I love Christmas.
Granted, the Christmas that I love is a totally cultural and secular holiday that has only the barest connection to anything relating to the sacred Christian holiday. Since my totally heathen childhood, I have loved the lights and the trees and the presents and believing, then not at all believing, in Santa Claus (more on that in a later post). I am a one woman #WarOnChristmas over here, sipping my gingerbread latte from a red ombre Starbucks cup.
There is almost nothing that I love more about Christmas than the music. Granted, I love music in general and singing in particular absent any holiday ties, but I look forward every year to listening to favorite holiday albums, ranging from Christmas Songs by Bad Religion to John Denver and the Muppets A Christmas Together. Listening to and singing carols is probably as close as I get to the sacred elements of the holiday. Well that and advent calendars, which are still pretty secular, name notwithstanding – this year my daughter has a Lego Friends one, and my son a collection of Axis and Allies figures, not all of which actually fit into the tiny boxes. Peace on earth, indeed.
Last year, I decided to combine the two and did a vocal advent calendar, sharing a different secular holiday song on YouTube every day through the 24th. I initially thought I might do a sacred carols version this year, but life is promising to be particularly hectic and interesting this year, so instead, for your listening pleasure, is the full list of last year’s offerings for your own a-religious holiday pleasure:
Day 1: Let it Snow
Day 2: Winter Wonderland
Day 3: Sleigh Ride
Day 4: Frosty the Snowman
Day 5: Aspenglow
Day 6: Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree
Day 7: Silver Bells
Day 8: It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas
Day 9: The Christmas Wish
Day 10: Here Comes Santa Claus
Day 11: The Christmas Song
Day 12: Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
Day 13: Holly Jolly Christmas
Day 14: The Christmas Waltz
Day 15: White Christmas
Day 16: Blue Christmas
Day 17: I’ll be Home for Christmas
Day 18: You’re a Mean One Mr. Grinch
Day 19: Welcome Christmas
Day 20: Santa Baby
Day 21: Jingle Bell Rock
Day 22: Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
Day 23: Santa Claus is Coming to Town
Day 24: One More Sleep ‘Til Christmas
And I know I said I’m not doing the advent calendar this year, but if you have a favorite holiday tune (secular or sacred) you’d like to hear me record in front of this year’s tree, let me know in comments and I’ll see what I can do. 😉
Featured image courtesy of Flickr user Lucas Cobb under Creative Commons license.
White Wine in the Sun? I don’t love the Dawkins vs Tutu comparison, but the rest of it is sweet.
I’ve also always bristled at that one. Tutu seems like he’d be fascinating to break bread with!
This is where I confess that I’ve only heard that song once, during which I, too, bristled at the Dawkins/Tutu line. That said, the real reason I haven’t done it is because I simply haven’t listened to it enough to do it justice, but I may have to remedy that.
While we’re nitpicking the song the other line that bugs me is
“I don’t believe just ’cause ideas are tenacious, It means that they’re worthy.”
Tenacity of ideas sounds rather like the scientific method to me.
Again, it’s a nitpick and I only have enough reason to have heard it so many times in order to nitpick because we put it on our “baby mix” of songs for while in utero and for some quick non-kiddy music to put on full of songs we can hear daily and still not get tired of, so it’s not like I am discrediting the song… I have just heard it enough to have nits to pick.
Hi,
There are also these scientific versions of the traditional tunes: http://scientificsong.com
This one’s good too 🙂