Tradition #5 Christmas music fills the air. Christmas just wouldn’t be Christmas without the sounds of carols, bells and voices ringing through the air. Nothing makes the preparations seem more festive than our favorite Christmas songs on the record player, CD player, MP3, or whatever the latest technology.
Ever since I was a child I can remember the happy times when the Christmas records were playing, with Bing Crosby, Perry Como, Gene Autry and Montovani; yes, my parents had a strange combination of records. My children remember, too, and got excited, when the Christmas music started to play. First in the car coming home from Grandma’s on Thanksgiving night – not a day before, and not until after the turkey ‘d been eaten. We all sang along with Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and Frosty the Snowman. Later we tried to imitate Barbara Streisand’s Jingle Bells, and the camels’ version of Wee Three Kings from Claymation Christmas. One of our traditions was to join hands in front of the Christmas tree each evening in mid-December and sing one Christmas song before bed. It was and always is so rewarding and spiritual to join with a choir of voices in strains of the glorious Christmas Carols such as O Holy Night or classics such as The Alleluia Chorus.
I can’t begin to tell anyone my favorite Christmas Carol or song, there’s just too many. I can’t 
even name my favorite album, being torn between Trans-Siberian Orchestra and Manheim Steamroller, but wait then there’s Pentatonix, and Straight No Chaser. What about Josh Groban and “Believe”? Whoever you favor, listen as the melody of the season fills your soul. “Christmas Eve was a night of song that wrapped itself about you like a shawl. But it warmed more than your body. It warmed your heart…filled it, too, with melody that would last forever.”
— Bess Streeter Aldrich (Song of Years)
Merry Christmas!