Christmas music is one of those elements of the holiday season that we all assume will be there without fail–playing in the background at stores as we shop for gifts, popping up on the radio, and playing on television shows. Familiar Christmas carols mingle with new songs and remakes made by popular music artists, and hearing all of those Christmas tunes makes us all feel warm and fuzzy inside.
However, it can also be one of those things we take for granted, so we don’t make much effort to include the music of the holidays in our family traditions. Christmas music can play many roles in your family’s holiday traditions, from background support for the main attraction.
How can you work Christmas music into your family’s Christmas traditions? Here are some ideas:
- Go around the neighborhood singing Christmas carols, or visit family and friends’ houses if you aren’t comfortable knocking on strangers’ doors.
- Sing Christmas carols while in the car on your way to a holiday event or to pick out your Christmas tree.
- Spend an evening singing your family’s favorite Christmas songs in front of your tree or the fireplace. Let each family member choose a song that everyone will sing.
- Put in a few Christmas CDs to play while you decorate the tree, or listen to a holiday internet radio station.
- Attend a Christmas choral concert. Most schools and churches offer a holiday concert of some sort, usually for a cheap price (and sometimes for free).
- If some of your family members play instruments, create a musical evening where everyone joins together to play Christmas songs.
I have been searching for years for a Christmas album my parents had in the late 50s and hope maybe someone reading this blog can help! It had some serious, and some funny, songs on it and to me is THE best memory of Christmases past.
The album cover was basically white, and featured, from what I remember, Santa sleeping in an armchair, chin propped on hand, and maybe some young children peering at him (?). I also seem to recall someone holding mistletoe over his head.
The songs themselves were traditional, sung by a chorus, but a few of them were “funny” spins on traditional tunes, like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and a couple “hip” renditions, like “Jingle Bells”
For some reason, I keep thinking it was performed by the Ray Conniff Singers, yet all my searches for albums in that category don’t turn up anything.
If anyone can help, I would be so deeply grateful!
Thanks!