O Holy Night

 

Mariah Carey does the ultimate rendition of the ultimate carol.

Mummers

 

Have Yourself a Merry...

 

The Cherry Tree Carol

 

A special favourite of mine. I wrote and directed a Christmas play once based on it.

Too Many Christmases

 

We couldn't leave Christmas without the great punk Christmas anthem. But I had to delay it so as not to kill the mood of the day itself.

Yet this, or something like it, is too often the reality of Christmas for many.

Many are spending this Christmas in tents, or in abusive families. There is a small tent city within view of the doors of the cathedral here in Saint John, in the shadow of its spire.

It's Time for the Show Stopper

 

Christmas Music

 

Deck Them Halls

 

A very old secular Christmas song.

More cowbell!

I Wonder as I Wander

 

An unhappy Christmans carol, of all things.

Yet this makes sense. We are speaking of serious things here, not "happy happy joy joy."

A cold coming we had of it,

Just the worst time of the year

For a journey, and such a long journey:

The ways deep and the weather sharp,

The very dead of winter.

And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory,

Lying down in the melting snow.

There were times we regretted

The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,

And the silken girls bringing sherbet.

Then the camel men cursing and grumbling

And running away, and wanting their liquor and women,

And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,

And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly

And the villages dirty and charging high prices:

A hard time we had of it.

At the end we preferred to travel all night,

Sleeping in snatches,

With the voices singing in our ears, saying

That this was all folly.

Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,

Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;

With a running stream and a water-mill beating the darkness,

And three trees on the low sky,

And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.

Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,

Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,

And feet kicking the empty wine-skins.

But there was no information, and so we continued

And arrived at evening, not a moment too soon

Finding the place; it was (you may say) satisfactory.

All this was a long time ago, I remember,

And I would do it again, but set down

This set down

This: were we led all that way for

Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,

We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,

But had thought they were different; this Birth was

Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.

We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,

But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,

With an alien people clutching their gods.

I should be glad of another death.

--T.S. Eliot

The Rebel Jesus

 

My friend Mithras sent along for Christmas cheer the song “The Rebel Jesus,” which he really likes. Nice tune; but I dislike it intensely. Jesus is Lord, the rightful ruler of the universe. So against whom is he rebelling? The premise of the song must be that the Devil is the rightful ruler, and God is some troublemaker.

Perhaps the thesis is that Jesus was just a mortal man, and was a rebel against the government of his day? Then not true, even given the atheist premise. “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s.” Political revolt was an obvious option, expected of the Messiah and endorsed by the Zealots. Jesus rejected it.

Next problem: the narrator says he worships in nature. Nature is fallen, and it is our duty to redeem it. I do not worship cancer, or Covid, or cockroaches, or instinct, or the survival of the fittest. Nature worship is an alibi for spiritual laziness and self-indulgence. The Devil is the Lord of nature: Lord of the Flies. 

“But if anyone of us should interfere

In the business of why there are poor

They get the same as the rebel Jesus.”

This is an attempt to avoid our responsibility to help the poor: instead of helping, blame the system. It is not possible to “eliminate poverty.” As Jesus says, “The poor will be always with you.” That is a Marxist con. The rich love it, because it lets them keep their money and blame someone else. “After all, I voted socialist.” Costs nothing.

A Star Is Born

 

 

Merry Caribbean Christmas

 

Soothing.

The Cherry Tree Carol

 

This one is special to me. For some reason it rips me up. One Christmas I directed a Christmas play for our parish acting out the song.

Happy Christmas Eve

 

The ultimate Carol for Christmas Eve, and the ultimate rendition.

Christmas in Canada

 

Mary Had a Little Baby

 

One of my favourites.

Arthur McBride

 

An unconventional Christmas song.

The Holly and the Ivy

 

One of my all-time faves.

A Song for Midwinter Night

 

Important News of the Cosmos