What's Your Favourite Christmas Song?
Here are a few of mine...
I have a playlist on Spotify called “Christmas” which currently has about 150 songs on it ranging from choral traditional carols, to more modern Christian Christmas songs, to Fairytale of New York. It's quite a mix. But there are a few that stand out and will be played on repeat. (Please note that the linked videos for each song are on YouTube and belong to each channel owner - they may take you away from the Substack website or app and you do so at your own risk.)
Mary, Did You Know?
In the early 2000s my Dad started to collect a series of DVDs by an American couple called Bill and Gloria Gaither. They had brought together old Southern Gospel singers and groups as a reunion and it had been very successful so they continued making more DVDs and touring. The “Homecoming Tours” continue to this day, even though many of those original singers have passed away. In addition to the singing there was some comedy, provided mainly by Bill and a man called Mark Lowry. Mark is also a singer and had been part of Bill’s group, the Gaither Vocal Band, at the time. Years earlier, Mark had written the lyrics to Mary, Did You Know? He had passed them to Buddy Green who was also part of the Homecoming Tour and he wrote the music. The song has been recorded by many different people and is slowly but surely creeping into the mainstream. I first heard it on an album by Kathy Mattea but my favourite version is the one by Hayley Westenra. However, I love the version recorded by Mark and the Vocal Band as he sings it with the emphasis in the places he meant it to be when he wrote it.
Maybe This Christmas
I shared this one here on Substack a couple of weeks ago. Harriet came up as one of my top five artists I’ve listened to the most this year on my Spotify Wrapped. I love this song.
I Believe in Santa’s Cause
This song signifies the start of Christmas for me. It’s the first song on the Christmas Card album by The Statler Brothers. Mam used to play this around September time, and still does! I love the lyrics of this song and I love that it just feels like Christmas!
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing/O Little Town of Bethlehem/O Holy Night!
These three carols are favourites of my Dad, Mam and sister, respectively. I have versions of those first two saved from the Northern Sinfonia Chorus in 2009 when I was part of the chorus. My only claim to fame is that my name is in the liner notes of the CD. O Holy Night is a version by Jewel but I also have the version from Home Alone saved in the playlist. All three carols are brilliant Christmas songs which have fantastic melodies and lyrics.
Christmas in Heaven
This is a fairly new song to me. In July this year a family who sang as part of the Gaither Homecoming Tour were travelling to meet the tour in Alaska and their plane crashed, killing all the but the youngest daughter who was travelling separately. Kelly Nelon Clark, her husband Jason Clark, daughter Amber Nelon Thompson Kistler and her husband Nathan Kistler, their assistant Melodi Hodges and the pilot and his wife, Larry and Melissa Haynie, were also killed in the crash. The youngest daughter, Autumn Nelon Streetman was travelling separately, possibly due to her pregnancy. She has just given birth to a healthy baby boy at the beginning of December. This song by The Nelons was recorded a few years ago but perhaps has a little more poignancy in light of this year’s events.
Christmas 1915
This song is about the Christmas truce during the First World War. I love songs that tell a story (I think that’s my country music based upbringing!) and this one is quite a sad song. For me, it’s the contrast between the normal young men who just wanted to be at home with their families and do all the normal things you would do at Christmas and then the war not really being about those men; they were there to do the job they were required to do because of other people’s decisions but it was those men who paid the ultimate price.
The Space Between
I shared this song last year I think. It’s one of my favourites because it talks about that time between Christmas and New Year which is one of my favourite times of the year. I read about it in a book a few years ago but I can’t remember which book! Whatever it was, I’m very thankful that I read it because it introduced me not only to this song, but Sandra McCracken’s entire Christmas album.
So, there you have it - a few of my favourite Christmas songs. I’ve tried to pick a few lesser known ones as I like to discover new music myself. Let me know what your favourite Christmas songs are!
See you next week!