Christmas songs are powerful

I like Christmas music. It is full of nostalgia. Some songs more than others.  Some have a key lyric that triggers a memory, a feeling or a thought. The following are some of the songs that strike the deepest chords, the ones I embrace every year.


Home for the holidays

"from Atlantic to Pacific,
gee the traffic is terrific"

This rhyme is unexpected and makes me smile every time. It has also become a chuckle between my daughter and I. Happy moments remembered each year makes these line special.



Have yourself a merry little Christmas

"Through the years
We'll always be together
If the Fates allow"

This used to trigger my depression. It highlights our happy intentions that in the end are beyond our control. After hearing it so many times at work, I am able to handle this song better though these particular lines still makes me sad.



Happy Xmas

"So this is Christmas and what have you done?
Another year over, a new one just begun."

These lines hit me hard. When I looking back over the year each Christmas I feel like I have done very little. My dreams are still beyond my reach and I have not really done much.



Frosty the Snowman

"Frosty the Snowman (snowman)
Knew the sun was hot that day (hot that day)
So he said, "Let's run, and we'll have some fun
Now before I melt away."

Now I know this is just a silly song but these lines hit me as existential, the fleeting meaning of life. We are all snowmen. Let's have some fun before we melt away. I think way too much!



Rudolf the red-nosed reindeer

"All of the other reindeer
Used to laugh and call him names
They never let poor Rudolph
Join in any reindeer games"

The other reindeer are bullies. They make Rudolph's life miserable. They only appreciate who he is after Rudolph accomplishes an extraordinary feat (he saves Christmas). The vast majority of us never get that chance. There is nothing you can do that will make people suddenly change their opinion of you. Most of us are shut out of the "reindeer games" forever. We will never be extraordinary.



Baby it's cold outside

"Say, what's in this drink."

I realize this is suppose to be a harmless song, more coy than anything but this lyric has not aged well.



Silver Bells

"Strings of streetlights even stop lights blink a bright red and green
As the shoppers rush home with their treasures"

I love these lines. They remind me of when I used to do all my own shopping. I would go into the city in search of just the right gifts. I often had no idea what I was going to buy my friends and family so the trip was always a quest that covered the Eaton's Centre and the shops  all around. Heading home, my purchases were definitely "treasures".



It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

"There's a tree in the Grand Hotel, one in the park as well
It's the sturdy kind that doesn't mind the snow"

This song reminds me of going downtown and seeing the magic of all the lights and decorations of the Eaton Centre, the tall Christmas trees at City Hall, the festive windows of the Bay.



Silent night

"Silent night, holy night
All is calm, all is bright"

These lines remind me of a mid-night Christmas eve service service at church. Snowflakes  were falling softly outside when my Dad leaning over and whispering "Merry Christmas" at exactly 12 o'clock.

Christmas songs are definitely powerful. I enjoy many of the memories they highlight. That said though, by the end of the holidays I am happy to more back to non-Christmas music.
By then it is time to move on and make new memories.