Traditional Christmas Songs: What's Traditional to You?
Sure, traditional Christmas songs are all part of the holiday package…but what counts as traditional these days?
As far as traditional Christmas songs go, I'm sure that few people would put the Beach Boys' "Little St. Nick" or "The Twelve Pains of Christmas" by Bob Rivers on their classics list...but I wouldn't dare bet that nobody would.
See, what counts as a traditional Christmas song varies according to the individual and family. While "White Christmas" and "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" are all very well and good, this Christmas I'll also be chanting the traditional Christmas song lyrics of "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer."
Walking home from our house Christmas Eve --
Some unenlightened people sneer at the whole idea of any modern Christmas song being considered traditional...but you have to ask, what's the cut-off date?
For the last few generations, Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" has been the "sin qua non" of classic Christmas songs. But the song dates only from 1942, which leads some people to claim it's too new to be traditional.
But you know, as they say at Texas A&M University, if it happens once it's an accident. If it happens twice it's tradition!
Since "White Christmas" has happened at least twice--it's the bestselling single of all time, so sayeth Guinness--I think the Aggie definition counts, don't you?
You can say there's no such thing as Santa...
Leaving Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer aside (and those songs really are classic, if not traditional), most traditional Christmas tunes aren't as old as you think. Most date from the 1800s, including "Silent Night," The First Noel," What Child is This," and "Angels We Have Heard on High." As a matter of fact, Silent Night is lends itself it's own Christmas miracle from World War I.
There's no doubt that they're traditional, but they haven't been traditional for all that long. Even perhaps the most traditional Christmas song of all, Handel's Messiah, dates only from 1741, just two and a half centuries ago.
But as for me and Grandpa, we believe!
It's my contention that as long as we keep singing and making a joyful noise unto Christmas, the songs that we use to do so don't matter much--whether they're amusing, adoring, or the ultimate in awesome (as Messiah is to me).
The singing is all that matters, even if the lyrics include weird little lines like "there were hoofprints on her forehead, and incriminating Claus-marks on her back."
And by the way--as for me, I'd have a pretty blue Christmas if Elvis's classic tune wasn't included among my canon of traditional Christmas songs.