Holiday tunes set mood

My mother is one of those mothers who begins playing Christmas music on Thanks giving and that is all she will let enter the stereo for the next month. Buy a new CD on Dec. 6 and want to listen to it in her car? Forgettaboutit.

Nothing enters her CD player save Reader’s Digest Christmas, Mannheim Steamroller, Muppets Christmas Carol, Celine Dion Christmas and, the ever popular, NOW Christmas album. No matter the artist, no matter if there is not even singing, as long as it is Christmas, it’s all anyone in my family hears. However, when I compare myself to most of my friends, I am the only one who really likes to listen to the music.

It’s as if my generation doesn’t really care much for Yuletide music. Sure, on Christmas Eve and Day, they are usually down for a little “Jingle Bell Rock,” but for the whole month of December? Nah. And if you do, and you’re my tender age of 23, boy do you get chastised for it.

The other day, my boyfriend, Mike, my friend, Brenda, and I were Christmas shopping and over the stereo system in the store, Celine Dion started cooing her rendition of “O Holy Night.”

“Who listens to this?” Brenda retorted disdainfully.

“Courtney does,” Mike said, motioning to me, as I softly sang the song with a smile.

Any other day of the year you can find me listening to rap or R&B, but for December, it’s Dean Martin, Bing Crosby, and a little Mormon Tabernacle Choir rocking out “The First Noel.” December just doesn’t seem right without Christmas music dancing in the background.

Though I like pretty much all Christmas songs, my favorite is the same as my father’s: “O Holy Night.” To this day, I cannot listen to the haunting notes or powerful lyrics without literally crying. At the finale, when the singer belts out “fall on your knees,” with an orchestra swelling up behind them, I can’t see why it doesn’t have the same emotional effect on others as it does me.

The song takes me back to a pew in church many years ago, with my father sitting beside me, softly singing the lyrics along with a choir at the front of the church and his eyes slightly misting over.

I know it might seem “lame” or “cheesy” but this coming month, I suggest listening to Christmas music. And not just A South Park Christmas. But real, genuine Christmas classics, even childhood favorites like “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” or “Frosty the Snowman.”

Listening to Christmas music, whether in the car or in the comfort of your own house, brings home the realization that Christmas is near and it really does only come once a year.

So put away your Jason Mraz CD for a couple of weeks and pop in a CD of Christmas tunes or flip to a radio station which only plays Christmas tunes for December.

And when the radio plays “O Holy Night,” listen to it. Really listen to it. And maybe you’ll find yourself wiping away a few stray tears by the end of it.