Christmas music

A big part of the Christmas season for me is the music. I'm not one who likes it all year long. I think that the fact that it is restricted to a single season is part of the appeal, however, that season seems to be coming earlier and earlier each year. I grew up listening to a Boston Pops Christmas record over and over again along with a stack of other holiday records. We all loved it. We would also watch the Pops Christmas concert on TV. I always wanted to go to the concert so years ago when they came on tour to a city nearby I went. The basketball arena where they played wasn't as magical as I imagine the concert hall would be, but it was a fun evening anyway.

I also love to sing the Christmas hymns at church each year. This is one time that I wish the Christmas season was longer. There just aren't enough weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas to sing them all as much as I would like to. To me the ideal program for a Christmas sacrament meeting would be to sing and sing and sprinkle a few scriptures in between to rest our voices.

I love to listen to Handel's Messiah. That music has such power. In high school I got to perform with a community group that did parts of it one year. That was a lot of fun. I have a copy of the score and some day when the kids are older I want to go to a sing along.

As far as individual songs go, my favorites are more spiritual than carol, Rise up Shepherd and Follow and Go Tell It on the Mountain. One of the records my parent have has a man with a fabulously deep voice singing Rise up Shepherd. It is great!

There's a star in the east on Christmas morn.
Rise up shepherd and follow.
It will lead to the place where Jesus's born.
Rise up Shepherd and follow.

This comes close:

I love the joy and exuberance of Go tell it on the Mountain. Sometimes I think that our selection of hymns lacks a little zing. My in-laws have a recording of Mahalia Jackson singing this that is fantastic, but a little slow.


Here for more holiday music favorites