Ok, so I’m not actually a Christian… but that does not prevent me from absolutely freaking out every time I hear a Christmas song. Not only do I get incredibly nostalgic about the days I was a Christian, but also the songs about the birth of Christ speak to me about an era of hope for a long-oppressed people… and the transformative power of faith.
My all time FAVORITE Christmas song is ‘‘The Little Drummer Boy.’’ The song sounds like it’s coming from the mouth of a kid what with its repetitive and simple nature, and those lines,
I am a poor boy too
(The origin of the Savior is a birth into poverty,starting where we all started and struggling the same… what amazing hope and delight this must have given the boy, to know that God’s Greatest Gift is just like him…)
and
I played my best for him
(it’s the earnest tone, almost desperate, the kid knowing he never had a more important audience, wanting to give everything he had, heart and soul…)
never fail to make me weepy with the earnestness of their nature. I heard the song this morning on the radio by one of my least favorite musical artists and I was still bawling like a baby.
What is a more wonderful way to get at the heart of the season than the story of how a kid with nothing ‘‘good’’ to give his King gave the best thing he had – his passion, his music–and did so with out realizing there could be no finer or more sincere gift?
Man, I freakin’ love that song. I’m tearing up just thinking about it.
Ok, your turn. What’s your favorite holiday song, and why?
I am not religious anymore either but my favorite Christmas song is “O Holy Night” as long as the singer doesn’t massacre it. Second fave is “Angels We Have Heard on High”. Actually the non-religious songs are way down my list.
My favorites are both Peter, Paul & Mary tunes.
‘Children, Go Where I Send Thee’ is one of them. The other isn’t necessarily a Christmas song, but they sang it on their Christmas special on PBS years ago.
It’s called, ‘The Marvelous Toy’.
You can’t help but laugh and smile when you hear this one!
I’m not a religious person at all, so that has nothing to do with it.
I just enjoy a good holiday song, and these two fit the bill!
I love to hear and sing Joy To The World and O Come All Ye Faithful. Both hymns are expressive and must be sung loud and joyfully. They give me goose bumps.
I like “O Come All Ye Faithful”, too, but in Latin. I sang in a church folk group over 20 years ago and I still remember the Latin version, Adeste Fideles. Well, just the first verse.
I also love a song that is sung during Advent in church called “O Come O Come Emmanuel.” You don’t hear it too much anywhere else. Gives me incentive to make it to mass during Advent.
O Little Town of Bethlehem – if you use all the verses. The two Christina Rossetti carols that seem to get short shrift by everyone. Silent Night, a capella or with very subdued accompaniment, sung at the end of a Midnight Mass in a darkened church by a congregation on their knees.
Among secular Christmas songs, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas always touches me.
99% of all what-would-have-been-good Christmas Music has been done to death, its guts torn out and used for stringing instruments, with the percussionist drumming on the corpse, and then a party of carolers finely chopping the remains and strewing them about as they go a-wassailing.
I love “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” even though it is hardly ever played. The BNL version has gotten some play though. I guess I like it cause I hardly ever heard it.;
Oh and I also sing, “Great Day in Bethlehem,” to myself all the time, but manage to subdue the hand gestures.
Ring Out, Solstice Bells - Jethro Tull, 'cause it ain’t Christmas for me, it’s The Solstice!
*Now is the solstice of the year,
winter is the glad song that you hear …
… Praise be to the distant sister sun,
joyful as the silver planets run …*I don’t get into the Christmas spirit 'till I hear Christmas Wrapping - The Waitresses (just like it ain’t Thanksgiving with out Alice’s Restaurant).
O Holy Night, as long as they don’t “style” it much or punk out on the high note.
And it may not be a Christmas song, technically, but I love it and see no reason why it can’t be played on one of the all-Christmas-music stations: Hard Candy Christmas, by Dolly Parton.