On the first day of December, I saw a roadside sign which proclaimed, “Community Carol Sing Thursday.” Christmas was coming, despite the balmy, 50-degree temperatures.
Once, kids earned pocket money by caroling. Singers appeared on front porches and struck up familiar seasonal melodies. “God Rest You, Merry Gentlemen.” “We Three Kings.” “Silent Night.”
Mothers opened doors and gave the choristers, who were wrapped against the cold, handfuls of dimes. That was in the 1950s, when candy bars cost a nickel and Christmas music was more apt to be sacred, despite the inroads being made by pop-flavored songs, like “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.”
Rockin’, however, was not that revolutionary. Our carols were originally circle dances, untied to any occasion and meant to celebrate joy. “Rocking’ Around the Christmas Tree” is just that: a dance in a circle, whose lyrics celebrate “the good old-fashioned way.”
The way wasn’t necessarily religious. “God Rest You, Merry Gentleman” was originally a drinking song and “Deck the Halls” celebrates decorating for a winter feast, probably the solstice. Not all winter holiday favorites were originally meant for Christmas. The “Messiah” was Handel’s Easter oratorio.
A few days after I spotted the carol sing announcement, a friend sent a meme featuring a couple listening to Christmas songs. She was swooning and ecstatic, but, his fingers were in his ears. She said it was autobiographical.
That’s the problem. Those songs may fail to celebrate and unite. They often annoy and even divide. When I took my then small children to “Nowell Sing We Clear,” a performance of carols from the 16th to the 19th centuries, with a mummer’s play, my husband grumbled that I should take them to “The Nutcracker,” because, “It’s traditional.” “Dating back to 1955,” I answered.
Most baby boomers may have grown up with “light music” of the 1950s. My mother would put Mantovani’s Christmas album on while my father wrapped the tree in lights. She would smile and say, “It’s a tradition.”
Much of what Mantovani played was traditional, the standard songs that first come to mind after Thanksgiving. They were played in a style meant to remind listeners of the echoing ballrooms of the World War II era, but with classically trained singers.
How many still turn first to Mantovani or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir or the Boston Pops for sounds of the season? How many run from them?
A friend, who screams when the first strains of “O, Holy Night” begin, enjoys novelty songs. Her favorite is “How’d You Like to Spend Christmas on Christmas Island?” She’ll take the Leon Redbone version and not the Andrew Sisters’ rendition, thank you. I smile and hope it ends soon.
New Christmas music appears annually, in all genres. Some songs are immediately dismissed as “commercial” but others linger.
The best-selling album belongs to Elvis and features novelty songs about Santa Claus, as well as some love songs about being alone at Christmas, including his hit, “Blue Christmas,” and finishes with some of Presley’s beloved spirituals.
While it’s almost expected that one of the most enduring American singers should have produced the most popular Christmas recording, the irony is that an artist who is often considered something of a joke, “Kenny G,” recorded the second most popular Christmas album. “Miracles: The Holiday Album” is jazz influenced and concludes with a piece called “Spring Breeze.” Now, that’s ironic.
I Googled best new Christmas music for 2016 and found several long lists that included jazz standards and jazzy renditions of traditional music, pop divas, singer-songerwriters, second generation pop stars, country crooners, Broadway baritones, punk rockers, R & B masters, a capella bands, operatic pop favorites and Disney darlings. Most of it is listenable. Much of it is fresh. This new music is worth finding to create a little December warmth.
My ideal Christmas music is generally not pop renditions of standards. I walked out of a department store once for bombarding shoppers with the Shirelles’ Christmas album. However, I do miss Darlene Love’s annual performance on Letterman.
My taste tends toward the music presented by the Revels, John Langstaff’s mid-century New York creation. It is now performed in 10 cities across the country but still bears the marks of the folk revival. Or Medieval French dance music. Or anything from the repertoire of The Tallis Scholars, who appear in the Boston area each December.
However, I will play and replay “We’re Walking on the Air,” written for the made for television movie of Raymond Briggs’ children’s classic, “The Snowman.” Try listening to it by the Finnish metal band, Nightwish.
Christmas is a family holiday, a communal holiday, but everyone’s music is his or her own.
Susan Wozniak, of Easthampton, is a retired journalist and writing professor who writes a column that is published the fourth Friday of the month.