Tag: holiday

My Best and Worst Lists of Christmas Songs

On By dotluvs2writeIn blogging, Christmas and other Holidays, Fun, Musings, Past Life Activities, Religious8 Comments

peanuts singing christmas carols

I grew up hearing many different Christmas songs, and many of them were the classic ones that center around Christ. I don’t hear these very much on radio stations today.

Also, in the era in which I grew up, we still had Christmas carolers wandering our neighborhoods and gathering to sing under our houses’ windows and at our front doors. It was such an awesome and beautiful experience. It really put you in the Christmas spirit, and you felt connected to your neighbors.

So, I’ve decided to make lists of the good and bad Christmas songs, in my opinion.

The Good List

Traditional songs

We Three Kings

Joy to the World

Silent Night

O Holy Night

Away in the Manger

Silver Bells

O Come All Ye Faithful

Hark the Herald Angels Sing

Little Drummer Boy

Jolly Old Saint Nicholas

O Little Town of Bethlehem

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

O Christmas Tree

Do You Hear What I Hear?

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

White Christmas

 

Good Generic and Pop Rock Christmas Songs

Do They Know It’s Christmas Time (Band Aid)

Last Christmas (only Wham!’s version)

Santa Claus is Coming to Town (Bruce Springsteen)

 

The Bad List

Santa Baby (can’t stand this song)

Baby It’s Cold Outside (Not because of newest political reasons. Don’t like the musical arrangement and has stupid lyrics. Never liked it)

All I Want For Christmas is My Two Front Teeth (ugh)

I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus (hate it)

 

Average “OK” Christmas Songs

Jingle Bells

Jingle Bell Rock

Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

Deck the Halls

We Wish You a Merry Christmas

Sleigh Ride

Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas Time (I’m the only person who likes this song)

The 12 Days of Christmas

 

Funny Christmas Songs

The 12 Pains of Christmas

 

I didn’t list all the Christmas songs out there, just the ones worth noting from my point of view. Which Christmas songs are your favorites, and which ones make the Bad List for you?

 

 

 

 

Feeling the Holiday Burn Before Its Turn

On By dotluvs2writeIn blogging, Christmas and other Holidays, Cultural and Political, Fun, Inspirational, Musings, Past Life Activities, ReligiousLeave a comment

12 days of Christmas 1

The original time for celebrating Christmas is Christmas Day and the eleven days following it leading up to and finishing on Epiphany/Holy Theophany.

Therefore, I like to start the decorating and putting up of the Christmas tree in early December.

But today, you’d think that was odd or old fashioned seeing how each year, stores are laden with glistening trees and decorations are stuffed on stores’  shelves way before December. In fact, they now clutter stores even before Halloween.

Goodness. Who wants to start stressing over buying Christmas gifts that early when you’ve not even bought your kiddies their Halloween costumes or purchased a plethora of super sweet candy?

And what about Thanksgiving?

Oh, we know that pops up between Halloween and Christmas because in the thicket of bobble-filled Christmas trees, Halloween masks, and mounds of candy, a plump turkey struts in and announces it’s that time of year to be eaten, even if you eat turkey in the form of lunch meats and bacon during the rest of the year.

For a moment in November, after you remember and honor military veterans, you remember to be thankful for all your blessings while preparing to feast on the turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, and the like spread out on your large dining room table.

But in the midst of dressing like a pirate and eating cream-smothered pumpkin pie, you are accosted by Christmas music before you can peel off those black-buckled pirate boots.

When you go to the store simply to restock on cleaning supplies or perhaps dog food, Rudolph and his bright red nose invade your peaceful browsing at your local store.

When you’re searching for a new set of dinner plates, the tragic melting of Frosty in the dull winter sun assaults your ears.

But that’s really just Christmas commercialism. Certainly not the holiday where you celebrate the birth of your Savior. So, in a way, you may be able to differentiate between materialistic, commercialized, consumer-centered, profit-making “Christmas,” and Jesus, Mary, Joseph, and the Wisemen Christmas.

