Christmas trees, presents, wrapping paper, candles, tinsel, carols, bells, snowmen, reindeer, stockings, turkey, mistletoe, mince pies & wise men. This season is jam packed full of tradition and history.
But no Christmas can ever be called complete without a novelty song.
If Aled Jones singing ‘Walking in the air’ is not your thing, then maybe Slade’s ‘Merry Christmas Everybody’ is more to your taste. Or if you’re wedded to the sounds of the 1970’s, then Boney M’s ‘Mary’s Boy Child’ could be the one that gets you in the Christmas mood.
In the winter of 1964, the Go Go’s released a very special novelty record which opened with these words.
I’m gonna spend my Christmas with a Dalek And hug it underneath the mistletoe And if he’s very nice I’ll feed him sugar spice And hang a Christmas stocking from his big left toe.
Which shows not only a woeful lack of knowledge about the anatomy of a Dalek, but confirms the feeling that nothing says Christmas like the opportunity of celebrating it with a genetically engineered race of evil machine/mutant hybrids intent on galaxy wide domination.
The lyrical content of Christmas Carols is somewhat more appropriate.
Whether focussing on shepherds in a field outside of Bethlehem, the journey of Wise Men, or the voices of angels, the events surrounding the birth of Christ have inspired generations of songwriters
Of all the carol’s that we sing at Christmas, the one that best reflects the extraordinary gift that God gave the world in the form of his son Jesus, and our response to it, has to be ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’.
Despite it’s talk of frosty wind and earth as hard as iron, unlikely scenarios given the location of Jesus birth, we still hear the Good News that the God of heaven came to earth to be among us. And there is nothing we can do that can ever repay what God has done for us. All we have to give is ourselves.
At this Christmas time, in a season of snowmen, mistletoe, and festive songs, sensible or otherwise, giving ourselves to God is a gift worth singing about.
(December 2016)