Dear Friends
Christmas is upon us once again. The signs are all there. It is getting warmer. The cicadas are making more noise. Images of Santa in various forms have been appearing. Shops are selling all kinds of Christmas themed items. Christmas trees are sprouting up in many places and inevitably, Christmas Carols and Christmas Songs are being heard everywhere. Ironically one of the most popular Christmas Songs, “Jingle Bells,” doesn’t mention Christmas at all.
Most of us have a favourite Christmas Carol or Song. It is about this time of year that various news agencies and other publications produce their lists of favourite Christmas music. From across the seas, we have the BBC’s “Songs of Praise” counting down the UK’s favourite carol and the New York Public Library’s ranking of Big Apple’s most popular Christmas songs. Closer to home there are many lists of our nation’s favourite Christmas Song. ARIA’s list of greatest “Aussie Christmas Hits” lists such eclectic offerings as “How to make Gravy” and “Aussie Jingle Bells”
Our favourite Christmas Carol is often precious to us because of the meaning that we attach to the song. “Silent Night” is beloved by many for its association with the Christmas truce of 1914. “The little drummer boy”, originally known as “the Carol of the Drum” is beloved by many for being the basis of the 1968 television special of the same name.
Like deciding which rock anthem or church hymn is the best, I don’t think that it would ever be possible to determine which Christmas song is the greatest. Our preferences are too personal to make such a choice. Choosing one based on popularity would also be a fruitless task, like all music, the popularity of individual Christmas Carols waxes and wanes. “The Holly and the Ivy” and “As with Gladness Men of old” are rarely heard anymore and I can’t remember the last time I sang “Good King Wenceslas”, yet I seem to remember singing it every year as a child.
Whether our favourite Christmas Carols are well known or more obscure they celebrate an eternal truth, the events around the first Christmas. Christmas Carols, as distinct from a Christmas song, tell all or part of the Christmas Story or capture a response to the story of the birth of Jesus.
As the year draws to a close and our thoughts turn to celebrating Christmas, perhaps it is time not only to think about our favourite Christmas Carols but also to consider how we should respond to the birth of Jesus.
Yours in Christ
Andrew
