A number of years ago, I came
up with the idea of separating traditional Christmas carols into secular
and spiritual variations. I actually researched the background and
lyrics of each one I selected and I have most of the popular ones on my
playlists. Here I'll list the tracks of both playlists and follow up
with some commentary in the end. Also, I'll mention the version I got
of each of them, keeping in mind that I think it's the best performance
of that particular song.
Secular Christmas:
The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You) Nat King Cole
Carol Of The Bells Trans-Siberian Orchestra
Deck the Halls Brian Wilson
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas Chris Isaak
O Tannenbaum Manfred Krug
Twelve Days of Christmas Burl Ives
We Wish You a Merry Christmas Lou Rawls
Holly Jolly Christmas Alan Jackson
All I Want for Christmas Is You Mariah Carey
Theme - Movie - National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
Feliz Navidad Jon Secada
Do They Know It's Christmas The Tributes
Frosty the Snowman Willie Nelson
It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas Christmas Revue
It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year Andy Williams
Jingle Bell Rock The Brian Setzer Orchestra
Jingle Bells Dolly Parton
Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow Michael Bublé
Mele Kalikimaka Bette Midler
Happy Christmas (War Is Over) Winger
Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree LeAnn Rimes
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Lynyrd Skynyrd
Santa Claus Is Coming to Town James Taylor
Silver Bells Martina McBride
Winter Wonderland Amy Grant
White Christmas Gloria Estefan
Spiritual Christmas:
That Spirit of Christmas Chuck Brown & Eva Cassidy
Little Drummer Boy Bob Segar
O Holy Night Nat King Cole
What Child Is This? Trans-Siberian Orchestra
Oh Come All Ye Faithful Celine Dion
Christmas Canon Rock Trans-Siberian Orchestra
Do You Hear What I Hear Whitney Houston
Silent Night Sinead O'Connor
Away In a Manger Johnny Cash
The First Noel Bing Crosby
O Little Town of Bethlehem Elvis Presley
God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen Loreena McKennitt
Hark the Herald Angels Sing Neil Diamond
Joy to the World Judy Collins
Ding Dong! Merrily On High Charlotte Church
Here We Come A-Caroling Ray Conniff
I Heard the Bells On Christmas Day Frank Sinatra
Angels We Have Heard On High Joan Osborne
I Saw Three Ships Celtic Lore
Okay, so there's the songs and I figure it's something of a bipartisan guide for secular participants and faithful participants in Christmas alike. If you feel Christmas is overcommercialized and needs to get back to brass tacks about Jesus' birth, or angels, or prayer, or just something to do with Yahweh and Yahweh-related religion, you can make sure you don't go with the ones that focus on snow, family, presents, Santa, or human solidarity. Those of you who don't want to focus on the religious aspects of the holiday have all the secular stuff you need. These songs aren't without class either. Chestnuts Roasting On An Open fire is pretty much the official Christmas theme song in my mother's house and Happy X-Mas (War Is Over) is a protest song that got promoted to he official Christmas Carol canon.
Now, as accommodating as these lists have the potential to be, there is one thing everyone needs to understand, and that is that Christmas isn't pure. It is not pure as the driven snow, as secularists would like to believe, nor pure as the baby Jesus, as Christians would like to believe. You can tidy it up with all the snow, presents, and songs about trying to get laid (Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow) you like, but in the end Christ is right in the name, as in Christ's Mass. Even the term holiday is derived from holy day, and it's indicative of just how much religion shaped so much of our history that it cannot be avoided any more than culinary traditions that grew out of poverty, musical heritage that grew out of oppression, or literary tradition that grew out of alcoholism. All that snow, shopping, and sexy singing is in there too though, so the Christians can't get away from that. In fact, much of the secular humanist message has seeped into Christmas carols. They speak of the world as a place capable of redemption if humans will just get some perspective, care about those they love all through the year, and generally have that generosity of spirit about them that Charles Dickens definitively captured in his tale. This is far counter to Biblical teaching of human potential, which is basically nothing without Jesus. I'll spare you my usual point about the winter solstice festival of Yule practiced by Northern European germanic tribes in which they would attach bits of metal to fir trees which would be illuminated by the Aurora Borealis while they roasted a sacrificial pig.
Christmas is controversial for many atheists, and even just for people with no family or none they care to go home to. Valentine's Day has been depressing most years of my life for similar reasons, so I do kind of get it, but I would have this to say. Unlike Valentine's Day, which is basically about romantic love, Christmas day is about a lot of things. Hope, generosity, redemption, renewal, and kindness are just a few of the things it is beyond being about family. To quote Lou Rawls, "To all of you out there, you, your family, and friends, and even the people you don't even know, you wish them a Merry Christmas because that's what it's all about. Christmas is about love and love is about life. As long as you got it going on for you, you're doing all right." So if you know you won't be home for Christmas, get into the spirit of things. Take it from someone who has so often depended on the milk of human kindness that any you manage to find it within yourself to generate will not go to waste. See, Christmas has become a symbol of so much more than than a child born destined to become an avatar of vicarious redemption through torture and human sacrifice. It has become a warm smile from all the world to all the rest of the world and the more people participate in that, the better. The more people who say, "Today, just today, I won't hate people or abuse my power over them. I just want to be a better person today and to seek out people who will be a better person to me, because I want one day, just one day, to forget all the bad stuff. All the broken down neverending madness of the world and myself can come to a halt in a shower of commerce and colored light and I can let down my guard because that's what you're going to do too. Maybe, just for one day, we may have human solidarity. Peace on Earth. Good will towards men."
