Mike Huckabee was doing an audience-participation segment on his
Fox News Channel program last week when he was asked to name his
favorite Christmas carol. "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing," he
answered. Then he asked his questioner to name her favorite
Christmas carol.
"Winter Wonderland!" she answered cheerfully.
Huckabee smiled and said he liked the song, too. But surely the
former Baptist minister must have been thinking the same thing I
was thinking: "Winter Wonderland" is not a Christmas
carol.
There is not a single reference to Christmas in the entire song.
Snow, yes. Sleigh bells, yes. Christmas, no. Written in 1934 by
Richard Smith and Felix Bernard, "Winter Wonderland" is a typical
example of 20th-century "holiday" songs that have nothing to do
with Christmas.
The same can be said for Leroy Anderson's "Sleigh Ride" (1949).
Originally an instrumental hit for the Boston Pops, "Sleigh Ride"
shares with "Winter Wonderland" the theme of a romantic outing in
the snow. Romance is also central to another mid-20th-century
holiday favorite, "Let It Snow!" Written by Sammy Cahn and Jule
Styne, it became a No. 1 hit for Vaughn Monroe in 1946, but for
seductive insinuation, it's hard to beat Dean Martin's 1959
version.
Snuggling by the fireside might spark feelings of good cheer, but
there's no mention of Christmas in "Let It Snow!" either. Yet it
joins "Sleigh Ride" and "Winter Wonderland" in the Top 10 of
ASCAP's list of
most popular holiday songs.
The insipid "Frosty the Snowman" (1950) ranks No. 16 on the ASCAP
list, but says not a single word about Christmas. Neither does
the word "Christmas" appear anywhere in the lyrics of Perry
Como's 1954 hit, "(There's No Place Like) Home for the Holidays,"
ranked No. 22 by ASCAP.
These 20th-century pop concoctions belong to a genre of innocuous
winter music created by James Pierpont, who in 1857 penned a tune
he titled "One Horse Open Sleigh," better known as "Jingle
Bells," another holiday classic that doesn't mention Christmas.
(Nor, for that matter, is there any reference to Christmas in
Bobby Helm's 1957 rockabilly hit, "Jingle Bell Rock.")
YOU CAN GO PRETTY DEEP into the seasonal music catalog without
encountering anything that would offend an ACLU lawyer.
Progressing beyond the sleigh-and-snow variety of what might be
called "un-Christmas carols," we come to another cluster of tunes
that focus on the Christmas season in a sort of festive
holly-and-mistletoe way. "Silver Bells" (1951), "It's the Most
Wonderful Time of the Year" (1961), and "Holly Jolly Christmas"
(1962) are of this variety, as is "The Christmas Song" (1944),
famed for its opening line, "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire."
Next come a trio of favorites -- "Have Yourself a Merry Little
Christmas" (1944), "I'll Be Home for Christmas" (1943) and, of
course, "White Christmas" (1942) -- which owe much of their
sentimental value to their World War II-era origins, tugging at
the heartstrings of folks on the home front as they remembered GI
sons and sweethearts far away. If you want a "Greatest
Generation" Christmas, those have to be high on your list.
A musical journey toward the heart of Christmas would not be
complete without a nod to Santa Claus songs, the most famous
being "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" (1948), "Here Comes Santa
Claus" (1947) and "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" (1934). The
jolly old elf also features prominently in humorous holiday hits
like "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" (1952), "Santa Baby"
(1953) and "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer" (1978).
Rock 'n' roll has made some catchy contributions to the season's
soundtrack, including Brenda Lee's "Rockin' Around the Christmas
Tree" and Chuck Berry's "Run, Run Rudolph," both from 1958. Owing
perhaps to the music's blues roots, many rock Christmas tunes
tend toward themes of loneliness and heartache. In addition to
the Elvis Presley hit "Blue Christmas" (originally recorded by
Ernest Tubb in 1948), there is also "Please Come Home for
Christmas" (a previously obscure 1960 tune boosted to classic
status by the Eagles' 1978 remake) and "Christmas (Baby Please
Come Home)" that Phil Spector had in mind for wife Ronnie and the
Ronettes, but which ended up being recorded by Darlene Love in
1963 with Spector's famous "Wall of Sound" production style.
In their post-Beatles careers, John Lennon and Paul McCartney
made their characteristic additions to classic-rock Christmas
rotations. The Cute One's saccharine 1979 "Wonderful
Christmastime" is bouncy and forgettable, while Lennon's 1971
"Happy Christmas (War Is Over)" remains poignant, despite the
background warbling of Yoko Ono.
Rock aficionados can also enjoy the innovative Yuletide
instrumentals of Trans-Siberian Orchestra, which is to Mannheim
Steamroller what Pink Floyd is to Neil Sedaka. Bob Geldof's 1984
"Do They Know It's Christmas?" serves mainly as a nostalgic
souvenir for fans of British New Wave -- Duran Duran! Bananarama!
Culture Club! -- while inspiring the rest of us with gratitude
that Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, and Burl Ives never thought of
famine relief as a holiday theme.
A couple of years ago, somebody noticed that there hasn't been a
genuine Christmas hit written in the past three decades. Every
once in a while, a clever remake -- Bruce Springsteen's version
of "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" or John Mellencamp's version
of "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" -- will carve out a spot in
the radio playlists, but in terms of entirely new tunes, it's
been a long time since America's songwriters added anything
memorable to the holidays.
OF COURSE, THE MOST MEMORABLE Christmas songs -- if not
necessarily the most popular on the radio -- are the old carols,
including Huckabee's favorite "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing,"
written in the 18th century by evangelist Charles Wesley. "Joy to
the World" also dates to the 1700s, while "Silent Night" began as
the German "Stille Nacht" in 1816, and "Angels We Have Heard On
High" is an Anglican priest's 1862 translation of a traditional
French carol.
"O Come All Ye Faithful," was originally "Adestes Fidelis," but
don't let the Latin title fool you into thinking it possesses a
particularly ancient pedigree -- written in 1751, it's of more
recent vintage than either "Joy to the World" or "Hark, the
Herald Angels Sing." Still more recent are "The First Noel"
(circa 1820), "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" (1850), "We Three
Kings" (1857), "O Little Town of Bethlehem" (1868), and
"Away in a Manger" (1885).
So if you want to have a really old-fashioned Christmas, what
should you sing? Three tunes lead that list. "What Child Is
This?" is sung to the 16th-century English folk tune
"Greensleeves," although the familiar lyrics were written in the
1860s. The most ancient of well-known carols is "O Come, O Come,
Immanuel," its lyrics translated from 9th-century Latin, its
melody 15th-century French, and its original inspiration from the
prophet Isaiah, 8th-century B.C.
We are now deep into Christmas tradition, far away from sleigh
rides, dancing snowmen and Dean Martin crooning about popcorn by
the fireside. For now we come to my personal favorite carol, "God
Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen." Its cheerful tune disguises the
in-your-face lyrical aggression -- the very first word declares
an evangelical intent to impose religious beliefs on the
listener.
Best of all (and I'm surprised this fire-and-brimstone aspect
didn't make it Huckabee's favorite) "God Rest Ye Merry,
Gentlemen" reminds us that "Christ, our Savior" was born to "save
us all from Satan's power when we were gone astray." Satan, sin
and salvation -- now, that is what I call Christmas tradition.
And so, to all you secular Scrooges and Grinches and
Kathleen Parkers, on behalf of all us Bible-thumping
right-wing holy rollers, I wish you a very "oogedy boogedy"
Christmas.
topics:
Christmas Carols, Mike Huckabee
