Music Monday Dec 19: When Does Christmas Begin?

There is a radio show on CBC here in Canada that occasionally does a feature called SYNTH: Songs You Need To Hear.

Now, I can’t say to someone, “You’ll like this song” (or book for that matter) because I can’t presume that others will share my taste in music (or books), so it is safer to say, “You might like this” and if they don’t like it, so be it.

Maybe you will find a new favorite.

CBC MUSIC, Central · Mornings with CBC Music

When does Christmas begin? Acc—
Am I supposed to answer that?
No. It’s my lead-in to the post.
Oh. Sorry.

According to facts:

Globally, 45% of people engage in some sort of Christmas festivity.
From: Facts

For many it is of religious significance, for others it is a time to get together until we annoy each other enough that out comes the “airing of the grievances” and a full blown “Festivus”* is achieved.

Music is a big part of Christmas. Seems like every musician’s right of passage is to record something for that holiday. Here is something to ponder for a brief moment before continuing:

“All albums of Christmas music are Christmas music albums but not all Christmas music albums are albums of Christmas music.”

What’s that supposed to mean?
I don’t know, I just made it up. Ponder away.

Back to the original question. I think Christmas begins when you hear that first Christmas song, not when Costco puts out the decorations, otherwise we’d be celebrating in September.

You might like the traditional carols, or the made up ones to make money [cough] (Mariah), but my go to song for the first playing is Don Ross’s arrangement of Gustav Holtz’s In the Bleak Midwinter. There is no video, but you can stream it here or on Spotify:

The album contains arrangements of other tradition carols and is well worth the price.

-Leon

^{*Festivus is a non-religious holiday, started by Daniel O’Keefe in 1966 and popularized by “Seinfeld” in a 1997 episode written by his son, Dan O’Keefe.}

Leon Stevens is a multi-genre author, composer, guitarist, songwriter, and an artist, with a Bachelor of Music and Education. He published his first book of poetry, Lines by Leon: Poems, Prose, and Pictures in January 2020, followed by a book of original classical guitar compositions, Journeys, and a short story collection of science fiction/post-apocalyptic tales called The Knot at the End of the Rope and Other Short Stories. His newest publications are the novella trilogy, The View from Here, which is a continuation of one of his short stories, and a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words.

My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/