Tuesday, December 13, 2022

Ten Random Facts About Christmas Music

Fact #1: I love the song "Merry Christmas" by Elton John and Ed Sheeran, which was released last year. I get excited every time it comes on the radio, and I do some killer air piano to it. 


Fact #2: A conversation from yesterday:

Jackson 5: I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus...

Zoe: Is this a boy or a girl?

Me: This is Michael Jackson

Zoe: Michael Jackson has a mom?

Fact #3: When I was a kid, I was very stressed by the song "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree." You see, I thought it said, "Walkin' around the Christmas tree," and I wanted to walk around my Christmas tree while I sang it, but the tree was always up against a wall. Because of this song, I believed that Christmas trees should be in the middle of the room. I imagined every other household in the world being able to walk around their Christmas trees, and I was being deprived by the positioning of the tree in my house.

Fact #4: My official Christmas kick-off song (as in, it's not Christmas until I've listened to ________) is "Angels from the Realms of Glory" with, what you might call, "all the Mormons." 


One of the performers in that rendition is Peter Hollens. I knew of him but didn't really follow much of his work. Then I heard him sing live at a Christmas concert last year (with Mat and Savanna Shaw), and I was blown away by his voice. It was so powerful and so beautiful (it actually put Mat Shaw to shame, and Mat has a very nice voice). The crazy part is that Peter Hollens had a surgery in late 2020 that took his voice away, so when I heard him sing live, he was still trying to recover his voice. 

Fact #5: Another one of my favorite songs for many years has been Pentatonix's (oooo that's a possessive I don't care to say aloud) "Away in a Manger."


I don't think there's a Christmas song by Pentatonix that I don't like, in all honesty.

Fact #6: Speaking of Pentatonix, one of my sweet primary children from when I was serving as the music leader would always request to sing "Mary Did You Know,” by Pentatonix. It cracked me up every time. She was very specific that it needed to be by Pentatonix, and she would ask all year long for it.

Sadly, our acapella skills in primary were a bit lacking, so we never gave it a try. 

Fact #7: The Backstreet Boys released a Christmas album this year, and it's pretty terrible. I was actually excited for it and broke my "No Christmas music before Thanksgiving" rule on its release date in October, and I was shocked at how much I didn't like it. Within the first line of the first song, I was like, "Oh, dear!" 

Nicky's explanation was, "They're old, Mom. What do you expect?"

Fact #8: My kids don't like it when I conduct the Trans Siberian Orchestra in the car. 

Fact #9: My guilty pleasure Christmas song is "Ho Ho Ho" by Sia. It's about booze. 


Fact #10: It's hard to name a favorite Christmas hymn, but one that I always love singing is "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear." It's rarely ever sang, though. 




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