30+ Days of Giving Thanks, Day 39: The Music of Christmas

Today I am giving thanks to God for the wonderful music that helps to decorate the season of Advent and Christmas. While I have previously posted on the topic of music (Click here to read my article on Music) this particular subset of music is deserving in my opinion of its own entry.

Scanning my iTunes™ library, I see that I have in my collection of Christmas music 42 different albums, and 396 unique songs in the Christmas genre, further divided, in my list, between "Sacred Christmas" (227 songs) and "Secular Christmas" (169 songs). The artists recording this songs are sampling from across a very wide span of the music family: Motown, do-wop, rock, country, jazz, gospel, contemporary Christian, and crossover artists. Some artists recognized as "secular" have recorded some wonderful sacred Christmas music, and some Christian artists have taken a swing at some of the secular Christmas/holiday songs. I like it all (or almost all) of it. There are a few artists that I avoid (Clay Aiken comes to mind) and a few others that I play again and again (the Statler Brothers "Christmas Present") is my favorite Christmas album with the Carpenters' "Christmas Portrait" a close second. Kelly's favorite, we were just discussing, is the first of the two Alabama "Christmas" albums.

 I have no less than 12 different versions of "O Holy Night" in my collection, and two more versions (the Sandi Patti and the David Phelps versions) on my wish list. Thank you, Youtube!

Kelly and I began our current collection of Christmas music in 1988, our first Christmas in Berlin. That year our family Christmas gift (a tradition we began that year of giving a gift to our whole family, for our mutual enjoyment) was a new stereo system, including a dual cassette player, radio tuner, and 5 CD disk changer. We had that same stereo in our living room until earlier this year, when we finally gave it away. Naturally, we purchased 4 CDs to with the system. We didn't purchase a 5^th because we couldn't find one more Christmas CD that we thought we would like. Alabama's "Christmas," Ronnie Milsap's "Christmas with Ronnie Milsap," Statler Brothers' "Christmas Present," and one more CD by "Various Artists" rounded out our first year's lineup. We still have, and enjoy, all four of those, though we have long since converted the CDs to MP3 songs and added them to our iTunes collection.

Kelly has two little iPod Shuffle™ MP3 players she uses to listen to music in the car and in the house. One is filled with her "everyday" music, while the other (which happens to be red!) is filled with her favorite Christmas music. I have a "Smart Playlist" set up on my computer that plays every Christmas song in my library that has not been played in the last 11 months—I use this playlist to make sure that I play each one of my 396 songs during the Christmas season (okay, a little obsessive-compulsive tendency there, but I promise you, it is NOT a "Disorder!")

The music of Christmas helps me beyond words to prepare my mind and my heart to "keep Christmas" each year when "The Season Comes 'Round Again." Many of the songs, and certain versions of the familiar songs, hold particular sentimental or nostalgic value to me, and link naturally with memories of Christmases past that I want to remember. At the same time, Kelly and I are both always on the lookout for a new Christmas song to add to our collection. Last year, our daughter (in-law, but we don't keep score!) Katrina introduced us to the song "How Many Kings" when she played and sang it in church. We immediately found a version to add to our iTunes library. Even as I wrote the last sentence, that song began to play on my computer. Weird. (Not really weird. Cool.) A year or more before that, Ty Herndon's "Not So Silent Night" caught our attention. Another of my favorites is the Gaither song "Reaching" from their cantata "Still the Greatest Story Ever Told." Man, do I want to sing that song in a Christmas Eve service! Can't find the soundtrack commercially, but my sister Debbie played the song and recorded a track for me on her digital piano last year. 

Well, I've gone on about this subject too long already. I could keep going as songs play through my mind (which, by the way, is permanently set to "Shuffle" and "Repeat" now, as I've reached a certain age…) but it's time to wrap this one up. Thank You, Heavenly Father, for this wonderful music that speaks so deeply into my life and stirs in me anew this sense of wonder, peace, and joy. The Hallelujah Chorus!