There’s a line from a Jonatha Brooke song I love that comes to mind every December
Once a year the holidays come swinging at your head (-from Secrets and Lies)
Something about hearing that first Christmas carol, or seeing that first Christmas ad on TV is just plain jarring. Suddenly you’re reminded that THE SEASON and all it entails is upon us and you think, ugh…here we go again.
-The Christmas cards I’ll have to address.
-The money I’ll have to spend
-The decorations I’ll have to unpack then repack.
-The work, family, church obligations
And for those of us who play music, the Christmas carols I’ll have to play. Over and over and over.
For several years I took a gig every weekend in December playing music at The Livery and Mercantile, an upscale outdoor shopping center in Danville. I sang Christmas carols outside at various locations throughout the center in 3-hour shifts. It was Christmas money. Plus, I thought, singing carols for happy shoppers during the Most Wonderful Time of the Year–what’s not to love about that?
I quickly discovered a lot not to love about singing “Blue Christmas” 32 times in the freezing cold for disinterested (and sometimes cranky shoppers). That last hour on an evening shift was sheer misery. Deserted, dark, and my icy cold fingers trying to strum through yet another rendition of “Sleigh Bells” was enough to suck the joy right out of my Christmas cheer. I had to turn down that gig after a few years. It was ruining Christmas carols for me in a big way.
So, when it came time to record a Christmas CD I had a hard time deciding what to include–there weren’t many songs I hadn’t beat into the ground like a poor dead horse.
I decided to write something original. Wise Men and Angels became the first song for the album, and every other song, I decided, would focus on, “Emmanuel God with us” The simple, unadorned glory-filled narrative that had not lost its truth or beauty. So the song list grew into Silent Night, O Little Town of Bethlehem, Angels We Have Heard On High, O Come O Come Emmanuel, and Away in a Manger.
It was easy to weed out what didn’t belong once I had my focus. No Grandma Got Run Over by a Whatever or any other songs that didn’t match my simple criteria. Even the sparse, mostly acoustic arrangements and stunning artwork seemed to serve the simple theme. The project was a joy to create and is a joy for me to sing, year after year.
What if we could do that with the whole holiday season? Decide on the one essential thing in it we want to celebrate, then make decisions–about money, parties, decorating, church, family gatherings–based on that one essential principle. Maybe we could weed out some of the noise and clutter of the season, and make room for what truly matters.
