It was my custom, for years, to post this beautiful song around Christmas-time, as a present to my readers. With all the chaos here lately, I’d completely forgotten it. Until today.
So here it is: My Love’s an Arbutus, sing by the Fairhaven Singers conducted by Charles V. Stanford.
It makes a brief and lovely appearance in 1951’s Scrooge with Alistair Sim.
This is my annual Christmas gift to my readers–My Love’s an Arbutus, by the Fairhaven Singers. This hauntingly beautiful song is used as Alice’s theme in Scrooge, my favorite movie adaptation of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.” Can’t watch it without being deeply moved. But then if redemption doesn’t stir your soul, what will?
Our friend Mike has asked me to name the movies that I really like. Fair enough–although I have so many favorites, I couldn’t possibly name them all. So I’ll just trot out a few that would always be on the list regardless.
Scrooge. This is the 1951 “Christmas Carol” starring Alistair Sim. We make sure to watch it every Christmas. Nothing beats Alistair Sim’s performance.
Gunga Din. You’re only young once, but you can be immature forever. We might call this movie a celebration of male silliness–only it’s so much fun! I don’t know whether to call this “ham acting” or histrionic brilliance. Either way it works for me.
Jurassic Park. I can’t help it, I’m a lifelong dinosaur freak. But what I love even more about this movie is the way it totally shreds the whole idea that Science Is Always Right And We’re In Control And What Could Possibly Go Wrong!
Never Let Go. (1960) Peter Sellers takes a break from comedy to be a villain–and turns in a great performance. Richard Todd is the poor underdog who has to go up against a ruthless criminal. No kidding, it’s up there with The Iliad.
Treasure Island. The 1934 version, with Wallace Beery and Jackie Cooper and a fantastic supporting cast. Another one of my absolutely all-time favorites–starting with the titles (“Sixteen men on a dead man’s chest, yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum”)! If this movie can’t crank you over, better see if you can still fog a mirror.
Jason and the Argonauts. Glorious musical score by Bernard Herrmann, and some of the best-ever special effects by Ray Harryhausen. See the colossal statue of Talos come to life! Fight off an platoon of animated skeletons! It just doesn’t get better than this.
The Uninvited. Understated film in black and white, widely regarded as one of the best ghost stories ever filmed. Starring Ray Milland and Cornelia Otis Skinner. No sex, no gore, no cussin’, no computer-generated razzle-dazzle… but really, truly creepy! Its reputation is well-earned.
That’s seven of my favorites. I could do this all day, but can’t spare the time.
Yo! out there! I’d very much enjoy seeing your list of favorites.
We watched this yesterday–Scrooge, the 1951 retelling of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, starring Alistair Sim. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen this. Dozens? At least forty, given that Patty and I watch it every Christmas. But it won’t matter if we see it forty times more: it has never failed to melt my heart, and never will.
Why? Because it’s about redemption! What could possibly be more important? And who doesn’t need it?
By the time we were halfway through the story yesterday, I was shaking my head: this was a man who had seriously made a hog’s ass of his life. He’d started out with real disadvantages–his mother died, his father never loved him–which he parleyed into enduring character flaws. If ever a man was bound for Hell, it was he.
And by the power of Jesus Christ, acting through Christmas… he’s saved.
Think about that. Saved! Think of the bad things that you’ve said and done in your life. Truly awful, isn’t it? Oh, what was I thinking!
But God’s sovereign grace, in Jesus Christ, has wiped them all away. They won’t count against us. They won’t even be mentioned.
That’s what this story is about. That’s why it never gets old.
If you haven’t seen it, or been a long time without it–well, it’s easy enough to find on line. Find an hour and a half to give to it. You’ll be abundantly repaid.
I like to post this every year at Christmas-time, as a gift to all your good folks out there–My Love’s an Arbutus, performed by the Fairhaven Singers. It’ll seem familiar to you, even if you’re sure you haven’t heart it before. But you probably have. It was used as one of the musical themes in the best Christmas movie ever, Scrooge, in 1951.
