Christmas Music

It's the Christmas season, we must at last admit to ourselves. One of the critical aspects of Christmas is, of course, the music. We now have a lot of options for how we consume it (or, indeed, if we do). Friends of mine are breaking out their vinyl records of Christmas music. Others of us are streaming music online. There may even be those who are buying CD's, since I think they are still making those. Maybe those people are buying mp3s.

My favorite way to hear Christmas music is the traditional way, or at least what is the traditional way to me. I listen on the radio. Each year at this time, a town's soft rock radio stations switch formats to non-stop Christmas music. In this way I get all the conventional songs, sometimes sung by the likes of Bing Crosby and so forth, other times being sung by more recent artists like Mariah Carey or Michael Buble. It suits me well enough.

I do like to go other ways. Those friends of mine with the vinyl records are apt to have me over, and the songs on them are great fun. They are obscure curiosities that do not get aired on the radio. They're old and forgotten, or they were never known. It figures that I would love them. I also love the music that does not get radio play and is of a newer persuasion. For that I will turn to the internet.

Whatever the Christmas music and in whatever form it comes, I generally try to confine myself to it entirely. The month of December is a time when I want constant reminders of the season, and so when there is nothing else to listen to, I try to have the Christmas music there. At home it's easy enough, as I have my radio and computers. When away, I will have to have mp3s on my iPhone. In this way I will really internalize the yuletide spirit.