Fa La La La La!

 

I love Christmas Carols. Nothing says HOLIDAY SEASON to me like music. I usually start listening to my Christmas playlist around Halloween. All the way up until the new year. Ok, I lied. I really listen to it throughout the WHOLE year. But I do it in secret, so nobody makes fun. Remember a long time ago, when I told you I did a lot of driving for my summer job? Well, turns out the middle of British Columbia is a FANTASTIC place to be a star in my car and belt out O Holy Night with Jessica Simpson as backup. She missed her calling, you know. As backup.

O Holy Night.

My number one favorite Christmas song. Of all time. I never tire of it. No matter who sings it. It's like the Rock Ballad of Christmas. The arrangement I like most is one by Craig Courtney arranged for SATB. For the life of me, I couldn't find a video of it online to share with you. Youtube, you've failed me. But in a pinch, Celine Dion, the Diva of Ballads, does a wonderful rendition.

My second favorite Christmas Song is a lesser known song called Peace, Peace. It is a true stunner, and never fails to bring tears to my eyes. The first time I heard this song was at a Sacramento Master Singers concert in Sacramento. The concert was held in a big Catholic Cathedral with stone walls that looked like the inside of an ancient castle. The concert itself was amazing. But the final song brought the house down. The lights were dimmed and it became so quiet, you could hear the proverbial pin drop. Slowly, the choir members filed out in two streams, one on the left and one on the right, encircling the entire inside of the chapel. They were each holding a burning taper candle, creating a soft and warm glow. It was a great effect, putting the audience in the center of the song, enrobing the entire crowd with the familiar strains of Silent Night.....with something a little magic thrown in.

Now, nothing I have found on Youtube comes close to the beautiful arrangement on my SMS CD, which I'd like to shamelessly plug, because it's one of the best Christmas albums out there. But here's a video of another choir performing. Please, have a listen. And if you're ever in Sacramento in December, treat yourself and buy tickets to their concert. You won't be disappointed.

And just for fun, another of my favorite Christmas songs is a parody on a traditional favorite.

The Twelve Days After Christmas

The first day after Christmas my true love and I had a fight,
And so I chopped the pear tree down and burned it just for spite.
Then with a single cartridge, I shot that blasted partridge,
My true love, my true love, my true love gave to me.

The second day after Christmas, I pulled on the old rubber gloves,
And very gently wrung the necks of both the turtle doves.
My true love, my true love, my true love gave to me.

The third day after Christmas, my mother caught the croup;
I had to use the three French hens to make some chicken soup.
The four calling birds were a big mistake,
for their language was obscene.
The five gold rings were completely fake and they turned my fingers green .

The sixth day after Christmas, the six laying geese wouldn't lay,
I gave the whole darn gaggle to the A.S.P.C.A.
On the seventh day what a mess I found,
All seven of the swimming swans had drowned.
My true love, my true love, my true love gave to me.

The eighth day after Christmas, before they could suspect,
I bundled up the eight maids a milking, nine pipers piping, ten ladies dancing, 'leven lords a leaping, Twelve drummers drumming and sent them back collect.

I wrote my true love, "We are through, love",
and I said in so many words,
"Furthermore your Christmas gifts were for the birds!"

Now if that doesn't put a smile on your face, maybe a little giveaway will.

For your holiday enjoyment, I have an icy collection of three half yard cuts of wintery snowflakes. And two blue coordinating spools of Gutermann thread to keep them company. You could do something really fun with these. A little table runner, some cozy oven mitts....and keep them out beyond December 25th even. Snowflakes are a wintery sort of thing, lasting much longer than Christmas. In fact, if you lived in Alaska, you could keep them out six months of the year! Leave a little comment. Tell me your favorite Christmas carol. Sing it if you want. Your friends will love you.

* Thank you everyone for your wonderful comments and stories on yesterday's post. I am not the only one scarred by a cantankerous Christmas Tree! The winner of yesterday's snowman giveaway is....

drum roll please...

Nancy!

Thank you, Nancy, for sharing your own Christmas story. And if the rest of you didn't get a chance, be sure to go back through the comments on yesterday's post to read about Nancy and her husband's very first, and very sweet Christmas together 41 years ago. Nancy, please shoot me an email at Skagwayquilts at hotmail dot com with  your mailing address and I'll get this little bundle on it's way to you in time to whip something up for Christmas.

