Christmas Music

Anonymously Singing of Silent Night

We received dozens of notices about new music everyday in November and December. Most come from publicists or new artists themselves. We are grateful to receive them. Occasionally we receive tips on new Christmas music from our readers. We have learned over the years to trust these suggestions. Here is one that came late last night that we just love: Silent Night celebrated its 200th birthday last year. We have …

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Christmas HistoryChristmas NewsChristmas Online

Introducing The Christmas Hall of Fame

Over the years we have openly mused in dicussion on the Merry Forums — who would we put in a Christmas Hall of Fame? We no longer need to wonder about that question. We can now do something about it. We can approach all the great debates of Christmas and settle them: Who played the best Scrooge? Which is more important, the Angel or the Star? Is Die Hard a …

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Thanksgiving

Inconvenient Facts About Thanksgiving

Every year now we seem to find new ways to corrupt Thanksgiving. The facts about Thanksgiving have always been kind of inconvenient. It’s true history, meaning and origin has somehow created a state of endless debates. There are debates about stores open on Thanksgiving, debates about how Thanksgiving is taught wrong in schools, debates about debating politics at the Thanksgiving dinner table and now even a debate about if we …

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The Christ Child
The Christ Child
Christmas HistoryChristmas NewsChristmas VideoSacred Christmas

The Christ Child

A new minimalist short film has been released depicting the birth of Christ in a more Biblical way. The Nativity story has been so romanticized in film, song and the written word for so long it is refreshing to see the story set back in a more original context. The result is a richly human look at what it must have been like. Produced by The Church of Jesus Christ …

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Christmas Stress
Christmas Stress
Christmas Past

Traditions of Christmas Stress

Stress at Christmas is a fact of life. In fact, it could be called a time-honored tradition. In our ongoing exploration of Christmas past we stumbled upon this poem, titled The Christmas Nightmare, written by Carolyn Wells and published in newspapers for Christmas 1900. It could have been written today: On the night before Christmas there’s something amiss With your placid, habitual slumber; You suddenly find that your overworked mind …

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John Lewis Christmas Ad
John Lewis Christmas Ad
Christmas News

Edgar Fires Up Christmas

While America debates Christmas Creep the UK celebrates with early Christmas light displays and an annual contest for the best Christmas commercial. One of the most anticipated ads every year comes from a department store chain called John Lewis, who has a history of schmaltzy yet entertaining commercials. This year’s video introduces a baby fire-breathing dragon named Edgar who has stirred up lot of attention. Take a look then read …

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Too early to decorate for Christmas
Too early to decorate for Christmas
Christmas Decorating

Decorating at Home is the New Debate of Christmas

Big in the news today, November 14th, is word of a Home Owners Association in Texas making a family remove their Christmas decorations because they are up “too early”. The letter was received by the family on November 4th. That news has kicked off a furious media rush of stories and opinions about Christmas Creep – a phenomenon of complaining about Christmas too soon. In Miami they can’t handle Christmas …

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Dean Martin Let It Snow
Dean Martin Let It Snow
Christmas Music

Dean Martin Returns in Let It Snow

Dean Martin has a new Christmas release. Well, kinda. It’s another posthumous appearance by Dino – yet another “old wine in new bottles” approach to Christmas music. This time, he’s animated. Take a peek…and a listen: This is the latest release in bringing the classics of Christmas music to a whole new generation through animated videos. Universal Music Enterprises is releasing brand-new animated videos like Dino’s to go with Frank …

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Problematic Thanksgiving
Problematic Thanksgiving
Christmas NewsThanksgiving

Thanksgiving? Not a Problem

The media is making a firestorm out of a new holiday outrage some are calling The War on Thanksgiving. Silly as it all seems the rhetoric of politics never has a down season. There are several polarizing modern talking points about Thanksgiving this year: • PETA doesn’t want you eating animals for Thanksgiving…because they are sexually assaulted. • Your carbon footprint matters. The food of Thanksgiving isn’t the problem. Travel …

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Rehya Stevens Tis the Season
Rehya Stevens Tis the Season
Christmas Music

Rehya Stevens Returns for Noelle

Rehya Stevens is back for Christmas 2019. This year her new offering is featured in the new Disney Christmas flick, Noelle. Titled Tis the Season the song has a retro-pop feel powered by Rehya’s strong vocals. The song is upbeat, traditional and Disneyesque. Rehya sparkles as a Disney princess should. Her 2018 album featured a number of original tunes that showcased Rehya’s smoky style and did far more to exhibit …

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Christmas Creep
Christmas Creep
Christmas News

The False Notion of Christmas Creep

A new survey is making the rounds on news media today that declares a large percentage of people begin holiday activities much earlier than thought. According to Minted, 43 percent of Americans think it’s suitable to put up holiday decorations before November 1. The poll of 2,000 Americans discovered people start their holiday preparations pretty early in the year. In fact, over half (57 percent) of those studied revealed they …

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Christmas Music

The Christmas Music of John Denver

Each decade seems to produce a dominant performer in the popular music of Christmas. In the 1970s that performer was John Denver. Born Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr in 1943, John Denver first rose to fame as the lead of The Mitchell Trio. As a late sixties folk-singing anti-government group The Mitchell Trio was slightly out of step with the times because they were clean-cut and wholesome. By 1969 Denver set …

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