The Music of Christmas

'Tis the season and today's the day, Christmas 2007. Every year we hear the same songs, all reminders of the days when Christmas was young and so was I. Pretty much all the songs fell into one of two categories: stuff that was religious and stuff that wasn't.

For me, the religious fare always seemed dated and overly serious. Take "Hark!
The Herald Angels Sing", for example. Who says "hark" anyway? And what's a herald angel and how is it different than an ordinary angel? So many of my church questions were never satisfactorily answered.

Christmas was supposed to be a fun, festive time but the part that involved sitting on hard church pews wasn't fun for this restless child. That's why religious Christmas songs remind me too much of temporary imprisonment and discomfort in the butt. I always found running around on the Oregon beach, even in a windy rainstorm, much more pleasant than sitting in church.

Naturally I always preferred the Christmas songs that didn't sound like church hymns, songs like "Jingle Bells", "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town", later covered so well by Bruce Springsteen. I must admit, though, that years of overexposure to this music, serving as the annual musical backdrop to Christmas, a season patina of sound you can't escape if you try, has diminished my enthusiasm for these tunes.

Ah, but then there's "The Holly and the Ivy" which never fails to coax sentimental tears from my eyes as I remember the sweet voice of my firstborn singing his first Christmas carol. The very thought of it chokes me up still.

Consider how little the artists of the past few generations have contributed to our Christmas musical inventory. There are, of course, countless Christmas albums released by big-time artists in an effort to boost sales and chip away at their contractual obligations to their labels. Some of them manage to squeeze new juice from the well-used fruits of Christmases past but mostly they just recycle the fruitcake.

Do you have a favorite new Christmas song, and in this case, by "new" I mean something released within the last thirty or forty years? For me, the hands down winner is John Lennon's "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)". Capturing the mood of "Imagine" (which stands high on my short list of the greatest songs of all time), Lennon manages to fuse wistful, uplifting Christmas sentiment with an implied plea for everyone to care more about one another and to strive to find common ground with others despite our differences. Thank you John for delivering an eternal message:

"A very Merry Christmas,
And happy New Year,
I hope it's a good one,
Without any fear."

No way I can improve on that. Happy holidays, one and all.