December came out of nowhere for me this year, and when it finally got here I was all in a grump because I couldn’t get the holiday spirit going.

Then I went with Monita and one of her friends to a Sufjan Stevens Christmas singalong. Imagine the most over-the-top kitschy decorations, then add a piano and drums and a tuba and musicians in costume (duct tape and a chicken suit work equally well as a snowman suit), and you’ll have a pretty good mental picture of the set.

For someone like me, who lives carols but can’t sing, it was the perfect concert: everyone sang to every song, and between the band and the team of choir students in the audience, it sounded like everyone could sing.

Now I have a little box of Christmas CDs, and I’m all excited to get out my tinsel tree and make my apartment look like Christmas.