Saturday, December 27, 2008

Melancholy Christmas Songs

Riding and singing in the car


Christmas day on the new tricycle

I have a special love for sad, bittersweet Christmas songs. Once I started searching for them, I noticed there are many. That makes sense I guess. After all, Christmas never matches all of our hopes and expectations after the age of about five or six. Once you begin to doubt Santa, a whole new stage of life and view of Christmas begins. One of the first hard lessons is that life is not fair, but we have to find a way to make the best of it anyway. So here is my list of favorite Christmas songs. You may not have heard of all of them.

1. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
Perferably Judy Garland's or Frank Sinatra's versions

2. I'll be Home for Christmas - The soldier's homesick Christmas song. Frank Sinatra?

3. Blue Christmas - Elvis, of course

4. Please Come Home for Christmas - Bluesy, Rocky, Don't remember the first artist, but I love the Eagles version

5. If We Make it through December - Merle Haggard. Popular when I was broke, newly married and a new mom

6. Hard Candy Christmas - Dolly Parton. Technically not a Christmas song, but I love it anyway

7. Pretty Paper - Willy Nelson. Not really one of my favorites, but I do love Willie.

I know there are more. What's the one that ends with Auld Lang Sine? I know this is spelled wrong and can't think of the title of the song right now.

Other favorite Christmas songs remind me of my children and have now been taken over by my grandchildren. We love to sing them in the car.

1. Old Toy Trains - Roger Miller. Popular the Christmas my son was two years old (1973). I used to rock and sing to him and he would "sing" along. Later I sang it for Jaime. I got a CD a couple of years ago and when Jonah and Jill heard this story, they begged to hear it over and over again and we always sang it in the car.

2. Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer - Popular for obvious reasons, but my mother especially loved this song. The kids sing it at the top of their lungs.

3. Jingle Bell Rock - Bobby Helms. Our favorite for 2008. The radio station had a contest to win $1,000 if they played it twice in a row. We didn't win, but we sang it anyway. I even heard little Mia singing it to herself yesterday.

4. Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree - Brenda Lee. Our other Christmas favorite to sing to. Sometimes we get it mixed up with #3.

I will try to figure out how to attach a url for one of these songs.

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