Comments

[Lesly]

Yay! Token multicultural commenter here! I never enter holiday-themed giveaways because we celebrate Chanukah at this time of the year, and the Christmas fabric that is usually given away isn't useful to me. But the beautiful blues of that snowflake fabric are perfect for Chanukah! The most popular (and my favourite) Chanukah song is Maoz Tzur. Here's a translation of the first verse:
Rock of Ages, let our song
Praise Thy saving power;
Thou, amidst the raging foes,
Wast our sheltering tower.
Furious they assailed us,
But Thine arm availed us,
And Thy Word
Broke their sword
When our own strength failed us.

[Nancy]

OH my gosh, is it me? Did I really win the first giveaway? I'm to excited to express myself appropriately right now (as the email I sent you explains.) I'm too excited for words. The tears are rolling, I always get weepy when especially nice things happen. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!! Sorry I just couldn't help myself. The snowmen are just so perfect and adorable. Thank you Allyson for your generosity. I'll be back later when I can make more sense!!! BIG HUGS coming your way!

[Nan S.]

I just looked at yesterday's post - what a beautiful tree!! We haven't even started thinking about Christmas yet. Maybe we can get started this weekend.

[Debra in Ohio]

I am really fond of a lot of Christmas music. I have to admit, I do like your "12 Days After. I sent it on to my brother.
It may now be his new fav, too!
I think God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen...or Midnight Clear,.... or, too many choices, so all of them!
Thanks for the chance for the beautiful blue snowflakes fabrics. I just picked up a few FQs that match these perfectly!

[Chris@Cats on my Quilts]

My new favorite Christmas CD is by Straight No Chaser. Just great Christmas classics. Love that fabric and the fact that it could be left out the rest of the winter. I would probably make a runner.

[Andee in aZ]

The Little Drummer Boy is my favorite!

[Laura B.]

I really like "Bring a torch Jeanette Isabella". Beautiful fabric and matching thread!

[Stephanie]

My favorite used to be "Breath of Heaven" sung by Amy Grant. However, last year I found my new favorite: "A Baby Changes Everything" by Faith Hill.

I can't listen to Christmas music all year long. In fact, many of the radio stations start playing them the beginning of NOVEMBER! And it makes me nuts. There are a limited number of Christmas songs, no matter who sings them, so if I start listening right after Halloween, I'm totally sick of them by Christmas--and I don't want to be. So it's me and my iPod until Thanksgiving is over--then bring them on!

[Linda F.]

I love Christmas music and could listen to it all year long. My kids get tired of it and stick their iPod headphones in their ears as soon as we get in the car! O Holy Night is my very favorite, and I love the way John Berry sings it. Celine Dion is great also. But when I put up the Christmas tree, I dig out my old (very old) Christmas with the California Raisins cassette tape (told you it was old) and rock out with the raisins. I always add a new Christmas CD to my collection every year and this year it was Jim Brickman. Oh, and Taylor Swift for my girls. I have to admit, there just isn't anything about Christmas that I don't love!

[LizA.]

Thanks for sharing the 12 Days After Christmas -- love it! I'm so glad there's somebody else besides me who secretly listens to Christmas carols throughout the year -- but don't tell anyone, can we keep it our secret? My all time favorite carol is Angels We Have Heard on High. My favorite version of it has to be the handbell choir at church playing it. DH plays all the tiny bells.

[Melissa C]

My favorite traditional carol is Angels we have heard on high. I also really like Mary, did you know by Wynonna. Thanks for the chance.

[Robin Booth]

Your post reminded me of my oldest son's first Christmas away from home. He was in Bucharest, Romania on his mission. They were able to go to a midnight program in an old cathedral. The last song was O Holy Night and when they walked outside it had begun to snow. My personal favorite is Silent Night. I have sung it as a lullaby to all seven on my now grown children. It calmed me down as the soothing melody calmed down the baby.

[Julie in WA]

Well now, I remember singing Peace Peace in a choir at one time in my life. Or maybe I was at the piano; no matter, it is a beautiful song. And thanks for the 12 Days After Christmas! I've never seen that one before!

My favorite Christmas song? That is a hard one. "Sing We Now Of Christmas" is definitely at the top of the list, as well as the old Dutch Christmas song "Ere Zij God", accompanied with full pipe organ.

[Nancy]

Beautiful music. I get chills every time I hear Celine Dion's 'Oh Holy Night'. When I first heard it I listened to it over and over again. I love most Christmas songs, but "Bring a torch Jeanette Isabella" and Angels We Have Heard on High are special to me because many years ago in our schools accapela choir we sang both, I have never forgotten that concert. But I think my favorite song would have to be "Mary Did You Know?" I get weepy every time I hear it. The blue fabrics and matching thread are so crisp and beautiful. They just remind me of a lovely snowy scene with a river running through. Please don't enter me as I was fortunate enough to win the snowmen.(HOORAY!!!) Good Luck to Everyone!!!

