Christmas Songs/Movies

During P and J’s Thanksgiving visit we got into a little discussion about favorite Christmas songs. It was beyond me to name a song that was truly my favorite. This question has haunted me the past couple weeks. Now that I am hearing Christmas songs anywhere and everywhere, it has occurred to me how my “favorite” has changed throughout my life. Each one seems to symbolize who I was at the time – child, daughter, sister, student, mother. These are my recollections.

Up on the Housetop – definitely my first favorite. I loved that song, knew all the motions and could recite every verse.

Rudolf – this must be Kindergarten/1st grade era. I just loved the idea of this poor little animal proving to all the others that it is OK to be different

It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas – just a fun one for a kid to sing

Silver Bells - I have a distinct memory of helping my mom preparing Christmas cards and this song echoing in my ears and heart. I was probably around 10 years old.

White Christmas – My classic movie stage in my adolescence. That was still when I thought snow was beautiful and that Christmas Eve was not complete without the beauty of silently falling snowflakes blanketing the earth.

Some Children See Him – I can’t quite decide if this was one of my favorites or if we just heard it so much because it was P's favorite and M would play it on the piano during the Christmas Eve sing-along. But it makes the list because it was the only memory I have that symbolizes any sort of global view of my Iowa upbringing.

Rocking Around the Christmas Tree – this is the high school era song – such a nice match to the Beatles and Elvis that we listened to when we were could

Jingle Bell Rock – My college days- this is a D memory. To this day it is still his favorite Christmas song. Its one of those we could shout together to irritate mom just as well as sing together for our own enjoyment.

Handel’s Messiah – this one kept me connected to family memories when I had married and was 3,000 miles away. It was always the first one I played the day after Thanksgiving and had to be played back in the day when I baked Christmas cookies

Oh Holy Night – this one is connected to Maria’s birth. She was born early on a Monday morning in the first week of advent. From that night I understood the true meaning of a holy night. She was it!

Chipmunks –Actually I detested this song but I couldn’t help but laugh when it was played because Dave loved it and had the innate ability to sing like a squeaky chipmunk.

Do They Know It’s Christmas – This one was a favorite for years and years. It symbolized everything I believed about the world

A Very Special Christmas series. – I just loved the old classics with a new twist.

And that brings us up to today. I am still at a loss to name that one song that can symbolize where I am in my life. I will keep listening and thinking.


The topic of music lead quickly into Christmas Movies.

Babes in Toyland was hands down my childhood followed although those trees gave me horrible nightmares.

This was followed by Miracle on 34th Street..

Then I hit my movie classis era of White Christmas, Holiday Inn, and The Bishop’s Wife.

During my high school and college years it was A Christmas Carol – the darker the version the better

Of course the animated ones have to be on my list. I have great memories of watching them with the kids back in the day when they were only televised once a year – Charlie Brown, Rudolf, Frosty the Snowman and The Grinch

It’s a Wonderful Life – I didn’t really discover this movie until I had kids and then insisted that we watch it every year. They both teased me about it mercilessly until one day in their late teens they came to appreciate the message. One of my greatest memories will always be from last Christmas Eve watching it in the big theater in downtown San Jose.

Then my sister-in-law introduced me to A Christmas Movie. I think you have to have been raised in a certain era in a specific part of the country to appreciate the humor in this one but the tongue on the frozen pole still makes me want to cry out in pain.

After that it was the making of Polar Express. Although I usually hate kids’ book made into movies, I thought it was well done.

This was followed by The Grinch movie, which I thought was also well done.

So I guess if I were to choose one it would still be It’s a Wonderful Life. I just love that whole idea of imagining how the world would be different without out an individual person in it. We all are important and have an impact on everyone and everything.