What is your favorite?

I always loved Silent Night and in high school learned the words in Spanish and I think that version is even more beautiful. I can still sing it though my voice is not that great anymore. Not that it ever was,  but I did enjoy singing in church choir and the girls’ glee club in high school. That was when I learned another less common carol that I still love. I believe it is called Gesu Bambino and it begins “When blossoms flowered midst the snow upon a Christmas night, t’was born the Child, the Christmas Rose, the King of love and light.”  The melody is very beautiful and sounds rather old, almost medieval.  We sang it in three parts and the effect was lovely. I sang second soprano in the group.

Then years ago I lucked onto an old record of a family from Appalachia called The Beers Family that sang a lot of old songs, some new to me. They had one called Three Little Drummers–I think that was the title; this is very long ago!–that is very charming and different.  I did a search on the group name a few years back and you might still be able to find this on MP3 or something.

Then on the non-religious ones, I still like Irving Berlin’s White Christmas–such a classic!–and some others like Silver Bells and darn–the memory is really going! Anyway I may watch part of the CMA Christmas show on TV tonight as they usually come up with a nice mix of old traditional and new fun things. And I will spend Christmas Eve with most of the lights down and my little fiber optic tree lit up listening to either the local PBS station or some of my fave CDs like Mannheim Steamroller and Josh Groban doing Christmas music! I’m getting misty eyed just thinking about that.  I’ve done that every year for a very long time and the familiarity got me through the first Christmas ten years ago without my beloved hubby who had passed away in November.

So what music says Christmas to you?