If you're reading this post, chances are pretty good that you enjoy holiday music. If the mixes I've put together over the years prove anything, it's that the supply of holiday-themed tunes is both large and diverse — heck, I've included more than 600 different tracks on my annual collections, and I've barely scratched the surface! Of course, the vast majority of these tunes tend to be rather obscure. In fact, only a relative handful can truly be called holiday classics. Among the genuine classics, however, a surprising number have interesting and little-known backstories behind them.
The social bookmarking service Pocket has collected a series of interesting pieces on the surprising backstories behind a number of the best-known holiday classics. Many of our most familiar carols, for example, were popularized by Edward White Benson, who served as Archbishop of Canterbury from 1883 to 1896. Shortly before assuming that role, he devised the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols in Truro as a way of luring folks out of the pubs and into church on Christmas Eve by appropriating a number of popular drinking songs and making them the centerpiece of the service. Among these were "I Saw Three Ships" and "Good King Wenceslas," neither of which in their original versions had anything to do with Christmas. "Jingle Bells," for that matter, has nothing to do with Christmas either, but was rather conceived as a Thanksgiving-related song!
Anyway, you can check out the backstories behind these and other seasonal tunes by way of the articles connected to the link below and you'll pick up enough trivia to impress your fellow guests at holiday parties throughout the season!
Check out the backstories behind some of your favorite holiday songs on Pocket.
Holiday greetings to one and all! I hope you're bearing up after another difficult and challenging year and taking steps to protect and care for yourself and those around you. If you're anything like me, you may feel like you've been on a lengthy emotional rollercoaster. When we first climbed in nearly two years ago, none of us knew where it was going or how long it would last. Few could have predicted the scope of the changes to come or the suffering so many would have to endure. What's clear now is that the ride's been extended into another amusement park altogether where much of the scenery is unfamiliar. Indeed, many aspects what we'd come to see as "normal" life seem to have been permanently altered. Such changes are difficult to accept, especially against a backdrop of increasing divisiveness and fear. But while change is inevitable, I firmly believe we can all have a say in determining the values we want to carry with us into the future. Surely the "holiday spirit" is something worth protecting — so let's remember the joys of previous holidays, celebrate the current ones and carry on!
In this spirit, I've thrown together my 17th annual holiday mix, Be A Santa!, which is now available on my holiday music website. This one contains 37 diverse seasonal songs and
other tracks selected to help put you in the holiday spirit and remember some of the joys of previous celebrations. You'll find this mix contains the same kinds of things my previous collections included — genuine holiday favorites, a few upbeat rock originals, celebrity greetings, and enough cringe-worthy monstrosities to make the rest of it sound really good.
