I love Christmas.

I love it so much I try to live it every day by being as nice as one should around the holiday season. I don’t believe holiday kindness should be restricted to the holiday season. I think it should be an all-year thing.

I’m also of the mind that there are essentially two Christmases – one religious, one cultural/commercial. There is some overlap, but the religious one is about Jesus, and the cultural/commercial one is about Santa. Both encourage us to be nice and generous, both have solid traditions that have been around for many years. And honestly, both are kind of bullshit, when you really get down to it, but let’s not think about that right now.

Let’s talk about my history with Christmas, and specifically Christmas music, since this is primarily a music blog.

My earliest memories of Christmas traditions are everyone planning to go to midnight mass, Christmas trees and lights on houses, and people caroling. Christmas specials on TV (like “A Charlie Brown Christmas”, which features some of the best music ever recorded – we’ll get to that later), and everyone trying to be a little nicer and a little more generous.

As my ideas about Christmas progressed, I guess I believed in Santa, but can distinctly remember when I got wise that it was just a fun myth, when I walked in on people wrapping presents in my Granny’s kitchen one year. I was sworn to secrecy and maintained the fiction, feeling cool because I was in on the tradition with the grown-ups for years, until my little brothers all figured it out on their own.

A constant feature of Christmas gatherings and celebrations in my family was Christmas music. All the standards – Rudolph, Frosty, Sleigh Bells, Jingle Bells, Silent Night, White Christmas, etc. We’d all sing the songs together, sometimes in the car like in “A Christmas Story”, and since no one in the family were musicians, it was all acapella. It was nice.

My family was religious, but in a New York Roman Catholic sort of way – you went to mass, coffee and donuts after, every now and then confession, you did stuff for people, that was pretty much the expression of the faith. The music at church (really, no matter what parish we attended through the years – we moved a lot) was thoroughly mediocre. So I don’t really have a “church music” influence when it comes to Christmas music. It’s all mass-market/pop culture stuff. I’d add the classical stuff through music appreciation class in college and through my first marriage, because her mom is an opera singer and classical music was BIG in her family.

So as we explore the Christmas music I love, I’m going to just start with my favorite Christmas music. It is the music from “A Charlie Brown Christmas” – all the wonderful pieces by the Vince Guaraldi Trio. It’s somehow simple and complex at the same time – enhancing its memorable melodic ideas with a whole lot of tasty jazz stuff. And it just feels like Christmas to me.

My mother was the main driving force in Christmas music, and since she’s a proud Irish-American woman, we heard a lot of The Clancy Brothers Christmas. The fact that she’s an early Baby Boomer means that we got a heaping helping of The Beach Boys Christmas album, too.

Of course, when radio stations would play the Christmas classics, or we’d be walking through stores listening to the in-store PA, we’d always happily consume all-time classics like Burl Ives’ version of “A Holly Jolly Christmas” or “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer“, Andy Williams’ “It’s The Most Wonderful Time of the Year“, Nat King Cole’s “The Christmas Song“, Leroy Anderson’s “Sleigh Ride” instrumental, and basically everything that shows up on the “Christmas Classics” playlists. It all made an imprint, and certain songs are guaranteed to either whip up powerful feelings of nostalgia, or powerful feelings of absence and detachment, not being with my family for the holidays. (Fuck you very much, Coronavirus, and all the idiots who haven’t followed guidelines and allowed you to keep spreading)

All those classics kind of lived right next to the more “rock era” Christmas standards, like Bobby Helms’ “Jingle Bell Rock“, the stuff from Darlene Love and The Ronettes, the aforementioned Beach Boys (“Little Saint Nick”), Brenda Lee, and all that stuff.

And of course, the novelty classics, like The Chipmunk Song. That one was huge to me because it was so funny. We had that album, too. And I remember my parents had a copy of José Feliciano’s self-titled album from 1970 that featured “Feliz Navidad” as its first track. It was shiny. The Spotify link goes to the 2002 reissue, which they renamed after the famous track. I still smile when I hear that song.

As I got older, new Christmas albums became traditions, like the very first “A Very Special Christmas” CD. Run-D.M.C.’s “Christmas In Hollis” is still one of my favorite Christmas songs. Lots of really weird and cool interpretations of Christmas classics on that one. One of my favorite adopted traditions that started as a joke but became a staple is Alabama Christmas. Ten all-original Christmas songs by everyone’s favorite Country crossover artist from the 80s, Alabama. Ranging from sappy to goofy to lovely, it pretty much is a perfect Christmas encapsulation of Alabama as an artist. More artists should find a way to make a Christmas album as perfectly “them” and as perfectly original as this Alabama album. I think you’ll be surprised at how delightfully “Christmas” and how warm it is, if you’re open to the 80s country thing.

As I mentioned before, it wasn’t until I got older that I started to appreciate classical Christmas music, which is kind of ironic considering my interest in the religious aspects of the holiday are inversely proportional to the religious themes of most of the beautiful sacred classical music I’ve grown fond of in the last 20 years or so.

Other Christmas songs that seem to be beloved, like “Happy Xmas (War Is Over” and “Wonderful Christmastime” can die in a fire, for me. Not sure why I hate them so much, considering my admiration for John and Paul otherwise, but I do. Nothing gets me off a Christmas station or skipping on a playlist faster than those two songs. Well, maybe “The Christmas Shoes“, but that abomination is at least fairly universally reviled except by the cheesiest people.

The more recent pop Christmas stuff – 80s stuff like “Last Christmas“, “Do They Know It’s Christmas“, 90s stuff like “All I Want For Christmas Is You” – meh, it’s fine. I don’t really love it, but I don’t hate it, either. I did enjoy that movie “Last Christmas” from last Christmas with Emilia Clarke, though.

Even though I love it, I completely understand why people might not be into Christmas music, because I recognize how much of my affection for it comes from my family and life experiences and not from a pure place of musical appreciation or some sort of deep religious connection to Christmas.

I hope you’ve all had a wonderful Christmas. Mine was lovely. I miss my family, but I will figure out a way to be sure we’re together at least in part next year.

Take care, mask up, stay home, and peace be the journey. Black Lives Matter.

Happy Christmas to all – even if it’s just December 25th to you.

TMS