Dec 5: The Christmas Song | Chris Parker, Layton, Utah

Today's posting comes from my neighbor, Chris Parker. From the very first day I met Chris, I have felt nothing but warmth and friendship. He is genuine and kind. He's lighthearted and can make anyone smile. He tried to tell me one day that he's shy and would rather "walk into a room and be content to be left alone"...which I don't believe one bit. ;) He's social even though he says he's not. For our family, he's a good example to have right in our own neighborhood.

Chris says, "Stewart asked me to offer up a song for his Christmas music blog and I spent a fair bit of time thinking about my favorite Christmas song, I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day, which is a beautiful poem Longfellow wrote amidst his pain over the Civil War and his son’s involvement in the war. That reverent recognition of Christmas’ (thus, Christ’s) hopeful redemption has no peer short of Handel’s Messiah. But the weight of Longfellow’s message is only one side of Christmas."

Chris continues, "Gemütlichkeit is one of my very favorite words. The Germans have a habit of mashing words together with abandon, and often laughable results (like backpfeifengesicht). Gemütlichkeit though, is one of their very best. Fitting that I should pair the word with Christmas, since nobody does Christmas quite like the Germans. Or Nat King Cole. And Nat King Cole’s The Christmas Song evokes gemütlichkeit in me every holiday season. Gemütlichkeit has no direct translation to English. About the best we can do is describe it as a cozy, comfortable, and convivial feeling. It’s that calm and contented feeling you get on those perfect holiday nights with family, warmth, and peace."

"Christmas has always been a comfortable holiday for me. Filled with close family, excitement, and contentment at having life’s essentials and more, I feel gemütlichkeit more often than the awe and reference usually reserved in my heart for Christmas Eve’s sacred feeling. Nothing takes me to the gemütlichkeit of Christmas quite like Nat King Cole’s classic. The Christmas Song was, of course, written in July while Mel Torme dreamt of cooler days. He and others recorded it, but none recorded it as well as Nat King Cole."

Chris concludes, "The opening strings call to my mind the old Disney films and songs of my youth and Cole’s buttery smooth voice comforts me. It’s celebratory and exciting, yet calm and warm. It puts me in a simpler frame of mind by evoking a simpler time. It’s the night decorating the tree or a cup of hot cocoa as the snow comes down. And though it lacks direct references to Christ, it does serviceable work keeping me away from what can become a frantic holiday race. So, while on Christmas Eve and other times throughout the holiday season I will listen to Silent Night, I heard the Bells on Christmas Day, and O Holy Night and feel great awe and reverence, I will also listen to The Christmas song and soak in the gemütlichkeit on pleasant, cozy evenings locked away with my little family in the warmth while the lights on the roof illuminate the falling snowflakes."

The Christmas Song

Performed by Nat King Cole

Words & Music by Robert Wells & Mel Tormé

Released in November 1946

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire,

Jack Frost nipping at your nose,

Yuletide carols being sung by a choir,

And folks dressed up like Eskimos.

Everybody knows a turkey and some mistletoe,

Help to make the season bright,

Tiny tots with their eyes all a-glow,

Will find it hard to sleep tonight.

They know that Santa's on his way

He's loaded lots of toys and goodies on his sleigh,

And ev'ry mother's child is gonna spy,

To see if reindeer really know how to fly.

And so I'm offering this simple phrase,

To kids from one to ninety-two,

Although it's been said

Many times, Many ways

Merry Christmas to you.

And so I'm offering this simple phrase,

To kids from one to ninety-two,

Although it's been said

Many times, Many ways

Merry Christmas to you.