My Favorite Christmas Carol by Terri BrisbinI tend to like the old traditional carols best. “Silent Night” sung during Midnight Mass always gives me the chills. “O Holy Night” does the same thing. I can even remember standing on stage, in the third row (because I was tall for my age), in my berry-red skirt and white blouse during the fifth grade Christmas play singing harmony in “O Holy Night” and just feeling the excitement and splendor of the Season.
I still love that carol, especially Josh Groban’s version of it, but. . . a little confession here….I also like the South Park version of it! Yes!! It’s terrible but I laugh all the way through it as Cartman tries to sing the right words and his ‘friends’ shock him when he doesn’t. I also like “A Christmas Wrapping” by the Waitresses, “Christmas Eve in Sarajevo”, “Wish Liszt” and “Wizards in Winter” by TransSiberian Orchestra. And pretty much anything on a Wyndham Hill Christmas collection, especially music by Nightnoise.
So, yes, I’m torn between traditional and modern. But one place and event when those two come together is in Walt Disney World at Christmastime. Every year, they present the “Candlelight Procession” in Epcot and it includes professional singers and musicians as well as high school and college choirs. The process onto the stage and are led through the story of the Nativity by a celebrity narrator and the show includes all the best traditional carols as well as a few modern ones, too. The most rousing song in the show is an old song called “Rejoice with Exceeding Great Joy” and it was made even better when I watched the sign language interpreter expressing the song in wonderful gestures and smiles. If you want to take a peek, here’s a link to a video of it on YouTube. What’s your favorite Christmas or Holiday song? Traditional or modern?
No matter which, I hope you enjoy it as you celebrate this coming Holiday Season!
