Christmas Music

I love Christmas music but my kids hate it. I have failed miserably somewhere along the way. They were also traumatized by a McGee and Me video that has a Christmas carol playing during the scariest part of the story. Oh well. I will blame it on Dobson.


I have been in the car for 2 hours running around and listening to the Christmas station. If you listen long enough, you hear some odd renditions. Like Frank Sinatra and Cyndi Lauper singing Santa Claus is Coming to Town. It was pretty good. However I think that The Jackson Five singing Frosty the Snowman should be banned. Creepy!


I think Andy Williams can sing any Christmas song around. He had a great voice. Also I like Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra. I am not a Josh Groban fan but he does an awesome Oh Holy Night, which is my favorite. Johnny Mathis and Aaron Neville should both be banned. I cannot stand their voices. I don't like many women singers but Amy Grant does great Christmas songs. Karen Carpenter sings depressing ones.


Christmas carols hold so many memories. One of the first memories I have of Christmas music is sitting in church when I was about 6 listening to the choir which included my mom sing Angels We Have Heard on High and thinking it was the most beautiful thing ever. Oh Holy Night always takes me to the Texas Tech campus and the ceremony where they switch on thousands of lights on the main campus buildings. They used to have a professor with a rich baritone voice sing Oh Holy Night during that lighting ceremony and it was so beautiful. Also, my family would sing carols on the ride to my grandmother's house. I always liked that. Car rides were not always fun when I was little but this one was full of anticipation.

Carols have an interesting history. The carol's roots came not from the organized church, but from the common people who wished to express their simple ideas and honest feelings that were not expressed by the somber music of the church. By the 14thcentury, carol singing was firmly established throughout Europe, not to mention the dancing that accompanied it. Carols originally were associated with dancing, which explains why their tunes are livelier than that of standard church music of the day. Originally, carols were sung for all occasions,not just Christmas.