Christmas

While others age, Virginia O’Hanlon is forever a little girl thanks to The New York Sun. Her letter asking if there’s a Santa Claus, and the paper’s response, helps each new generation of parents answer childhood’s trickiest question — and encourages everyone to hold onto the magic of Christmas.

“I am 8 years old,” O’Hanlon wrote the Sun in September of 1897. “Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, ‘If you see it in the Sun, it’s so.’ Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?”

Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine is the birthplace of one of the world’s favourite carols, the Carol of the Bells.

But there are few signs of Christmas in the city this year. Just a dusting of snow on deserted streets and skeletal buildings – and the constant sound of heavy shelling.

Pokrovsk is Russia’s next target. Its troops are now less than two miles (three kilometres) from the city centre.

In Shusaku Endo’s 1966 novel Silence, the apostatised priest Cristóvão Ferreira tells a Portuguese compatriot a bitter truth about Japanese Christianity. “The Japanese till this day have never had the concept of God,” he proclaims, “and they never will.” For a book set in the 17th century, it’s a fair point. Wary of colonisation by Western powers, the ruling shogunate banned Christianity in 1614, a policy aimed at isolating Japan from the rest of the world. As for those Japanese Catholics who remained, many were tortured and killed, with some crucified in an ironic play on the fate of their saviour.

In a sense, Ferreira’s argument remains true today. Barely 1% of Japanese people now identify as Christian, and if you asked the average Tokyo commuter to explain the Eucharist, they’d likely just stare. Yet if Japan is unique among the East Asian countries for remaining almost devoid of Christians, this is also a society where people wear their faith lightly, and where Buddhism and Shintoism have coexisted for centuries. That surely explains why modern Japanese now wallow in the symbols and traditions of Christmas, even as they twist outside customs to their needs. No less striking, those few Japanese who do embrace Jesus tend to do remarkably well — hinting at its long associations with Western sophistication.

It’s Christmas Eve! And yes Virginia there is a Santa Claus!

We have a lovely selection of carols chosen by our readers for you to enjoy!

Add your faves in the comments and we’ll play them in the Christmas Day Addition!

Ave Maria – Franz Biebl – From Freddiegomez

And … Michael Bublé – Cold December Night

And and … Song for a Winter’s Night

And and and … Britten’s Ceremony of carols : This little babe

The Skaters Waltz – André Rieu – From Norman in New York

And … Prokofiev “Troika” (‘Lieutenant Kije’) – Fistoulari conducts

Shannon Rovers Irish Pipe Band- Little Drummer Boy – From Hermes

Santa Claus Is Watching You – Ray Stevens – From Mr. BigStuff

Te Deseo Feliz Navidad – From SDMatt

Do You Hear What I Hear – Martina McBride – From PA Cat

Christmas Metal Songs – Little Drummer Boy – Orion’s Reign ft Alina Lesnik – From testsubjectx1

Christmas is a holiday of peace and goodwill. Families come together, angry friends forgive each other, everyone celebrates with a combination of happiness, champagne, and melancholy, and all those things we see in Frank Capra movies. It is difficult for anyone of any religion, or even an agnostic, to be offended by this celebration. But what I find puzzling is that celebrating the holiday with lights and Christmas motifs is now becoming frowned upon not, as one might expect, in Karachi or Mogadishu, but in the heart of Old Europe.

Hello everyone. Two more sleeps till Santa and we have another wonderful selection of carols on tap.

Please enjoy and drop your faves in the comments, we will play them all.

Juliette Sing Hosanah – From MrsAnthropy

Dan Fogelberg – Same Old Lang Syn – From Seaoh

And … Slemish Sessions: Niamh McGlinchey – Belleau Wood

Plus … Snoopy’s Christmas — Royal Guardsmen

Barbara Higbie – We Three Kings – From SDMatt

Carol of the bells Trans Siberian Orchestra live – From Surele Surele

Apollo 100 – Joy – From Norman in New York

And – Tchaikovsky Flashwaltz at Hadassah Hospital

Angels from the Realms of Glory – From Frances

The Altai band – Jingle Bells (mongolian version) – FRom Osumashi

Masters in this Hall: Robert Shaw Chorale – From PA Cat

3 more sleeps till Christmas! I made cranberry sauce this evening, tried a mix of brown and demerara sugar with some cinnamon and oh yea cranberries. Still warm as I write but tasty.

