It's the holiday season. I'm not one of those ILOVECHRISTMASOMGGGGGGGG types but it is definitely a nice time of the year. The decorations, the wreaths, the lights, the family recipes, the heirlooms, and of course the music. My faves are the Charlie Brown Christmas album, Mannheim Steamroller, Sufjan Stevens and Amy Grant (cause you don't have to be a child to love the mystery, MYSTERYYYYYYY).
When I was in high school, I was in concert chorus. Every year we had a Christmas medley that we would learn and go around the Tulsa area to schools and different social functions, mostly involving really old people. We wore Santa hats and Christmas sweatshirts with white dickies underneath. Yes, they still sell dickies, or at least they did in 2002. We even sang some songs on Channel 2's morning show. The songs were the same each year - roughly 20 Christmas songs, mostly well-known so that the audience could sing along if they wanted.
One of our carols was written in 1954 by a lady named Wihla Hutson called We'll Dress the House. The song talks about preparing your decorations, preparing a table for Christmas food, but then talks about something else: preparing your heart. It's really quite a simple concept but I've always thought that she described it beautifully. I won't really elaborate because I think the lyrics express it perfectly and poignantly, and much better than "NO I WON'T SAY HAPPY HOLIDAYS, YOU PAGAN, IT'S MERRY CHRISTMAS THANKYOUVERYMUCH."
We'll Dress the House - by Wihla Hutson
We'll dress the house with holly bright and sprigs of mistletoe
We'll trim the Christmas tree tonight and set the lights aglow
We'll wrap our gifts with ribbons gay and give them out on Christmas Day
By everything we do and say, our gladness we will show
We'll dress the table daintily, our finest treasures use
That all a-sparkle it may be and bright with lovely hues
Then for the feasting we'll prepare a kitchen full of wondrous fare
That each from all the dishes rare, his fav'rite one may choose
And ye who would the Christ child greet, your heart also adorn
That it may be a dwelling meet for Him who now is born
Let all unlovely things give place to souls bedecked with heavenly grace,
That ye may view His holy face with joy on Christmas morn
Sometimes it's really refreshing to recognize the theology that can be packed into things like Christmas carols about decorating your home.
(and yes I just realized that I have another post from like three weeks ago called 'Tis the Season but I sort of tend to overuse that phrase anyway so I'm going with it)
1 comment:
remember freshman year when you were driving me around and i said "...is this sufjan stevens? on a Christmas cd?!" ...and then you burned me both copies and my life was forever changed.
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