Maybe it is because TV Commercials bear the brunt of our animus about watching network TV (those repeated interruptions to watching what we really want to see) that we tend to overlook the concise creativity that can be contained in 60 seconds or less.
Sometimes we have to tip our hat… because there can be more creativity in that single minute than can be found in an hour of the show we thought was going to be special.
Hallmark Cards I think has done a very good job of projecting moods and sentiment in their 60 second stories. I guess this makes sense… their business, after all, is transistorizing ideas into a brief verse or a quick tag line.
I don’t know when I first saw this commercial… but it goes back some, although I think they might take this Commercial down “off the shelf” this time of the year and put it back into play… I am not sure about this, I watch so little TV these days.
But the Ad always hit the right chord for me…
Picture a den, or perhaps a cozy living room… it’s in the evening, the glow of low lamps and the fire lit in the hearth creating a warmth for the room… Mother is at the piano, or father (or some other adult)… and there facing into a room is a small boy, hair neatly combed… an angelic quality to his voice…
Oh Holy Night!
The Stars are brightly shining
It is the night of our Savior’s birth!
We pan around the room… we see other family members, Grandparents, too… all there on the gathering of an important evening…
Fall on your knees
Oh hear the angel voices
Oh night divine
Then, unknown to the little boy, the door to the outside opens and in comes in a young adult… perhaps he takes off his coat and positions himself in back of the little boy and joins in perfect “college glee club” harmony…
Led by the light of Faith serenely beaming
With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand
So led by light of a star sweetly gleaming
The little boy allows himself to turn to catch sight of his big brother returned home for the Holidays.
Yes, it was a “Hallmark Moment” for me. Paul is 11 years my senior… what I judge to be the gap between the two brothers in the commercial…
So I could have been 9 or 10… and Paul would come home from Union and Lynn would come home from Western College for Women… and I would feel excited, and whole again, just like the little boy in the Hallmark commercial.
It is a compelling time of the year… a time to enjoy shared times present and past… and to look to times future… to new stories and additions to our family circles.
Best wishes to you all…