I have a couple more hymns liked up for you, but first I’ve got to make the bed and have some breakfast–chicken and barley soup on a cold, grey morning. I’d love for it to snow…
P.S.–My wife was about to go outside when she saw this on the screen. “Ah!” she said. “My Love’s an Arbutus! I had to see the picture, though. I can’t hear it.”
“That’s because it’s not on,” I said. “I can’t post it and play it at the same time.”
She was greatly relieved that her hearing isn’t that bad.
Patty and I got all misty-eyed, as we do every Christmas, watching the Alistair Sim classic, Scrooge (aka A Christmas Carol), this afternoon. What a pair of softies! I mean, what’s the big deal? It’s only redemption!
Here’s young Scrooge at Mr. Fezziwig’s Christmas party, with one of the classic folk dances of England and Scotland–“Sir Roger de Coverley.” Published back in 1695, this dance turns up in several 19th century novels.
Have any of you out there ever danced it?
Anyway, out of all the fine movie versions of A Christmas Carol, this one is our favorite. Hankie, please!
This little melody is Tiny Tim’s theme in Scrooge, the 1951 Christmas classic starring Alistair Sim (which we watched yesterday). The toys in the shop window are all genuine antiques–although I think the big guffawing mechanical doll might have freaked me out when I was little. Anyhow, this tune has been part of our Christmas here for over 40 years, and I’d like to share it with you today.
It’s become my yearly custom, at Christmas-time, to present you with this, My Love’s an Arbutus, sung by the Fairhaven Singers, for no other reason but its simple sweetness.
If it sounds familiar to you, and yet you can’t quite place it, you probably heard it as background music in Scrooge (1951, the one with Alistair Sim), as Alice’s theme.
Anyway, here it is. Merry Christmas, everybody.
So, once again we’ve watched Scrooge, the 1951 classic treatment of A Christmas Carol, starring Alistair Sim.
Aside from its being simply a wonderfully fine piece of art, what is it about this movie that makes us crave it every Christmas season? Why does it never fail to deeply move us?
Because it’s about getting something that every one of us desperately needs: Redemption.
Take Scrooge’s tour of his own past, in which he sees himself turn, slowly but irresistibly, into a cold-hearted monster of selfishness, ingratitude, and amorality. As someone who does like a stroll down memory lane, I have to admit that there are certain dark alleys that I have to hurry past. But who hasn’t got scenes he would rather not relive, would not even wish to see again? And Scrooge is put through the whole nine yards, all his sins revisited.
And that’s just setting him up for a grim peek at his future…
But the good news, the best news, is that Jesus Christ is born and has the power to redeem us from our sins, to wash us clean of them; and He has already paid the penalty for them. That is the whole point of the story.
Imagine: you’re an old man with boxcar-loads of money which you’ve never spent, and suddenly your eyes open and your heart revives and you can turn that money loose to do an endless amount of good–and turn yourself loose, too. You are redeemed! Christ rules, and your sins have no more power to drag you into your grave. Suddenly, amazingly, you’re free. Free to love, and be loved; free to give, and be given to; free to hope, and to give hope to others–and you will never, ever run out of love and benevolence. The more you give, the more you can give.
That’s why Scrooge is so all-fired happy as the movie ends. And the Lord who has given him that happiness, as the Spirit of Christmas Present says, lives and acts not only on Christmas Day, but in every day throughout the year.
If that doesn’t make you feel like dancing the polka, what will?
This isn’t genuine Christmas music, but I always associate it with Christmas because if features prominently in my favorite Christmas movie–Scrooge, the 1951 version of A Christmas Carol starring Alistair Sim. It’s used as the theme for Alice, the sweet young woman Scrooge loved once and should have married. We’re going to watch it this afternoon–a Christmas tradition at our house.
If you can’t quite make out the lyrics, never mind. The melody evokes gentleness, sweetness, and love: in the words of our esteemed colleague, “Unknowable,” the beauty of goodness.
I can’t put it better than that.