The King of Rock’n’Roll: Part 9 of our stories about Christmas rituals.
It started with a summer vacation in Austria. I was nine years old and Elvis Presley was dead. I had no idea who Elvis Presley was (well, an idea, but not very much more), but I saw the cover picture on the “star” my parents wrote on Kiosk and fell in love with it. This Elvis looked just amazing (they had a picture from the early years of his career). Just stupid that I would never be able to meet this handsome man. In exchange I had his records given to me, for my birthday, for Christmas and in between. In addition, my pocket money was on it. When I got a dwarf rabbit two years later, I named it Elvis.
Why does that matter here? Well, because of the ritual. After putting together about 17 Elvis records (maybe only eleven) I discovered that the King had also intoned Christmas carols. It was summer but I immediately loved this record. That was of course also due to the fact that the singer is shown in a chic ski suit. He’s standing in the snow, his arms crossed and frozen in front of his chest and smiling his Elvis smile. So sweet! Since then – no lie – not a single one of the following 38 Christmases has passed without my parents putting on the Elvis record. It’s now a CD, of course. We tried Bing Crosby every now and then, but it didn’t work. It’s just not a real Christmas without Elvis.
Already on Christmas Eve the King belts out his “Santa Claus is back in town” through our living room (that is, that of my parents), while the tinsel glitters with the sparklers and the flames sway harmoniously in time due to a draft problem. Whether “Silent Night”, “White Christmas” or “Little Town of Bethlehem”, the King makes everything sound like typical Elvis Schmonzetten, but that’s what it’s all about. You really want a little kitsch at Christmas. But not only, some numbers are really bluesy or rocky (oh yeah!). And of course there are also gospel elements, which is good at Christmas anyway.
In the meantime – admittedly – the CD doesn’t play as often as it used to. Instead of sixty times over two and a half days, it is now a maximum of five times over one and a half days. We usually do not do it on Boxing Day. But there is no other way on Christmas Eve: When the presents are handed over, the King plays over and over and over again.
