Getting the Better of Seasonal Excess

“Christmas is still more than a week away and I’ve already eaten too much, spent too much and been to too many parties.”

Those words were spoken by a colleague early last week.

It is now the day before Christmas and an additional week’s worth of excess has passed.

I know that we are still in that period of festive-speak--when language related to the holidays is supposed to reflect the finest sentiments of the season. All words are expected to be bubbly, sparkling and sweet with terms expressing joyfulness and goodwill.

So, it’s probably socially incorrect, and I’m sure to risk spamming by derisive e-mail for saying what I’m about to say, but-- Enough. Uncle. Could we please fast forward to January?

While this is a time of camaraderie and good cheer, when we open the noblest compartments of our character to both our immediate families and the world at large, it also is the season when we push our blood cholesterol levels to dangerous heights, max out our credit cards and spoil our children. It is a time when we need a second trust deed and psychiatric intervention just to deal with the December electric bill.

And while we are on the subject of holiday lights, who was the first to confuse Christmas with Las Vegas?

While nothing cheers a long, dark winter’s night like an elegant holiday display, these spectacles of illumination--all flashing, all twinkling, and all rotating all of the time--could give a migraine to a honky-tonk bartender.

We can always say no thank you to another butter cookie. We can turn our heads when driving past a blinking reindeer silhouette. But there is one thing we can’t hide from--holiday music.

No, not the music of Messiaen, Britten or Handel. We’re talking about holiday Musak--that heavily sweetened, over-produced stuff piped into elevators, shopping malls and restaurants. Like an alien abduction, it’s hard to ignore. And like an alien implant, it messes with your mind.

“You do get a little tired of walking through the malls and hearing that sort of thing,” said Beverly Springer. “What we don’t get enough of is caroling.”

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Of course Springer would say that. As a member of the Channelaire Chorus, the Ventura County chapter of Sweet Adelines International, a nonprofit a cappella choir, Springer could be called a professional caroler. She has been singing with the group for three years. The group itself has 95 members and has been performing in the county for 36 years.

“We have been singing Christmas songs since July, because we have been working on them for our various holiday programs,” she said.

So she must know something about holiday music overload.

“I can’t help you there,” she said. “When you are singing Christmas carols you don’t get sick of them--they are the very essence of who we are. So many of our members just live for this time of year. When we go out to sing, say, ‘I Saw Mama Kissing Santa Claus’ to a group of little children, it just transports us--every single time, no matter how often we do it.”

This month, the chorus has performed at the Ventura Street Fair, Universal CityWalk, the Winter Wonderland on Ice in Thousand Oaks, and at the Westlake Inn tree-lighting ceremony.

“And in a lot of malls,” said Springer, laughing. By the time the new year has been rung in, the chorus will have performed 12 to 15 times.

“We love it,” she said. “This is the one way, other than the religious aspect, we can keep the true meaning of the holiday alive. To us, it is the real tradition of Christmas.”

In addition to performances, the chorus meets for rehearsals every Tuesday night at the Village Square Shopping Center in Camarillo. Rehearsals last nearly three hours. “But the time just flies by,” said Springer.

Any woman who can carry a tune and is interested in learning four-part harmony is invited to join. “We have professional women, housewives, retired women, college students,” said Springer. “Women of all ages, and all shapes and sizes.”

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Besides being inspiring, the chorus is therapeutic. “You can’t get depressed when you sing,” said Springer. “And it is a wonderful way to connect to the community.”

And to the holiday.

“When you go out and sing at different places and for different groups of people, you are invited into everyone else’s holiday,” said Springer. “While we share our music with them, they share their holiday with us.”

Listening to Springer, it’s hard not to get swept up in the enthusiasm, even to the extent of making a date to attend one of the rehearsals. But not until late in January. I didn’t want to risk running into any more holiday treats. Springer understood.

“Someone,” she said, “has been telling on me about the calories haven’t they?”

Wendy Miller is a Times staff writer.

’ When you go out and sing at different places and for different groups of people, you are invited into everyone else’s holiday. While we share our music with them, they share their holiday with us.’

BEVERLY SPRINGER

Channelaire Chorus