My grinch about some modern Christmas carols

Christmas carolersPart of why I didn’t get as much blogging done today as I would have liked is the fact that I was at a Christmas concert. It was, in many ways, a very nice Christmas concert. Although the singing was only so-so (something understandable in the case of the younger singers), the concert was extremely well-produced. Even better, it actually had Christmas songs, ranging from classics (such as Silent Night, O Holy Night, and The Holly and the Ivy) to moderns (such as White Christmas, Sleigh Ride, and Walking in a Winter Wonderland). There was no pretense that this was anything but a Christmas concert.

Listening to the songs, I was reminded about how “peace” is an important theme in Christmas carols. The one that springs to my mind most quickly is It Came Upon A Midnight Clear, which a Unitarian minister composed in 1849:

It came upon the midnight clear
That glorious song of old
From angels bending near the earth
To touch their harps of gold

Peace on the earth, good will to men
From heaven’s all-gracious King
The world in solemn stillness lay
To hear the angels sing

Still through the cloven skies they come
With peaceful wings unfurled
And still their heavenly music floats
Over all the weary world

Above its sad and lowly plains
They bend on hovering wing
And ever over its babel-sounds
The blessed angels sing

Yet with the woes of sin and strife
The world has suffered long
Beneath the heavenly strain have rolled
Two thousand years of wrong

And man at war with man hears not
The tidings which they bring
O hush the noise, ye men of strife
And hear the angels sing

O ye, beneath life’s crushing load
Whose forms are bending low
Who toil along the climbing way
With painful steps and slow

Look now, for glad and golden hours
Come swiftly on the wing
O rest beside the weary road
And hear the angels sing

For lo,the days are hastening on
By prophets seen of old
When with the ever-circling years
Shall come the time foretold

When peace shall over all the earth
Its ancient splendors fling
And the whole world give back the song
Which now the angels sing.

Silent Night also views peace as a special component of Christmas, observing the baby Jesus sleeping in “heavenly peace”:

Silent night! holy night!
All is calm all is bright
round yon virgin mother and child
Holy infant so tender and mild
sleep in heavenly peace!
Silent night! holy night!
Shepherds quake at the sight
glories stream from heaven afar
heavenly hosts sing Alleluia
Christ the Saviour is born!
Silent night! holy night!
Son of God love’s pure light
radiant beams from thy holy face
with the dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus, Lord at they birth.

In addition to the classic prayers for peace, this particular Christmas concert included two other songs that focus on peace. The first was John Lennon’s Happy Christmas (War is Over) which, while it doesn’t use the word “peace,” obviously points to “peace” with the title parenthetical that “War is Over,” and the ending verse that “War is over if you want it”:

So, this is Christmas
And what have you done?
Another year over
And a new one just begun

And so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young

A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Lets hope it’s a good one
Without any fear

And so this is Christmas
For weak and for strong
For rich and the poor ones
The road is so long

And so happy Christmas
For black and for white
For yellow and red ones
Let’s stop all the fight

A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let’s hope it’s a good one
Without any fear

And so this is Christmas
And what have we done
Another year over
And a new one just begun

And so happy Christmas
We hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young

A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let’s hope it’s a good one
Without any fear

War is over
If you want it
War is over
Now

The second modern “peace” song was Let There Be Peace On Earth, a song that was born in 1955 out of a sort of universal spiritualism:

Let there be peace on earth,
And let it begin with me.
Let there be peace on earth
The peace that was meant to be.
With God as our father
We are family.
Let us walk with each other
In perfect harmony.

Let peace begin with me
Let this be the moment now.
With every step I take
Let this be my solemn vow.
To take each moment
And live each moment
With peace eternally.
Let there be peace on earth,
And let it begin with me.

(child)
Let there be peace on earth,
And let it begin with me.
Let there be peace on earth
The peace that was meant to be.
With God as our father
We are family.
Let us walk with each other
In perfect harmony.

Let peace begin with me
Let this be the moment now.
With every step I take
Let this be my solemn vow.
To take each moment
And live each moment
In peace eternally.
Let there be peace on earth
And let it begin with me.

I’ve been struggling for years to figure out why I hate that last song so much. The melody, while dull, is inoffensive, and the rhythmic meter, while plodding, is also inoffensive. I know that part of why I dislike the song is because I associate it with Obama’s first inauguration. The San Francisco Boys Chorus and the San Francisco Girls Chorus performed that song at the inauguration and I happen to know that the chorus directors specifically chose the song because of all the Hopey Changey stuff. With each passing year, as the world falls into chaos under Obama’s often murderous ministrations, the song irks me more.

Both Let There Be Peace on Earth and Happy Christmas (War is Over) bug me for more than just the first song’s unfortunate (for me) association with Obama:  Both make no demands on anyone.

The classic Christmas songs had as their unspoken premise that requirement the believer has embraced Christianity, along with all the demands that Christianity makes on its followers. Being a true believer requires a certain spiritual rigor. Jesus is not as demanding a God as the Old Testament Jehovah because he doesn’t focus on all the ritual requirements Jews must observe. Jesus does, however, expect his followers to subordinate many of their most primitive emotions and behaviors in order to conform to his directives.  That’s hard work.

The last two songs, though, have a gooey self-referential quality that invariably gets my hackles up. In terms of rigor, they are as demanding as a wish upon a star. No one need to commit to belief or pain or sacrifice. You just have to wish for peace on earth and “let it begin with me.” I recognize that Let There Be Peace On Earth has a throwaway line about “God as our father,” but the song isn’t about a religious commitment to God. It’s about “me.”

Here’s something you need to know about me, the Bookworm: I am a terribly selfish, lazy person. I dislike those qualities in myself and, when I am even slightly motivated, I try hard to counter them. When I’m not motivated, my moral beliefs about my obligations to others usually manage to force me into activity anyway, regardless of my innate desire to wallow.

Because I know that my most self-referential traits are also my worst traits, I really resent Christmas songs that try to take the worst parts of me and expand them to a societal level: You don’t need to try, or do, or work, or sacrifice, or commit, or anything. It’s all good if it’s just about “me.”

Yes, I sound “Grinchy,” ripping part perfectly anodyne Christmas songs, but those songs do get my goat every time. I guess I should add that, in the non-Grinch spirit, I sincerely love all the other Christmas songs, including the ones that are just about having fun: