Sooner or later, you see, it draws you in. You may fight it – you may even choose to write about it, and take three different attempts to express it.
Sooner or later, the Christmas music goes on. You find yourself hovering over the iPod, the CD rack, whatever your musical set-up. All of a sudden, there is a need to listen to Christmas music. Over here, it hit today.
Back from the school run, not even the hint of a carol from Junior Reader, or me humming one, but I could tell the time had come to put on the music, and agree that Christmas is in fact on its way.
The trouble has been that the key Christmas music I want to tell you about is in the cheese category. Some music is cheesy, some is cheesy and then rehabilitated (think of the success of Ultralounge albums).
And some albums could pretty much open up their own delicatessen round the corner from you. The cheese factor is that high.
The thing I’ve realised is that it doesn’t really matter. Dan was out for the day on Saturday, allowing me to indulge my fromagerie side. By Sunday, he’d put his ‘this means Christmas’ album on.
His album: I like some of. There’s other bits where it really doesn’t do it for me. But that’s OK. Different people – different childhood experiences. And that seems to be the key to the thing: ‘the Christmas music’ is often set when you are young.
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Christmas Past
It was snowy. I was almost two. We were on our way to Germany for Christmas, at the time when my grandparents were there. I suspect The Music first presented itself on that trip, and my father got a copy of it later.
The Music, you see, is James Last – he of the sweeping strings. Think significant easy listening, with a frisson of panpipes from time to time.
But at whatever point in making his many albums, he did a Christmas one – and that is where The Music comes from. He is German, after all, so it’s kind of fair (I looked it up).
The point of The Music was that it went on at home when we were putting up the Christmas tree. It was in many ways the parental acknowledgement that Christmas was here, that all was well in the world.
These days, I tend to get all emotional when I hear it. Somehow, it conveys incredible safety, peacefulness, all those ‘slowing down and stopping’ feelings that we hope to experience over Christmastime.
I indulged myself in a bit of a re-run, with the help of YouTube. If you want to follow along, here’s where to look – and here’s the person who decided to put all the tracks up on YouTube.
What stood out for me more, this time, was that all the tracks are German. Yes, there’s Silent Night too, but much of what I was falling in love with was things like Bach’s Von Himmel Hoch, or classic German Christmas carols like Suesser die Glocken nie klingen.
For some reason, my later language study didn’t really include German Christmas music.
But I had been pointed in the right direction, at least.
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Christmas Present
What makes Christmas music that is ‘ours’ changes over time. It expands, as we encounter different people, different music in various situations.
Christmas music in our home has many flavours. There are classical, like the Hely-Hutchinson Carol Symphony (those of my generation will find the music for The Box of Delights hidden within the whole).
There’s the sparse but beautiful A Ceremony of Carols, by Benjamin Britten – our school choir’s first real go at an oratorio.
There’s gospel, particularly Take 6’s He is Christmas. Or Dan’s favourite, the gospel-infused Handel’s Messiah: A Soulful Celebration.
Again, if you’re of a certain generation, Christmas one year was not just about The Box of Delights TV series, but also about Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas?
At a time when I actually knew what was in the charts, there were plenty of groups doing their pitch at a Christmas No. 1 – and I really won’t mention them all.
There is also the socially acceptable Christmas cheesy music, whether it’s yet another version of Let it Snow, or Santa Baby (but stick to Eartha Kitt’s version, please).
And of course there are actual carols, even. I’m a fan of the ones that are on the atmospheric side, with The Coventry Carol probably as all-round winner for sheer spine-tinglingness.
Now that I’m underway with the Christmas listening, so to speak, I’m sure I’ll find time to slip in a few more. Like Christmas chocolate, or bulk satsuma consumption, there is always space for another piece of Christmas music.
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Christmas Future
Who knows what else will join the canon of Christmas music in the future?
Junior Reader can be relied on to belt out ‘Three Kings are Riding’, a version that belongs to a school nativity of two years back. I kind of hope that will keep going for some time – even if I am less fond of its return in August.
Christmas traditions of others show you that there are many ways to consider, and celebrate, Christmas. So hang out with more people. Add in some Christmas carols in other languages, if you can.
For some people, Christmas isn’t Christmas without tuning in to Carols from King’s, the annual broadcast of nine lessons and carols from King’s College in Cambridge. While also peeling the sprouts, I believe.
(I have already alluded to my thoughts about sprouts, but I like a little bit of Christmas Eve tradition.)
Christmas music covers all the guises of Christmas, it seems. Whether you want to make merry or kick back, shout for joy or stand in awe and wonder – it’s all there.
What you couldn’t stand to hear in shops in October, what you stop your child singing at the beach in June – turn the corner into the cold and the dark, and suddenly the music is there again.
It doesn’t really matter what it is. As long as it’s yours. And even if it’s cheesy, at least Christmas allows you to provide crackers too.
Eat up.