Nevertheless, my car’s satellite radio stays on classic mellow rock, R&B, or ’80s tunes until the start of December. After that, the mixture of Santa and his reindeer and Jesus in the manger plays freely in the car. At home, I pluck out Harry Connick, Jr.’s Christmas CD and play it while I put up the tree.

We pull out our favorite Christmas movie, It Happened on 5th Avenue, gather together, and watch it with tears in our eyes and smiles splitting our faces. Of course, we also watch other well-known Christmas movies, like It’s a Wonderful Life, A Christmas Story, and A Charlie Brown Christmas. Yes, we even sneak in a movie with Rudolph and Santa.

Since we Orthodox Christians fast during the forty days leading up to Christ’s birth, we do all our celebrating on the original celebratory days of Christmas — the 12 Days of Christmas as I noted at the beginning of this blog post. The feasting commences, and joy and peace flow happily through the house.

So, waiting until the proper time (from my point of view) to break open the decorations and listen to various Christmas tunes, Christmas burn out doesn’t occur before Christmas Day.

Happy decorating, singing, and shopping for loved ones this Christmas season. 🙂

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A Christmas Household of Many Different Tongues

On By dotluvs2writeIn blogging, Christmas and other Holidays, Fun, Past Life Activities7 Comments

Christmas scene of front door and tree

 

It was Christmas Day, 1980, at our home at Rhein Main Air Base, Germany, when a handful of my mother’s friends from all over came to visit and stay a couple of nights.  I was eleven years old at the time and brimming with excitement over the gifts from Santa and my parents.  But it only grew in fun and warmth through these wonderful people who stayed with us.  Below are the people who stayed with us around Christmas.

Bill:  A World War II veteran and friend of my mother’s (and eventually my father) before they married.

Marilyn:  A sweet woman from Belgium (lives in Greece) (her father was from Belgium and mother from Greece) who speaks French and Greek and only a few English words here and there.

Frida:  An energetic woman from Switzerland who speaks German and French and English.

Chantal:  Daughter of Frida who speaks German and French.

Anthoula & family:  A family from Greece that speaks Greek and German and lived in Germany when we were there.

*FYI: My mother is from Greece and speaks Greek and English.

Everyone got along splendidly.  The languages of French, German, Greek, and English  were like a symphony to my ears.  It stoked a special joy and magic to the Holy Day.  I only speak English and did my best to communicate with our guests.  They were all very kind to me, and all of them felt like part of our family.  So, you can imagine the conversations going on between Marilyn and my mother in Greek, Marilyn and Frida and Chantal in French, Frida and Chantal and Anthoula and her family in German, and Bill and my family in English.  My sister and I tried to chat with Marilyn (early 20s) and Chantal (approximately late teens/early 20s) as best as we could.  Gestures helped out a lot.  And I remember Marilyn spoke a few words in English that were enough for me to grasp what she was talking about.

foreign languages heart

As the large dining room table filled up with delicious Christmas foods, I was in the kitchen watching my mom running in and out of the kitchen to the dining room table to set out the dishes.  She looked frantic because, with the except of the turkey (mom had no idea about how to cook turkeys being Greek!) cooked up by my dad (which was always delicious), she did all the rest of the cooking and most of the preparing and serving!  Anyway, I don’t remember my question, but I asked her something, and she looked down at me with one of the dishes of food in her hand and responded to me in Greek!  I said something like, “Mom, I don’t understand what you said.”  Haha!  She then spoke to me in English.  🙂  With all the different languages floating inside the house, it was only natural that at least once, someone would lose track of to whom they were speaking.

BEST. CHRISTMAS. EVER.

Best Christmas 1980 in Germany

(Our gathering at the table for Christmas dinner. I’m on the left closest to the camera.)

What was your best Christmas memory?

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