Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Christmas Traditions 2 - The Music

"It's not Christmas without The Carpenters," my sister recently proclaimed. And I agree wholeheartedly.

I can't think of a single Christmas when we failed to listen to Christmas albums by The Carpenters and Andy Williams, nor is Christmas complete with The Muppets' rendition of "The Twelve Days of Christmas," which includes Miss Piggy's variations on "five golden rings." Over the years, our collection of Christmas cassette tapes has been replaced with CDs of those timeless favorites, along with new favorite albums by Harry Connick Jr., Josh Groban, Stephen Curtis Chapman, Amy Grant, Michael Buble, Mannheim Steamroller, and many others.

Multiple verses of old hymns like "Joy to the World," "Hark the Herald Angels Sing," and "Silent Night" are etched in my memory due to years of participating in the annual Christmas pageant, and new variations on those familiar favorites are always fun to hear. But I also find that each Christmas season brings the opportunity to hear new songs, and I seem to find a new favorite each year.

For the past two years, I've written about my favorites here and here. This year is no different. Throughout my baking extravaganza with my mom on Saturday, I enjoyed listening to Christ Chapel Bible Church's Christmas CD called "The Baby King," and the song of that same name is my favorite of this season. [You can download it from iTunes if you don't live in this area.]

If you have a favorite Christmas song or CD, I'd love to hear your recommendations. After all, I have the whole month of December to fill with Christmas music!

2 comments:

Krista Sanders said...

You named some I will have to check out-- Muppets?? My kids should love that. Don't faint, but we have NO Carpenters.
Our favorite "fun" song is Rockin' Around the Christmas tree by Brenda Lee. ONLY by Brenda Lee.
If you don't have Andrew Peterson's "Behold the Lamb of God", you need it. Incredible.

Clarissa said...

This summer I saw a special on the Ovation channel about Yo-Yo Ma's "Songs of Joy and Peace" -- duets with artists like Diana Krall, Chris Botti, James Taylor, etc. and a beautiful collaboration with Alison Krauss -- and that's going to be my new purchase for this Christmas season.