Editor's note: This column was originally published in 2019.
On Sunday, Dec. 15, our church (Pea Ridge United Methodist Church) joined with the Brightwater United Methodist Church to do a musical Christmas program entitled "A Candlelight Christmas" by Benjamin Harlan. We didn't do the candles part, since we always have a candlelight program on Christmas Eve, but the program celebrated Jesus as the Christ and as the Light of the World. Three parts of the program focused on The Promise of the Light, The Coming of the Light and Proclaiming the Light.
I greatly enjoyed the program because of the message it conveyed, and because of the beauty of much of the music. The music was quite challenging to sing, but our choirs worked hard, led and inspired by director Bill Houseworth and pianist Penny Schwitters, and I thought the music came across quite well. We trust it was done to the glory of God and to the praise of Christ Jesus. I enjoyed sharing in the singing as part of the bass section.
Christmas is always celebrated with music. Not only do we focus on the Christmas carols in church, but we have quite a collection of secular music which is about the Christmas season, and kind of connected to celebrations of Christmas. Although I favor the Christmas carols over everything else, I do enjoy many of the songs that have become part of Christmas traditions. We have a custom in our family of getting around the piano to sing Christmas carols at some points, and I thoroughly enjoy that as part of the family gathering. I'm of the mind to think that people need to make music as well as to listen to music. Electronic technologies have given us fine instruments to play beautiful music for our listening, and those allow everyone to hear the famous singers of the day, but I am still of the mind to have people sing together, as well as listening to great music.
One of the songs we like to sing in the days before Christmas is "Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus." This one was included, with some extra notes and elaborations, in our Christmas program. It is one of those songs which anticipate the coming of God's Messiah. I always also enjoy "O Little Town of Bethlehem." It reminds me that to the Lord the small places in the world have great significance, important things happen in small places, and the fullness of life is possible in the not-so-famous places as well as in the well-known and great cities of the world.
On the Sunday before Christmas, we like to sing "O Come, All Ye Faithful" and "Joy to the World." Other Christmas songs that we like to sing include, "There's a Song in the Air," "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear," "While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night," "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing," "Angels From the Realms of Glory," "Silent Night," "Infant Holy, Infant Lowly," "The First Noel," "He Is Born," "Away In a Manger," and "What Child Is This?" Of course there are quite a number of others. For example, "We Three Kings" is often considered a Christmas song. But we like to sing it after Christmas, since the birthplace of Jesus and the house where the wise men visited the holy family are likely different places. I also enjoy the song, "Twelve Days of Christmas."
The secular music of our time sometimes can obscure the real message and celebration of Christmas, but the seasonal and just-for-fun songs do not necessarily have to detract from more serious celebrations of Christmas. From the accounts of Jesus attending weddings, banquets, processions, group meals and so on, I get the sense that the Lord does not intend the faithful to be always serious-faced, but there is a time for enjoyment of light-hearted times together. In Matthew Chapter 11, verse 17, he likens his generation to children playing, calling out to others, "We have piped to you, and you have not danced; we have mourned unto you, and you have not lamented." I take it that Jesus believed both in serious and sensitive times and in wholesome light-hearted times together.
We have long sung songs that are seasonal and sentimental, although they are not directly connected with Christmas. I'm thinking of fun songs like "Jingle Bells," "Deck the Halls With Boughs of Holly," "O Tannenbaum (O Christmas Tree)," "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire," "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas," "I'll Be Home for Christmas," and even "Rudolph, the Red-nosed Reindeer."
Sometime back, though, someone wrote a song called "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer." There have been lots of dumb songs through the years, including some of the comedy of the 1920s, but that song is pretty much thoroughly dumb. I haven't had much use for it. Especially is it not very Christmassy.
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Editor's note: Jerry Nichols, a native of Pea Ridge and an award-winning columnist, was vice president of Pea Ridge Historical Society and a retired pastor.