Ken Lane, the former Royal London Wax Museum owner, best summed up what was surely on many people’s minds at the Royal Theatre last week.
“If you haven’t got the Christmas spirit yet, you can feel it all at once, in one place, and it really gets you going for the rest of the season,” said Lane, wearing a Santa Claus hat.
He was one of more than 4,000 patrons who attended Naden Band of the Royal Canadian Navy’s three perennially popular annual Christmas concerts.
These magical, feel-good musical fundraisers, with proceeds supporting the Salvation Army toy drive, just seem to get better every Christmas.
Once again, the musical showmanship was top-shelf, with Director of Music, Commanding Officer Lt. (Navy) Matthew Clark and the band, and guest vocalists Ken Lavigne and Stephanie Greaves wowing an appreciative crowd, including Lt.-Gov. Judith Guichon last Monday. Highlights included Pete Coulman’s swinging Jingle Bells Jazz arrangement, Lavigne’s lovely rendering of It Came Upon a Midnight Clear and Greaves’s astonishing rendition of the complex, spoofy 12 Navy Days of Christmas that wittily incorporates Rear Admiral Bill Truelove’s name.
With a $10 ticket price, these sold-out concerts are a great equalizer, uniting crowds of all ages, socio-economic backgrounds and municipalities.
“We’re the opening act,” quipped cornettist Master Seaman Robert Allen Day, president of the Chief and Petty Officers band that played in the lobby Monday before what someone described as akin to a rock concert.
The crowd’s enthusiasm and generosity was music to the ears of Pat Humble, director of Salvation Army’s Stan Hagen Centre for Families.
“The need has increased this year but nobody seems to know why,” he said to the strains of Angels We Have Heard on High.
“It’s a little sad to see but through events like this, and living in a pretty awesome city, I think we’re going to meet the greater need this year.”
Humble said donors have until 2 p.m. Christmas Eve to drop off toys, noting they could use more gifts suitable for teenagers.
Last year the Salvation Army assisted 1,500 households, he said. This year they’re helping twice that amount.
Volunteer Kelly Hanvey, ringing bells beside red donation kettles with her daughter Abigail Sandley, 7, said while many assume the kettle drive is just for Christmas, it’s the year’s major fundraiser.
Lt.-Col. Larry Martin, Salvation Army’s Vancouver-based divisional commander, said he wasn’t sure whether requests for help were greater because of rising need or increased awareness of the services they offer.
“This does bring together the whole community, and for a lot of people it’s the kickoff for the Christmas season,” he said.
Familiar faces included George Forest, a.k.a. Capt. George, the dashing, much-photographed Causeway character in a 1790s uniform who for years greeted tourists outside the Bedford Hotel and wax museum.
It was a fluke Forest was able to make it to the Naden shows he has often supported. He’s usually in Galveston, Texas, participating in the annual Dickens on the Strand Festival, at this time of year.
Having become close friends with Charles Dickens’ descendants through his appearances at the Victorian-era Christmas fundraisers they support didn’t mean Forest was displaying any Scrooge-like behaviour.
“The Dickens come to Galveston and do it all for charity,” explained Forest, who has met former U.S. presidents George W. Bush and his father during his gigs at Galveston Historical Foundation’s annual street festival.
“The Dickens are the most wonderful family I’ve ever met, very down to earth and they joke around.”
Royal Theatre house manager Deborah Johns, as jolly as old St. Nick, was also hard to miss in her red Christmas sweater she bought when she first produced Victoria’s First Night New Year’s Eve celebrations here two decades ago.
“The Christmas sweater says it all,” she said, laughing. “It helps me show people I’m happy and celebrating that time of year. Now I wear it for the Naden Band, because it’s the funnest show to work on.”