We have another wonderful selection of carols for you to enjoy all submitted by fellow readers.

Leave your faves in the comments and we’ll play them all.

Thanks for listening.

March of the Kings: Robert Shaw Chorale – From PA Cat

3 from Seaoh

Martina McBride What Child Is This from Clink9

2 From freddiegomez

Nuttin’ For Christmas – Barry Gordon/Art Mooney and His Orchestra From X — Formerly IB_Joe

Gloucester Cathedral Choir – In the Bleak Midwinter – From Coupal

All I Want For Christmas Is You (by Naudo) – From SDMatt

Day 4 of your fave carols. Soon you’ll awaken to Christmas day, and all of your wishes will have come true.

Well maybe not every last one but most of them I hope for you all!

Enjoy tonight’s selections and remember to leave your faves in the comments. Well play them ASAP.

Have a MAGA Christmas! – From Seaoh

Three From freddiegomez Barenaked Ladies – Green Christmas –

And…

Plus …

The Twelve Days of Christmas – Frank Kelly, 1983 – From Frances

Chanukah Blessings – From Osumashi

Rita MacNeil – Christmas At Home – From X — Formerly IB_Joe

Still,Still,Still – From SDMatt

Blackmore’s Night – I Saw Three Ships – From PA Cat

I don’t know what a Laufey is but she sings nicely

Welcome to Day 3 of Reader Fave Christmas Carols everyone!

Leave your faves in the comments and we’ll run them every evening through Christmas. Enjoy and thank you all for making this a special annual treat!

Cradle Song – From Paul Loewen

Two from Seaoh – Harvey The Chronically Depressed Snowman

Christmas Truce of World War I — Joyeux Noel

Two from quanga – Angels are singing Christmas carols

Christmas! Christmas!

Elvis Presley – Blue Christmas – From Norman in New York

From blackglass – Chuck Berry – Run Rudolph Run

The Huron Carol – From Frances

The Wexford Carol – from Osumashi

August Burns Red “Flurries” from freddiegomez

Hi Everyone and welcome to Reader Fave Carols.

You know the drill. Add your faves in the comments and we’ll play them each evening through to the BIG DAY! Enjoy today’s selections!

Christmas in the Alps from SDMatt

Gloucester Cathedral Choir – In the Bleak Midwinter from PA Cat

Fifth Harmony – All I Want for Christmas Is You from testsubjectx1

You’re A Mean One, Mr. Spock from Osumashi

Susan Boyle – In the Bleak Midwinter from Frances

Lenka – All My Bells Are Ringing from Clink9

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (Audio) by Five Times August from seaoh

Hard to believe another year has passed but here we are!

Faithful readers know the set up. Add your fave carols in the comments and we’ll post them each evening through Christmas day.

I’ll start us off! Enjoy and be Merry!

“It is Holy Night and there will be no shooting.” The soldiers agreed.

The story of the Christmas truce of 1914 is well known to us: Allies and Germans laid down their arms and exchanged greetings and gifts, played football matches, and even took photos together. But there is another, lesser-known Christmas truce that took place thirty years later, on Christmas Eve 1944, during the Battle of the Bulge, the last German offensive in the West. In a hunter’s hut in the Hürtgenwald, on the German side of the Belgian border, four German and three American soldiers laid down their weapons and shared Christmas dinner.

Happy Boxing Day!

I hope you’re all enjoying creative leftover culinary concoctions.

This will be the last entry for 2023 in our annual Reader Fave Carols collection.

Thank you for making this one of the best we’ve had. It was a delight being introduced to so much new music.

Enjoy!

From Lord Dilligaf – A Baroque Christmas

From Norman in New York – Hallelujah Chorus, from Messiah | The Tabernacle Choir

And also – ROYAL CHORAL SOCIETY: Worthy is the Lamb & Amen Chorus from Handel’s Messiah

From Kiki9 – Kenny Rogers – Christmas Everyday

From Osumashi – The Band “Christmas Must Be Tonight”

And also – Monty Python – Christmas In Heaven

From Me – What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve? (Morgan James Cover)