Christmas Music

There's a lot of things I love about Christmas.  There's the presents to open, the massive amounts of cookies and candy to be consumed, the opportunity to relax and take a break from academics.

But what I love most about Christmas has to be the music.  There's just no other holiday that really has its own music.  Yeah, my family has an old cassette tape of Easter songs, but I don't really think anyone outside of our family is even aware of their existence.  And you could say that there's all those patriotic songs that you hear on Independence Day, but those can be sung / played any time of the year.  Christmas music is exclusive to the Christmas season, and pretty much everybody, even if you aren't a Christian, is familiar with at least one Christmas song. 

As a guy who loves to sing, I especially love singing Christmas carols this time of year.  There's just something about Christmas music that sets it apart from other music.  Maybe its the familiarity of the music, like I said before.  Or maybe it's the spirit of the season, the message of peace and joy that can be heard in the lyrics.  For me, there's nothing like belting out a chorus of "Adeste Fideles" (that's "O Come All Ye Faithful" in Latin, for those of you non-Catholics) or "Hark the Herald Angels Sing", among others. 

Even outside of church, there's a wide variety of popular music that gets played on the radio during the Christmas season.  Some songs bring a tear to your eye, like "Christmas Shoes"; some have a sentimental message, like John Lennon's "Happy Christmas (War Is Over)"; some are upbeat, like "Jingle Bell Rock";  and some are humorous, satirical, or just plain wacky, like "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer", or even parodies like "Osama Got Run Over By a Reindeer".  Whatever your mood, you can probably find Christmas music for it.

So what's your favorite Christmas music?  I've got quite a bit that I enjoy.  There's the Barenaked Ladies' Barenaked for the Holidays album, which has their renditions of familiar songs like "Jingle Bells" and "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen", as well as a few originals with their trademark sense of humor, like "Elf's Lament" and "Green Christmas", not to mention their cover of "Deck the Halls", entitled "Deck the Stills", in which they replace the lyrics with repetitions of "Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young".  I also have a CD of Irish Christmas music that has familiar songs and Irish folk carols played on hornpipes and harps.  I just downloaded Italian opera singer Andrea Bocelli's My Christmas album on iTunes the other day, and absolutely loved it.  He pulls out all the stops on this album, collaborating with a wide variety of popular singers and groups, from Mary J. Blige and Reba McIntyre to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and even the Muppets.  The album's last track, "God Bless Us Everyone" (which I believe came from a musical version of A Christmas Carol) was especially moving for me.  There's a few other songs that are staples of my Christmas playlist as well, like Darius Rucker's "Candy Cane Christmas" and Mariah Carey's ever-popular "All I Want for Christmas Is You".  But my all-time favorite Christmas song would have to be Elvis's rendition of "Here Comes Santa Claus".  It's just fun to sing it in my Elvis voice and dance along like I'm sure The King of Rock 'n' Roll would have.  Just listen to it and try to tell me otherwise.

No matter what kind of music you listen to, whether you're a little bit country or a little bit rock 'n' roll, there's just nothing like Christmas music to put you in the holiday spirit.  There's just no other music like it.  So go out caroling with your friends, or go to church and join in the singing, or just tune your iPod to some Christmas music while you work - just let the music move you with the spirit of the season!

Hope y'all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!  Stay frosty, y'all!

B-)

Home for the Holidays

Hey y'all!  It's me again!  Yes, I'm still alive, even if I haven't posted in several months.  It's just that the life of a grad student is much more time-consuming than I thought it would be.  I'd like to say my first semester went well, but sadly, that was not the case.  The main problem was that I made the mistake of thinking that I was ready to take graduate-level Abstract Algebra when in reality I wasn't.  Not only did I end up failing the class miserably, I ended up tanking in the rest of my classes as well.  I'll be frank with y'all, there were a lot of times when I thought about dropping out of grad school altogether, and a few days when I just had no will to live at all, when I thought I'd absolutely hit rock bottom and had nowhere to go.  Fortunately, I got a major reprieve last week - the math department decided to let me keep my assistantship, but I'm gonna be on a pretty short leash next semester.  I have to get at least 2 A's and a B, which means I'm gonna have to work my butt off, but it's all first-year courses that I'm taking this time around, and I have friends in each of my classes to whom I can turn for help.  I just need to start managing my time better and start off on the right foot so things don't snowball out of control like they did last semester. 

Anyway, now that I'm back home for Christmas and have a lot more free time, you can probably expect to start seeing more posts from me pretty soon.  There's been so much I've wanted to write about during these last few months, but I just never had the time.  We'll see how things go in the next few months.  Till then, stay frosty, y'all!

B-)