Christmas Part I, The Music

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Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year, and no not just because all you people spend money and buy my products, or because I like getting gifts. It’s because of that extra special magic that’s all around us. In case you didn’t know I’m a big fan of choral music. Which is actually kind of ironic considering that I’m a devout agnostic. However get the right large group of people singing together, and it gives me goose bumps. Now if the music happens to have been written by an angry Russian composer like Shostakovich and we’re really getting somewhere. Kick the kids out of the house, and crank up his 13th Symphony Bibi Yar, and it’s pretty close to perfect, but back to Christmas …

So one of my favorite parts of Christmas is listening to choral music. Now if I’m not in the mood for something with that much moxie, Irish Christmas music is a close second. I had the pleasure of seeing The Chieftans perform live at the Tilles Center a few years ago right before Christmas. They did most of the songs from The Bells of Dublin CD and it was an great show. Ok maybe it wasn’t as much fun as singing “Seven Drunken Nights” at Rosy O’Gradys in Manhattan with a bar packed to the gills with drunken Irishmen, but it was still a darn good show.

However what I like about Christmas music is it connects you to music that’s bigger than each of us are. It connects you to tradition. It lets you experience something that was around before you were born, connects us to those who came before us, and gives us the opportunity to connect it with with the children who will be here after we left. It reminds us that all this “stuff” that bogs us down this time of the year, is really just small stuff, and you know what they say about sweat ing the small stuff…

Christmas Part II, When I Met Santa

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