When I was growing up, one of my favorite Christmas songs was “The Little Drummer Boy.” Come to think of it, it is still one. I love song lyrics I can remember and sing along with.
But…it is one of those songs that can give me an earworm in a hurry.
Sing it with me now…
Pa rum pum pum-pum,
rum pum pum-pum,
rum pum pum-pum
Shall I play for you
Pa rum pum pum-pum
On my drum
When our kids were little, my mother (who also loved The Little Drummer Boy song) gave us a gift for our tree. She bought a set for herself, too. After all these years, we have the set remaining in our collection of decorations.
Every time I move the box out-of-the-way to get to the decorations we are putting out, I think of her and how she adored the little drummers. They are cute in a blurry kind of way.
I also think of how loud those darn little drummers were when she hung them the first time on her Christmas tree. The whole tree shook with the percussive sounds of the eight tiny little drummer boys smiling as they rocked their stuff.
After that first year, the little guys were placed on a board, covered in faux snow, and set on a side table. The tree rocking just didn’t make the cut.
They didn’t make it in our household either.
They were too loud – and the kids loved them, too much for our adult ears.
When the little marching band was turned on and playing, the piercing sounds of the sixteen drums clattering through the 35 different songs (if we let them play long enough to hear all of them – ever?) quickly gave us a headache.
We had to limit play time as much as possible.
Terrible parents, we were to deprive them of the precious sounds of Santa’s Marching Band.
So one year, we strategically stopped putting them out. No one really seemed to care. Perhaps they bothered everyone more than they admitted to it?
Now that we’re empty nesters, we’ve been sorting through decorations to see what we want to keep.
The little drummer box is still intact, but it is dusty. (Ah-choo!!!) It might be something I could try selling it on E-bay? Nah…not yet.
(Ah-choo!!!) The sounds of 35 different Christmas carols shall remain contained in their dust-covered box another year. I just can’t bring myself to put them out. I’m kind of enjoying the idea of peaceful sounds for this season.
Maybe, someday…when I’m a Nana and my husband a Grandpa, we’ll get them out to amaze our grandkids? Yeah, that’s the ticket to a show they’ll remember.
Until then, happy memories of little drummers remain safe and sound, tucked far-far-away in the back of the storage closet.
