle.

Fanny dropped some of the wax onto her cotton dress as a puff of warm wind came through the window. Seconds later Fanny’s dress had caught on fire. Screaming, Fanny ran into the next room where her husband sprang to rescue her.

Longfellow first grabbed a tiny rug from the floor but it was too small. Ignoring the pain, he threw his arms around Fanny and pressed his body against hers. He succeeded in smothering the flames. He succeeded but badly burned the lower part of his face and both arms.

Paul next showed us the canopy bed upstairs where Fanny died the following morning. Longfellow, whose burns prevented him from attending her funeral, was in the depths of despair for two years, refusing to have anything to do with Christmas. His eldest son Charles ran away the following year to join the Northern army and was badly wounded in a major battle. That gave Longfellow even more reason to be mad at God.

On Christmas day in 1863 Longfellow realized that things had changed in two years. The Northern army was close to winning the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln was about to be re-elected with a huge majority. Most important of all, son Charles had fully recovered.

Longfellow went upstairs in his home and opened a window just in time to hear the sound of Christmas bells from Cambridge’s oldest church across town.

He found a pen and sat down at a table to write the words that you will hear Darryl sing at our concert.

You will have no trouble finding Zion Presbyterian Church. Drive to the flashing yellow light at the Highway 169 entrance. If coming from Bala, turn left. If coming from Gravenhurst, turn right.

You will pass the Torrance Community Centre. Zion Church is just a few hundred yards past that on the right and lit to welcome you.

Be prepared to sing along with carols that are in the hymnal in front of you. We have also included Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer for the kids.

Hot apple cider and home-baked goodies follow the Concert.