Holiday Music

by Judith Arnold

This morning I took my mother for her regular visit to the podiatrist.  As we were sitting in the room, waiting for him to arrive, the sound system piped in “Sleigh Ride,” the Leroy Anderson classic so popular at this time of year.  Rather than getting me into the spirit of the season, however, the song made me want to clap my hands over my ears and flee from the examining room.  It reminded me of the December some years ago when my town experienced a snowstorm which left us without power for a few days.  Every time I phoned the electric company to get an update, I would be placed on hold, and the music playing on the hold queue was “Sleigh Ride.”  Over and over and over.  I spent hours that weekend sitting in a dark, cold house, tethered to the kitchen wall phone because none of the cordless phones worked, listening to “Sleigh Ride.”  To this day, the song makes me wince.

During the holidays, so many familiar songs are blasted at us in elevators, department stores, TV ads and over the radio.  Live long enough and we start associating them with moods, events, particular good times, bad times and embarrassing times.

For instance: my parents have a tape recording of me at age three, singing “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.”  For some reason (hey, I was three years old!), instead of singing, “He knows when you are sleeping, he knows when you’re awake,” I sang, “He knows a tay you sleeping, he knows a tay you wake.”  I have no idea what I was trying to say.  But my parents played that tape so many times that to this day, when I hear the song and start to sing along, I slip into my own weird gibberish at that part, instead of the actual lyrics.

Then there’s Mel Torme’s lovely “Christmas Song”: “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire…”  When I was in high school, two friends and I frequently spent our evenings and weekends roaming around Manhattan.  During the cold months, we would encounter sidewalk vendors selling hot chestnuts from wheeled carts.  The fragrance of roasting chestnuts was rich and alluring, and it would drift down the street so we often smelled the chestnuts long before we saw the vendor.  Whenever we caught a whiff of chestnuts, these two friends invariably burst into a chorus of “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire.”  I can’t hear that song without remembering them bellowing the song on the streets of Manhattan.

I also can’t forget—though I’d love to—the year someone at the radio station at my sons’ high school set up a loop to blast “Jingle Bells” performed by barking dogs all weekend long.  Turn on the radio station morning, night or any time in between and you’d hear those silly dogs barking, “Woof-woof-woof!  Woof-woof-woof!”  My sons thought this was hilarious.  I did not.

Fortunately, most holiday music is linked to joyful memories.  Everything from Handel’s Messiah to Dave Matthews’ Christmas Song can bring tears to my eyes and peace to my soul.  As Matthews sings, “Love, love, love.  Love is all around.”

Have a wonderful holiday season, read a good book—and enjoy the music!