I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that tomorrow is Christmas Day. While it once seemed like this time of year was so far away, I now feel like we have been racing towards it at a million miles a minute. I wrote this post the other day and I mentioned that @mrsbozz and I spent a little bit of time on Friday night driving around looking at Christmas lights.
I don't know how extravagant people get in other countries but in the US, it's not uncommon to find people who go "all out" with their displays. If you have seen the movie National Lampoons Christmas Vacation, some of the scenes aren't quite as far fetched as you might think. The Christmas lights on the house being one of them.
Sure, people aren't stacking those little adapters like they used to, but it's not uncommon to find a few surge protectors daisy chained together here and there.
In the past, I have been pretty vocal about the fact that I don't really care for Christmas music. There are a few newer songs that I really enjoy, of course there are also some standards that you just can't go through the holiday without hearing. Finally, there are the songs that I would be fine if I never hear again.
For my #threetunetuesday this week sponsored by @ablaze, I wanted to share some of those old standards that I actually enjoy. Additionally, I wanted to share some of the photos @mrsbozz took while we were driving around looking at Christmas lights. I apologize that some of them are so blurry. As she pointed out, I wasn't doing a very good job of slowing down or stopping. In my defense, the roads were a bit more busy than I expected them to be on a snowy Friday night!
I once had a friend who loved watching old movies from the 40's and 50's. She has since passed away, but her love of those old movies always stuck with me a bit. I think for that reason, White Christmas would have to be one of my absolutely favorite Christmas movies and thus by default, the song White Christmas is one of my favorite carols.
If you have never seen it, it is just a really good show. It's also got a little bit of war in it too, so that should satisfy all the manly men out there! I remember when I was kid we had to sing this song in elementary school for our holiday programs. We had a pretty strict music teacher and she was pretty adamant about us over pronouncing the "T" when we sang the last night.
Instead of just singing "and may all your Christmases be white", she made us sing it as "and may all your Chris-T-mases be white". Her reasoning was that it made the word more clear to the audience sitting way out there with 50 kids on stage mumbling the words.
Like I said, it's just always stuck with me.
Next, I am giving you the song "Oh Holy Night". There are a ton of versions I could have picked for this, but I decided to go with Celine Dion simply because she has such a powerful voice. You might think that doesn't matter for the beginning of the song, but when you get to the end, it makes total sense.
This is @mrsbozz's favorite Christmas song and I have come to appreciate it as well over the years. I'm not exactly sure why she likes it specifically, I just know it is special to her. For me, I think I really like the message, but I also like the way it builds. By the time you get to the end and the line "fall on your knees" comes up, it's just like a wave crashing on the beach. It's pretty amazing.
Finally, I am probably going to throw you a bit with this last one. I was going to go with "Sleigh Ride" because back when I was a percussionist in band, it was one of my favorite songs to play. There is a point near the end of that song where the trumpet player uses his muffle thing to make a horse sound and then the percussion section had to use an instrument to make the whip cracking sound. That was one of my favorite parts.
Instead though, I give you this:
I've always been a sucker for a good waltz. I remember when I was kid, they used to play infomercials during the day for albums you could buy through the mail and one of them was specifically waltz's. There was just something about it that appealed to me. I'd like to say it was the fact that they are so easy to dance to, but that really wasn't on my mind back then.
To be fair, I actually love every song from The Nutcracker. I used to have it on CD and I would listen to the whole album over and over again. Today though, I decided to key in on "The Waltz of the Flowers". It's a beautiful piece as you can see in the video above. If you have never listened to the complete work by Tchaikovsky, I highly encourage you do. Even better, if you get a chance to see the ballet performed, do it!
I hope you enjoyed this holiday inspired #threetunetuesday and I hope that you and those you hold dear have a wonderful and blessed holiday season!
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