One my favourite aspects of Christmas is the music, and the sheer variety of it in every genre, by nearly every artist alive — and beyond that, it’s universally available, so in every community group, school and church, you will hear the sounds of carols and Christmas tunes of every kind.
A prime example of the variety of music was seen locally at Quota’s Festival of Carols, held on the first day of December with two full performances.
Thereafter, every school has concerts, some of them silly and fun like most elementary schools put on, and some showing the variety of instrumental and vocal music that’s available, at the Comp and St. Michael Schools here in Weyburn, and at schools throughout the southeast, not to mention all of the churches.
Depending which church one might attend, if they attend one at all, each Sunday there are Christmas songs, and on Christmas Eve in particular, a number of them will hold special services, some with candlelight. I particularly love how the carol, “Silent Night”, gets sung soft and quietly with flickering candles in hand, which is how the Carol Festival performances ended.
Now, the fun songs are okay, like the ones about Santa and Rudolph and so on, but I particularly enjoy the carols, and each year there are many new Christmas albums released in addition to all the ones already in existence.
In any genre that you might personally enjoy, there are Christmas albums available to enjoy, and of course there are classic ones that really stand the test of time.
In the category of “guilty pleasure” is Boney M’s Christmas album, and long-time favourites like Elvis Presley’s music, Bing Crosby, or Celine Dion’s Christmas album from a number of years ago.
One of my personal favourites is an album Bruce Cockburn did, which does not include one single Santa tune, and albums by artists who aren’t very well known like Phil Keaggy, Amy Grant, Bryan Duncan and an a capella group named Glad.
What makes these tunes favourites or memorable? Well, for me, it’s the quality of the music, the beauty of the tunes and vocals, and how artists take well-known songs and add their own touches to it, like James Taylor did with his Christmas album. It’s all good, and very tuneful.
