One thought that has come to me again this Christmas season is how much nostalgia is intertwined with Christmas music. I hear specific Christmas songs and I’m reminded of specific times in my life. For example, I listen to this album, “The Wonderful Songs of Christmas” by the Harry Simeone Chorale and I’m taken back to my younger sister and I, along with our parents, decorating our house for Christmas.
Last year, with my sister’s passing due to renal cancer, Christmas took on a very different meaning for me, especially when it comes to nostalgia. Obviously, the very real fact that I won’t get to spend Christmas with her, but the last holiday we celebrated together was Christmas….in September. Because we went to visit her as a family, and she knew that she wouldn’t make it until Christmas, so we celebrated together. It was hard, but beautiful.
In the songs themselves, there seems to bit of nostalgia in most of them as well. Mariah Carey’s famous and beloved (as well as detested by many) “All I Want for Christmas is You” has elements of years gone by, in how the arrangement is written, the instrumentation, the rhythm and many of facets. And it makes sense to some extent, because what can you do differently with Jingle Bells or Winter Wonderland or other songs to make them new and fresh?
But do people want new and fresh at Christmas? It doesn’t seem to be the case. I’m not sure exactly why that is, but I believe that the feeling of nostalgia plays a big role in that. What do you think? Why do think that there is so much nostalgia in Christmas music? Comment with your thoughts!