Yesterday morning Chip Franklin called for a moratorium on new Christmas songs. To that I say, Bah Humbug! This sentiment was inspired by the appearance of an actor singing his new Christmas song on the Ellen show.
Throughout history artists have created Christmas songs to express the “Joy of Christmas” in ways that are relevant to their culture. In 19th century John W. Work wrote the wonderful African-American spiritual Go Tell It on the Mountain. In 1940 Irving Berlin wrote White Christmas saying at the time “Grab your pen and take down this song. I just wrote the best song I’ve ever written — hell, I just wrote the best song that anybody’s ever written!” In 1942 it won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Moving forward in time José Feliciano gave us Feliz Navidad in 1970. This song should be appreciated the most here in Southern California where it reminds us that despite the gap in our cultures emphasized by our different languages, we share Christmas and the underlying ideals that make us more the same than different.
So what is going wrong with modern Christmas songs? The number one element of any Christmas song is that it evokes joy. When we see songs that violate this basic principle we should refer to them as a holiday song or seasonal music, Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer (1970) or I’m Gettin’ Nuttin’ for Christmas (1955). Some Christmas songs have apparently violated this formula, Blue Christmas (1948?) is a song of unrequited love. But this song, especially Elvis’ version, evoke the contrast of separation between loved ones during the holidays with the intrinsic joy of the season.
Perhaps the best example of the modern unintentional anti-Christmas song comes from an unexpected source, Amy Grant. Her, I Need a Silent Night, is a self-centered, self-pitying lament for some mythical good ol’ days. Contract this song with the classic God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen instructing us since the 15th century not to dismay. God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen is the quintessential Christmas song because it represents the movement to take music back from the church and return it to the common man. Good Christmas music must be sung and therefore must be singable.
We still need good Christmas music to address the issues of today. For example, someone should write a song that talks about how the secular minority is stealing Christmas images out of our streets but with the point that they can never truly steal the true joy of Christmas. I would love to see a song written specifically to bring joy to soldiers serving away from home and family in countries where Christmas may not be celebrated. We could use a song that celebrates how Christmas decorations are a physical expression of the joy in our hearts and how that trumps any CC&Rs ever written. How about a song “Keep χ in χ-mas”, that’s chi by the way not ‘X’. Finally we have never had a song that adequately expresses, “Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.”
No new Christmas songs! Thank God they are written and will be written forever. A thousand years from now, Chip, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, they will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.