Joyful Christmas Sounds and Sites

It is a time of lights, yes, but also of sounds--sounds that flood in to reassure and delight. Outdoors, bells ringing in church steeples and in the hands of Volunteers of America Santas, organ music at skating rinks, the slash of sharp blades on crisp ice. At home, crackling fires and, if it has snowed, the stamping of feet as friends come in from the cold. Much later, out of the silent indoor darkness, the unmistakable soft tinkle and pop when an ornament falls off the tree. Above all, there is the joyous sound of people singing. Across the nation this week, hymns and carols fill the air with promise, renewing the covenants of peace and fellowship once more.

On a bitter, windswept night, crowds gathered in Boston to see the city's Christmas tree lighted. Then, as a glow enveloped the 55-ft. spruce, Boston Pops Conductor John Williams led a choir of 500 boys and girls from local schools in Silent Night as 10,000 Bostonians sang along. In Chicago 2,300 amateurs filled Orchestra Hall to overflowing for the city's fifth annual sing-it-yourself production of Handel's Messiah. Jeane Moore, a Montana housewife, flew 1,600 miles from Kalispell just to sing in Chicago after seeing the concert last year on television. Said Conductor Margaret Hillis to an earnest cast, as an all-volunteer, 100-piece orchestra (aged twelve to 74) tuned up: "Handel would be delighted." And suddenly, there was with the angel a multitude. In New York City, Pop Singer Toni Tennille joined the La Guardia Community College choir and throngs of shoppers in O Come All Ye Faithful and Jingle Bells when the 65-ft. Norway spruce was lighted in Rockefeller Center. Meanwhile, in California nearly 4,000 members of the Reform Church of America at Garden Grove's fancy new million-dollar Crystal Cathedral heard Roger Williams play Deck the Halls in a special service to be televised for Christmas Day.

Not all of the voices were raised in song. There were gasps of wonder as visitors to the California Museum of Science in Los Angeles came upon a cluster of eight fantastic gilded angels, each 28 ft. tall and cunningly wrought out of glass, steel, bits of tapestry and even animal bones. The angels, created by Sculptor Tony Duquette and illuminated by hundreds of flickering votive candles, helped commemorate the 200th anniversary of the City of Angels.

In Washington, President Carter asked the families of the American hostages whether they wanted the national tree lighted this year, and they chose to keep it dark once again as a continuing vigil--except for a single star on the top.

And there were some sighs of surprise. The citizens of Bradner, Ohio, could hardly believe their eyes when they opened their utility bills from the board of public affairs. All were stamped MERRY CHRISTMAS! PAID. Explained Board Chairman Dick Fairbanks, thinking perhaps of three other government officials who bore gifts to Bethlehem during the same season long ago: "We were running a surplus, and this just seemed like a good idea. "It was.

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