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Here we go! Thanksgiving may be the starting line for the holiday season, but December brings families together in many ways and gives us a chance to look back at the year and forward to the next. Politically, this year will be filled with several major accomplishments: a new infrastructure program, the American Rescue Plan, new protections for our environment, and frankly, the reason and measured leadership in the executive branch that we were missing for four straight years. What a joy it is to not wake up every morning in fear of what was tweeted out the night before!
What makes me think of the holidays most, however, will always be the music. I’m not even talking about old classics, some music just says to me: the holiday season is upon us, let’s see what comes next! This week on Connect Unite Act, I want to share some holiday selections that make me think of December, and a little story here and there about why in particular, I’d choose these songs as the ones I remember.
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As a kid, if there was a single holiday album I heard more than any others, it was absolutely Johnny Mathis. Why? I don’t know. My parents’ era, I suppose. But hearing “Winter Wonderland” reminds me of every December we had tons of snow on the ground. While it hasn’t been that way lately, in my childhood when I think of December I think of freezing cold, snowmen, snow fights, snow forts, and falling into a ditch because the snow had filled it up and I didn’t even realize it was there. Whoops! Songs that were about the weather and the season? Perfect for everyone! They just made me feel like putting on mittens and getting ready for what comes next.
If it wasn’t Johnny Mathis, my parents would always pop on some Dolly Parton as I got a bit older and her albums became a standard for what the holiday should be in our household.
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Christmas was a bit.. strange in our household. It was Christmas, of course, but it was also my youngest sister’s birthday. So while most people were counting down to December 25 for Christmas, she was counting down to her birthday.
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Once I was an adult, I came to really appreciate so many different songs that said “welcome to the holidays” from their own perspective.
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Some songs have absolutely nothing at all to do with the holidays, but I hear them and I think, “Now the holidays have begun.”
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What makes you think: here we are in December?
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