Happy Thanksgiving to all. Also as a binus here’s a blurb on Christmas Music. i didn’t write this myself, but using it and modified it a bit with the permission of the author.
With the Thanksgiving weekend upon us, we are now fully into the Christmas season. The Christmas music is playing at the mall and I think that is great. Some may think it is a little soon, but as for me, I think Christmas can never begin too soon, or last too long.
Before long and certainly by the end of the year, websites, newspapers, and other media sources will be posting lists of the “worst Christmas songs”. My opinion is that this is a waste of time and bandwidth especially given that in most cases it is not the result of a poll but rather some entertainment or “living” reporter’s opinion.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but I resent when they try to tell me these are the worst songs. More often than not, more than half of the songs on their lists I like. Last year there were three I can think of, Paul McCartney’s “Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas Time”, Elton John’s “Step Into Christmas”, and Bruce Springsteen’s version of “Santa Claus is Coming to town”, are songs I could not imagine the holiday without. I was flabbergasted to see these on a list of worst Christmas songs.
Now I will grant you that there are bad Christmas songs, and there are bad versions of good Christmas songs. I could go the rest of my life and be perfectly content if I never heard “Grownup Christmas List” ever again. I enjoy most Christmas music, but my favorite style has become that which is performed by the New Age genre of artists that has an eerie/spooky feel to it.
Every radio I have ever seen has an off button and a tuning apparatus. We have the option of changing the station when we hear a song we don’t like. And there are always our CD’s and MP3 players.
The biggest pet peeve I have concerning Christmas music is that they stop playing it way too soon. The Christmas holiday does not end at 12:00am on December 26th. As many Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Anglicans can tell you, the holiday goes on until the observance of Epiphany on January 6th. We’ve all heard of the 12 days of Christmas, that’s when they are 12/25-1/5, not the 6 shopping weekends before December 24th. In fact, there are many Eastern Orthodox who do not observe Christmas until January 7th. So why can’t at least some of these stations stay on until 12:00am on January 8th?
My other pet peeve about Christmas music is that there seems to be an oversaturation of songs played by artists who came off the American Idol television show. I know it’s a popular program and the artists have their fans but give me a break. Do we really need a Clay Aiken song every hour? On the other hand some great songs such as ‘Christmas Time all over the World” by Sammy Davis Jr. can only be found very rarely.
Whatever your taste in Christmas Music might be, it’s time to crank it up and enjoy.
November 25, 2009 at 2:52 pm |
I hear what you are saying. Personally, I dread turning on most FM radio stations from about 1 week before Thanksgiving to the day after Christmas. Christmas music….eegads!!! I guess I am a scrooge or something. I just can’t stand it really.
Sorry to disagree, but that Bruce Springsteen song, and that Paul McCartney song make one want to perform a DIY lobotomy. IF Paul sings “Simply having a wonderful Christmas time” again, I can just scream
In my opinion, there are only a few Christmas songs that are tolerable. Nat King Cole singing The Christmas Song come to mind.
I am not counting Christmas carols here though.