-Frank
Secular Christmas:
The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You) Nat King Cole
Carol Of The Bells Trans-Siberian Orchestra
Deck the Halls Brian Wilson
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas Chris Isaak
O Tannenbaum Manfred Krug
Twelve Days of Christmas Burl Ives
We Wish You a Merry Christmas Lou Rawls
Holly Jolly Christmas Alan Jackson
All I Want for Christmas Is You Mariah Carey
Theme - Movie - National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
Feliz Navidad Jon Secada
Do They Know It's Christmas The Tributes
Frosty the Snowman Willie Nelson
It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas Christmas Revue
It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year Andy Williams
Jingle Bell Rock The Brian Setzer Orchestra
Jingle Bells Dolly Parton
Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow Michael Bublé
Mele Kalikimaka Bette Midler
Happy Christmas (War Is Over) Winger
Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree LeAnn Rimes
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Lynyrd Skynyrd
Santa Claus Is Coming to Town James Taylor
Silver Bells Martina McBride
Winter Wonderland Amy Grant
White Christmas Gloria Estefan
Spiritual Christmas:
That Spirit of Christmas Chuck Brown & Eva Cassidy
Little Drummer Boy Bob Segar
O Holy Night Nat King Cole
What Child Is This? Trans-Siberian Orchestra
Oh Come All Ye Faithful Celine Dion
Christmas Canon Rock Trans-Siberian Orchestra
Do You Hear What I Hear Whitney Houston
Silent Night Sinead O'Connor
Away In a Manger Johnny Cash
The First Noel Bing Crosby
O Little Town of Bethlehem Elvis Presley
God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen Loreena McKennitt
Hark the Herald Angels Sing Neil Diamond
Joy to the World Judy Collins
Ding Dong! Merrily On High Charlotte Church
Here We Come A-Caroling Ray Conniff
I Heard the Bells On Christmas Day Frank Sinatra
Angels We Have Heard On High Joan Osborne
I Saw Three Ships Celtic Lore
Okay, so there's the songs and I figure it's something of a bipartisan guide for secular participants and faithful participants in Christmas alike. If you feel Christmas is overcommercialized and needs to get back to brass tacks about Jesus' birth, or angels, or prayer, or just something to do with Yahweh and Yahweh-related religion, you can make sure you don't go with the ones that focus on snow, family, presents, Santa, or human solidarity. Those of you who don't want to focus on the religious aspects of the holiday have all the secular stuff you need. These songs aren't without class either. Chestnuts Roasting On An Open fire is pretty much the official Christmas theme song in my mother's house and Happy X-Mas (War Is Over) is a protest song that got promoted to he official Christmas Carol canon.
Now, as accommodating as these lists have the potential to be, there is one thing everyone needs to understand, and that is that Christmas isn't pure. It is not pure as the driven snow, as secularists would like to believe, nor pure as the baby Jesus, as Christians would like to believe. You can tidy it up with all the snow, presents, and songs about trying to get laid (Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow) you like, but in the end Christ is right in the name, as in Christ's Mass. Even the term holiday is derived from holy day, and it's indicative of just how much religion shaped so much of our history that it cannot be avoided any more than culinary traditions that grew out of poverty, musical heritage that grew out of oppression, or literary tradition that grew out of alcoholism. All that snow, shopping, and sexy singing is in there too though, so the Christians can't get away from that. In fact, much of the secular humanist message has seeped into Christmas carols. They speak of the world as a place capable of redemption if humans will just get some perspective, care about those they love all through the year, and generally have that generosity of spirit about them that Charles Dickens definitively captured in his tale. This is far counter to Biblical teaching of human potential, which is basically nothing without Jesus. I'll spare you my usual point about the winter solstice festival of Yule practiced by Northern European germanic tribes in which they would attach bits of metal to fir trees which would be illuminated by the Aurora Borealis while they roasted a sacrificial pig.
Christmas is controversial for many atheists, and even just for people with no family or none they care to go home to. Valentine's Day has been depressing most years of my life for similar reasons, so I do kind of get it, but I would have this to say. Unlike Valentine's Day, which is basically about romantic love, Christmas day is about a lot of things. Hope, generosity, redemption, renewal, and kindness are just a few of the things it is beyond being about family. To quote Lou Rawls, "To all of you out there, you, your family, and friends, and even the people you don't even know, you wish them a Merry Christmas because that's what it's all about. Christmas is about love and love is about life. As long as you got it going on for you, you're doing all right." So if you know you won't be home for Christmas, get into the spirit of things. Take it from someone who has so often depended on the milk of human kindness that any you manage to find it within yourself to generate will not go to waste. See, Christmas has become a symbol of so much more than than a child born destined to become an avatar of vicarious redemption through torture and human sacrifice. It has become a warm smile from all the world to all the rest of the world and the more people participate in that, the better. The more people who say, "Today, just today, I won't hate people or abuse my power over them. I just want to be a better person today and to seek out people who will be a better person to me, because I want one day, just one day, to forget all the bad stuff. All the broken down neverending madness of the world and myself can come to a halt in a shower of commerce and colored light and I can let down my guard because that's what you're going to do too. Maybe, just for one day, we may have human solidarity. Peace on Earth. Good will towards men."
-Frank
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