[Christine Thomas]

Wow...that's a tough question. There are so many songs, that for different reasons, can be the favorite. I love O, Holy Night, also. Away in a Manger always reminds me of when my girls were young and taking piano lessons...it was one of their songs. O, Come All Ye Faithful was fun when I was in Catholic grade school, we sang it in Latin. The words still come back to me 45 years later. I think I will settle on O, Holy Night.
Those fabrics and thread are gorgeous. What a spectacular quilt they'd make.

[Zannah]

Gosh - a tricky question. But my favourite has to be 'Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht' (Silent night).

Just after I turned 20, I had to go to live in Germany for a year, as part of my college course. I was desperately homesick (this was in 1989 - 20 years ago - I know because the Berlin Wall fell while I was living over there).

And of course, this was before mobile phones, internet etc. If you wanted to speak to family or friends, it was a long walk to the nearest phone box, deposit your pennies (or Pfennigs) and hope that they would be in - as otherwise you'd have wasted your hard earned cash.

I missed mu mum. A lot. I phoned her once a week - with my 30Pfennigs, which lasted about 5 minutes. She couldn't phone me, as I didn't have a phone in my flat, but she tried to write to me every day..

I joined a local choir, and they made me tremendously welcome. At the start of December, the Germans really start to celebrate Advent - lots of baking and hospitality.

And what I really do remember is the last choir practice before I went home to see my family again - all the choir ladies had brought in home backed goods (I think I was supposed to as well, but my German wasn't that good at this point, and I think I may have tuned out of the request to get cooking!!). I may well have disappointed a number of people who thought that they would get to taste some 'foreign' delights.

At the end of the choir practice, there was a rendition of Stille Nacht, sung without accompaniment. I had never really heard it sung like that before - and now, whenever I hear it again, it takes me back to those days, when a group of complete strangers made me, and a number of other random visitors*, feel completely welcome and part of their small town. It just makes me stop and think that this is what Christmas is all about.

Don't get me wrong - I LOVE the presents ,the tinsel, the tree, the chocolate, the mince pies - but it's about family and friends as well.

*By this time of year, refugess were flooding from Poland, Hungary and Eastern Germany into West Germany, thinking that at any moment the Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain were going to go up again. In the town where I was living, the refugees were housed just along the road from me - each family was allocated a room to live in, and several families owdul share a kitchen and bathroom.

[Nancy Anne]

Definitely The Holly and the Ivy. Like Nancy, I was in the choir in high school, and we sang that song. I've loved it ever since!

[Sheila Carita]

I love The Little Drummer Boy... it has always been a favorite of mine.

For strictly instrumental I like Mannheim Steamroller

http://shop.mannheimsteamroller.com/

Thanks for the giveaway!

SheilaC

shecarita(at)yahoo(dot)com

[Melanie]

My favorites are Go Tell It On The Mountain sung by Sara Evans and Song for a Winters Night sung by Sarah McLachlan.

[Thelma]

Anything done by Kenny G....there's just something about my favorite carols performed with a sax that put me in a Christmas mood, that and your Christmastime blogs.....

[Anne Simonot]

Oh there are so many great ones.. the traditional ones, not the more modern ones... "I Saw Three Ships", "Good King Wenceslas", and "We Three Kings" are my faves, and "We Three Kings" is the top of the list. (I told you I love traditional!)

[Linda]

My favorite Christmas carol is Silent Night. When the church choir and congregation sing this on Christmas Eve it always brings tears to my eyes.

On another note, my friend and I sang Christmas carols walking to finals the first semester of college. It really helped calm our nerves! From then on we always sang carols on the way to finals - whether it was December or May!

[Chamaine]

You know I was thinking: in all your spare time (hee!hee!), you should be a columnist and get syndicated across the country! Love you!

[Diane Cannon]

I just love the blue fabric with the snowflakes and I save all my snowmen and decorate with them after the other Christmas decorations are put away--so that snowflake fabric is perfect!!! My favorite Christmas carol is Away in the Manager--and soo many more!!!
have fun tomorrow--hugs, Di

[Jeanine]

Thank you for sharing your Christmas stories with us. I had a good laugh over yesterdays post. My favorite Christmas song is Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer. Gotta have some humor during the holiday madness.