I Don't Care What Your Mama Says, Christmas Time Is Near

SNL Christmas Song

Alan Brady, Alan Brady, Alan Brady, Alan Brady, Alan Brady, Alan Brady, Alan Brady, Buddy Sorrell!

Christmas Songs I Love, Part 2 of 2

Here are the rest of my list of favorite Christmas songs. I may have forgotten a few, but this should mostly cover it. If you missed part 1, you can find that list here. These songs and the ones in part 1 are not in any particular order, but I'm numbering them for the sake of neatness and because I'm just that way.

6. Mary's Boy Child - Harry Belafonte
Hark, now hear the angels sing,
A new King born today,
And man will live forevermore,
Because of Christmas day.

A very simple musical arrangement combined with powerful lyrics make this one a favorite of mine. Harry Belafonte originally recorded this in 1956. I love Belafonte's voice on this - it's a great match.



7. White Christmas - Bing Crosby
I actually didn't experience a white Christmas until moving to Washington state nearly 4 years ago, but who doesn't immediately think of fond memories of Christmas when they hear this song? Interestingly, the version that we know is not the 1942 original recording by Crosby, but the re-recording from 1947 that tried to exactly replicate the original master, which had become damaged from frequent use. The song first appeared in the 1942 film "Holiday Inn," and was later featured in the 1954 movie "White Christmas."

8. All I Want for Christmas Is You - Mariah Carey
There's no deep meaning here, just a fun frothy love song at Christmastime. Sometimes Mariah Carey can oversing *just* a tad, but not on this song. It was written for Carey's 1994 Christmas album.



9. Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) - Mariah Carey
This song was originally recorded by Darlene Love in 1963. It has since been done by a ton of people, but I like this version best of the ones I know. Another song where Mariah Carey keeps the melisma under control and has fun with a song.



10. - O Holy Night - Point of Grace
Lots of people have beautiful versions of this song, but I like the ethereal sound of this one. It's hushed and gentle, and the phrases of the verses overlap, then it has soaring harmonies on the chorus. Just lovely.

What are your favorite Christmas songs?

Christmas Songs I Love, Part 1 of 2

Since I last posted about Christmas songs I abhor, I thought I would cover the flip side of the coin today. These are songs that really touch me, that hold nostalgia or that are just plain fun.

1. Here With Us - Joy Williams
Now that I'm a mother, and particularly now that I'm the mother of a son, songs that are written about Mary's role as Jesus' mother just get to me. This one is a gorgeous song that mostly talks about the mystery of God becoming flesh in the form of a tiny baby and talks about how Mary had to "rock her Savior to sleep." Wow. What a thought!



2. Angels We Have Heard on High - Sara Groves
This is a simple arrangement of a song that's so familiar to many people. It takes out the "Glo-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o...." etc. part and turns it into a lilting praise song.

3. A Cradle in Bethlehem - Sara Groves
Sara Groves' album became my favorite Christmas album when we bought it last year. This song is one that was co-written by Nat King Cole and originally sung by him. "A mother tonight is rocking a cradle in Bethlehem."



4. When Love Came Down - Point of Grace
This is an uptempo song that speaks of caring for those in need and the wish for peace on earth. It's just peppy - what can I say?

5. Christmas Canon - Trans-Siberian Orchestra
You're probably familiar with this one, a Christmasy version of Pachelbel's Canon in D. I love the original song, and this one, too. The video can't be embedded, but you can see it by clicking here.

Part 2 coming in the next day or two.

Christmas Songs That Need to Be Pulled From Rotation for All Eternity

This blog post is inspired by a discussion on a friend's Facebook page. She mentioned how she hates the song Last Christmas by Wham! You know the one, it says "I'll give it to someone speh-shull...." I cannot change the radio station fast enough when that song comes on. I hate the whiny topic of the song and the breathiness of the chorus, especially that last line. Her post lead to other posts of songs people don't like, and I heartily agree with them and am adding a few of my own:

• Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer - I don't care if you think the song is funny. I find it incredibly tacky. I know that's its purpose. Really don't care. I don't like it and don't need to hear it again.
• The Christmas Shoes - This is one of those over-the-top songs that's just begging you to break down in tears over the sadness of it all. I appreciate that they're trying to help people keep the right perspective about Christmas and what's important, but I don't think the way to do it is with a schmaltzy song about a little boy who wants to buy his dying mama some fancy red shoes. This one is by Bob Carlisle, who was also guilty of singing Butterfly Kisses, another one of those songs that begs you to cry because you're so touched with sentiment. It's not that I don't have a heart; I do, I just prefer that it be touched in subtler ways.
• I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus - This song has a warped premise. Some little kid thinks their mommy is stepping out on their daddy with Santa Claus. "What a laugh it would have been if Daddy had only seen Mommy kissing Santa Claus last night." Because adultery is always good for giggles. Yes, I *know* it's not actual adultery because it's Daddy under the Santa Claus beard, but I still think it's weird to make that idea seem humorous to a child.
• Grown-Up Christmas List - This is one of those peace-on-earth songs that just doesn't do anything for me, and it's been sung by a number of people now, so it seems like it's always playing. I'd rather hear Christmas Wishes by Anne Murray, which I think does a much better job of conveying a desire for peace on earth and love toward our fellow man.
• Songs where professional singers let their out-o-tune children sing along - Yes, it's cute when kids sing and I enjoy hearing them at church or my daughter's school, whether they can carry a tune or not. But when I'm listening to Christmas music and suddenly someone's tone-deaf child is singing the intro to a song, I find it jarring. I don't know their child from Adam and am not sitting there thinking "Aw, isn't that sweet?" It's more like "Make it stop! Make it stop!" (I know, a little Grinchy of me, huh?)
  

On notice:

• Blue Christmas, Jingle Bell Rock, Feliz Navidad - These songs are fine in and of themselves, in my opinion. It's after I've heard them 87 times in 3 weeks that they make me want to become violent.

Whew! It felt good to get that off of my chest. Any songs that you could just do without completely at Christmastime?

It's National Cookie Day!

Did you know that? I didn't know ahead of time, but it just so happens that I was planning to make Chocolate Caramel Bars today for a family Christmas party tomorrow. And I was planning on serving a few of them tonight for a game night with friends. So that works out well.

The bars have a layer of oats, sugar and butter, then are drizzled with caramel and chocolate chips, with another layer of the oat mixture on top. They're very rich, and very good! If you'd like to make them, you can find the recipe here.

I omit the nuts and use the caramel dip found in many stores' produce sections in place of the wrapped caramels and heavy cream. Much easier and a lot less cleanup that way.

Now, what more of an excuse do you need to enjoy a cookie today? Happy National Cookie Day!

Ooh, Fancy Christmasy Template!

Since my blog posts are now appearing on Facebook, most people are reading them there and not clicking on the link that takes them to my blog itself. But you should really go there to read this one and check out my fancy new Christmas template. I found my Santa and Reindeer template on BTemplates, which has quite a few just for the holidays alone. You can search for a particular key word/topic, look at the top downloaded templates or browse by number of columns, style and color, among other ways of searching for what you want. If you're not sure how to add one of their templates to your blog, you can check out their answer in their FAQ section.

I found quite a few other free Christmas and holiday templates at Wishafriend.com and Pyzam.com. It's a fun way to jazz up the look of your blog and to personalize it more.

Amazon vs. iTunes Music Purchases

I wanted to get some more Christmas music this year, and after much debating and reading of reviews on Amazon, I decided on the following albums:

• Celtic Woman - A Christmas Celebration
• Vince Guaraldi Trio - A Charlie Brown Christmas
• Andy Williams - Personal Christmas Collection (What? We used to hear a lot of his Christmas music when I was growing up, so it brings nostalgia and comfort. Shut up.)

We usually buy our music on iTunes, but Amazon had just given away a $3.00 credit towards purchase of mp3s, and I'd bought some new songs using their Amazon Downloader. The program adds your purchases directly to iTunes or another program/folder of your choice. It was a mostly simple process, although it didn't add one of the four songs properly and I had to go to iTunes and add it to the library manually. And for some reason, when I close it and then buy more music, I have to re-download their Downloader and run it again. That may just be a PEBKAC error, though. I'm not sure.

At any rate, knowing that it was a fairly simple process, I figured I'd do a price comparison between Amazon and iTunes and go with whichever one was cheaper. The Celtic Woman album was $6.99 on Amazon, $7.99 on iTunes. Point for Amazon. Andy Williams Personal Christmas Collection was $8.99 on Amazon, $9.99 on iTunes. And the Charlie Brown Christmas album was $5.00 (!) on Amazon and $7.99 on iTunes. Amazon won on all three purchases, and so did I, since I saved $4.99 on the 3 albums.

Out of the three albums, Celtic Woman downloaded to iTunes with no problem; Charlie Brown downloaded tracks 3 through 16 (1 and 2 were in the library but not added to iTunes automatically for some odd reason); and the Andy Williams album at first didn't show up in the downloader. I clicked "Download again" on the Amazon screen, and it went just fine and loaded in iTunes, too. So if you're using the automatic downloader, be sure to keep your purchase screens open until the albums show as downloaded there; then they should be on your computer and you can add them from their folder if they don't happen to go straight to iTunes.

I haven't checked other albums out to see if the trend continues with Amazon as the less expensive option, but I will certainly be doing that in the future when I buy more music. It was mostly painless and worth a few minutes of manual work to save that much money.