Soaking in Christmas

     I’ve already established, in past blogs, that I’m not for skipping past Thanksgiving to go straight into Christmas the day after Halloween. At the same time, once the holiday season arrives, I want to bask in it, marinate in it, wallow (or, waller, as my mama would have said) in it.

     My ideal day from the day after Thanksgiving until New Year’s Eve is to sit in my living room, wearing a Christmas sweater, with the Christmas tree lights on and a fire in the fireplace, while watching a REAL Christmas movie like White Christmas or It’s A Wonderful Life, and simultaneously reading a Christmas book with a Christmas-themed magazine beside me.

     For these past few weeks, I’ve been searching out ways to dive deep into Christmas, even while I’m at work or in the car. I mean, you can’t just marinate at home. While searching, I’ve come upon a few fun finds, old and new. Consider these a part of your Christmas brine. You need to be soaking in Christmas all season long to completely enjoy it. Here are a few of my favorites:

Podcasts/Film

     Can’t Wait for Christmas podcast is a fun listen. I found this one about Emmett Otter’s Jugband Christmas and had to listen. I’ve never watched this Jim Henson oldie, but I’m going to. I first heard about it when my pastor told me it was a family favorite.

     Christmas on a High Wire, episode 10 is a recent find as well and I laughed, HARD. Be prepared, this is not the most reverential Christmas podcast. Think of it as Prairie Home Companion meets Saturday Night Live. It’s improv comedy mixed in with a few real-life Christmas reminiscences.

     Every Christmas National Public Radio rebroadcasts David Sedaris’ reading/retelling of the Santa Land Diaries. This monologue about Sedaris’ experience working as an elf assisting a mall Santa never fails to make me laugh.

     If you want something a little more traditional, but still fun, I highly recommend any of the Prairie Home Companion Christmas episodes. Garrison Keillor has a special way of honoring the holiday that feels a lot like old-time radio. Search it online, you won’t regret it.

     Finally, don’t forget the reason for the season. I also make plenty of room in my podcast schedule to listen to Christmas sermons throughout the season. You’ll get a taste of it from this brief film, Let There BeLight, from North Point Church.

Music

     I don’t think you can improve on The Carpenter’s 1978 Christmas Portrait album. Karen Carpenter’s sweet alto resonates in a way that a lot of Christmas songs do not. Check it out.

     When Amy Grant came out with Tennessee Christmas in 1983, I was already in love. Amy had already made a name for herself in contemporary Christian music. Now, here was this beautiful album. Tennessee Christmas felt authentic from the very beginning. I love the lyric “Where the love gathers around us, like the gifts around our tree.” YES! She’s released a remix of the song with some new sounds. I prefer the original.

     Since I’m going back in time, I have to include Christmas Time's a Comin'. I like this version by the Ricky Skaggs Family, but I also love to hear Bill Monroe and Dolly Parton sing it as well. It’s a favorite because it’s the song that brings me closest to my dad at Christmas. He’d pick and sing this song throughout the month of December. The only think better than this version by the Skaggs would be to have a recording of my dad singing it.

     Childhood Christmases were never complete without hearing Parson Brown Christmas. Delmas Franklin always played this favorite from The New Christy Minstrels on his morning radio show on WLAQ in Rome. When I hear it now, I’m back in my mama’s little kitchen on Cave Spring Road eating eggs fried in bacon grease with a buttered biscuit, and that’s not a lie!

     I will be accused of being a fan boy for this next one, but so be it. My son has some amazingly talented friends in Nashville. One of those friends, Josie Dunne, released a winter song, Cold in December, just in time for Christmas. It’s not a Christmas song. It’s a song about lost love, but it’s set in a snowy December and that makes it Christmas-y for me. Give it a listen. I think you’ll like it.

     And, finally, my son, Ethan, and more of his talented friends filmed a Christmas video to promote a charity concert they performed in Nashville. I love the song, Christmas in Bloom. I love that my son sings on it (“a home's just a home…” is his lyric). I love that the concert supported a missionary organization, and I love that the song is about Christmas.

Books

     If you’re a reader, I have three suggestions for you as well.

     Blizzard, by Garrison Keillor, is all the idiosyncratic characters of Lake Woebegone in a Christmastime setting.

     Shepherds Abiding, by Jan Karon, is one of her Mitford series books. There’s a behind-the-scenes story line of preparing a special Christmas gift that just makes me happy. I’m fully aware this is not a guy book. I don’t care. I like the thought of Christmas in a small-town paradise.

     The Thanksgiving Visitor, this true story by Truman Capote is a favorite. It’s technically not a Christmas story, but it’s a beautiful holiday story that gives you a glimpse into the difficult childhood of Capote, the author if In Cold Blood.

     These are just a few of my favorites. Share your favorites with me in the comments section. I’m always looking for MORE Christmas. Merry Christmas. Happy New Year, and remember, Jesus really is the reason for the season.