What a Life!

There are many things that help create the atmosphere of Christmas during the holiday season. My favorite, though, has to be music.

You can take music with you anywhere. At home. In the car. While you’re working out. It keeps you in that holiday spirit.

While sacred music reminds you of the reason for the season, secular music reminds you of the many traditions that go along with the holidays. There’s everything from Silent Night to Frosty the Snowman to make you smile even when you’re performing the most mundane tasks.

It’s the hap-happiest season of all! Rightly so, Christmas music puts a smile on my face and makes me happy just because.

My husband [sometimes also known as Scrooge] says he doesn’t like Christmas music. Of the three radio stations he can tune into at work, two of them go to 100% music at the beginning of December, and by the end of the month, he can’t stand to hear another Christmas song. Quite frankly, I don’t blame him.

My favorite radio stations start out the season with a sprinkling of Christmas music and then keep playing more until they turn into 100% Christmas music around Christmas Eve.

I start out listening to classical music, which is what I listen to most often anyways, via public radio. Handel’s Messiah. The Nutcracker Suite. Classical arrangements of Christmas music – sung by a male chorus, a brass ensemble, a soprano, or one of my favorite orchestras. There is always a new arrangement, a new interpretation. I do not tire of classical music’s take on Christmas music. They even have jazz interpretations of Christmas music on Saturday night.

I also love modern classics like Bing Crosby and soundtracks from movies like White Christmas. When I was a kid, my dad had some multiple-artist Christmas records from the 60s that he would sometimes get out. I always loved listening to those records.

On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, K-Love plays all Christmas music. It’s become a tradition at our house to have K-love playing in the background on those days – even when we have company. Mary, Did you know? and one of the renditions of O Come, O Come Emanuel are a couple of my favorites…songs that make me stop what I’m doing and just listen to the music for a moment.

We also have a tradition at our house of adding one holiday music collection to our CD library every year. Last year, it was Charlie Brown’s Christmas, one of Steve’s favorites. This year, it was the Hampton String Quartet’s What if Mozart Wrote Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas? I had a tape of that album when I was a kid, and I loved listening to it every year. The CD is no longer available in stores, but I found it on Amazon for way more than I have ever paid for a single CD – around $30. It was so worth it, though.

Generally I only listen to Christmas music in December, but I have a friend who occasionally gets it out during other parts of the year as well. I think part of what makes Christmas music so special is that you only hear it during one part of the year so it is something “new” to listen to for a while. It gives you a fresh take on life. And it’s part of what makes the season the hap-happiest season of all.

If I could only keep one of my favorite things about the Christmas season, it would be listening to Christmas music. I would be lost without Christmas music. The holidays simply would not be the same. Even though I do many of the same old things during December, somehow hearing Christmas music while I shop for groceries and such just does so much to keep that aura of the Christmas celebration with me.

To not listen to Christmas music at all until after Advent – as apparently some people do – would be unfathomable to me. You might as well celebrate Christmas at all if you’re going to do that. Oh my!