As beautiful as it is, “Little Altar Boy,” doesn’t really belong to any holiday season.
That’s more-or-less what they said once when I pointed out that it was actually only 7 days from Christmas to the Circumcision (New Years). The thing is, if it’s 8 days to the Circumcision (as required by Jewish law), then it’s 13 days to Epiphany. You can’t have it both ways. OK, maybe you can, but. you’re going to have annoying people like me pointing out the inconsistencies.
It’s Diehard, it fits wherever it ****ing wants to.
Actually, IIRC, the Baptism of Jesus (by John, when they were both adults) is also considered one of the Epiphany Events.
Here’s a surprising one that I only just noticed yesterday at Christmas Eve mass: “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear”. The song is about angels singing, sure… but it never once mentions the event for which they’re singing.
Not completely shocking, since it was written by a Unitarian pastor. But, yeah, five stanzas to the poem and the reason they are delivering their message one midnight is not mentioned.
Uh, no, actually that one is about the birth of Jesus, albeit loosely.
Thank you for noticing that. I have been saying that for years and nobody listens.
Uh, no, actually it’s not. It has a few of the trappings of the Christmas story, but it’s certainly not about the Christmas story.
Yes, it is. True, it’s theme is a cry for peace, (during the Cuban Missle crisis) but the lryics or plot is abut the baby Jesus.
Lambs, stars, shepherd, Kings, a child to whom you bring gifts, etc.
Like Alice’s restaurant has as it’s plot some kids getting arrested for littering and how said arrest effected one of them during his Military Draft process. But the theme is reistance to the Viet Nam war.
Trappings only. Jesus, as far as I know, never received silver, and he was never shivering in the cold. No king involved in the Christmas story ever said, “Hey… let’s all just get along, okay?”
Yeah, but “gold” rhymes with “cold”, “myrhh” doesn’t. Although Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh are listed as gifts by the Wise Men, it could be argued that it doesn’t exclude other gifts. Although there is no record in Matthew or Luke of a shepherd passing on info to one of the 3 kings (or even that they were kings, or that there were 3 of them in number), it could also be argued that one of the shepherds who were present at the birth, or who may have heard it from one of the shepherds who were there, could have passed directions on to one of the Magi.
He may well have shivered in the cold if He was born in December, which some evidence indicates.
As a plea for peace on the birthday of the Prince of Peace, it’s more of a Christmas song that John and Yoko’s “Happy Xmas (War is Over)”. It does reference the Christ-child, at least, although it gets some of the particulars wrong.
The whole topic is like defining what “science fiction” is. Fans and SF authors argued for years about it, and one of the best answers is, “It’s what’s on the shelf in the book store labeled “Science Fiction””.
Christmas music is, ultimately, what you find on Christmas albums.
Epiphany is generally not considered Christmastide. Twelfth Night (Jan 5) is considered the end of Christmas.
God (King of all creation) did, though the angelic song (“Peace on earth, goodwill towards man” and all that).
I think it’s a bit obvious the event they are singing, however ;).
There is only one place in Scripture where angels sing that song…
I feel like that’s a bit like calling the Turtles’ ‘‘So Happy Together’’ a love song. It’s true in the letter of the law, but not the spirit. The writers of ''Do you Hear What I Hear?" didn’t want to write a Christmas song, but they were under pressure to do so, so I consider it a song about war that uses Christmas imagery as a veneer to occlude its actual message.
Some of the lyrics are downright chilling if you truly understand the context
*A star, a star, dancing in the night
With a tail as big as a kite
A song, a song, high above the trees
With a voice as big as the sea
*
The thing they are hearing/seeing is not the birth of the Christ. It’s a motherfucking atomic bomb.
I actually have a special affinity for songs written to spite agents. I should maybe start a thread about it.
Although I guess you could be generous and suppose they are drawing a parallel between the radical universe-reorganizing power of the birth of Christ, and the similar power of an atomic bomb. That’s kind of awesome. It might be my favorite Christmas song now.
I don’t see that at all, though your interpretation is a valid one. I see two children mentioned.
One child stands for the cold, hungry children of the world (either the ones who are neglected here in the real world or the hypothetical ones suffering after the atomic war). The other child is not Christ, but is all the children of the world, our future, the ones we should be tending to and supporting, not leaving dead or destitute with our nuclear missiles.
The king’s lyrics give us a choice of which child we will have.
Just seen this, yes it is a Fritz Leiber reference via Dr Spooner 
A couple of points:
*Only You * by The Flying Pickets doesn’t have any Christmas connection, it just happens to have been released around Christmas, and was a hit record during the Christmas period.
The song *Walking In The Air *in the film *The Snowman *was actually recorded by Peter Auty. The record by Aled Jones was a cover version.