To my loyal readers:

I am currently participating in a writing challenge prompted by my sister, with whom I occasionally keep a blog over at crossingthestreams.net. For the next 10 days, I will be posting every day on a Christmas related theme. I do not mean to inundate your mailbox, I just ask you to stay with me until I return back to my regular rhythm of 1-2 times per week. If you’d like to see both of our responses to the challenge, I encourage you to check out crossingthestreams. In the meantime, read on for a quick discussion on Christmas music and my favorite Christmas song…please comment with your own favorites if you are so inclined!

When my sister asked me to write about my favorite Christmas song, I knew in an instant which song would top the list. There is a song that I look forward to every single year, one that I would give just about anything to see in concert. It is a song that I turn up whenever the radio plays it, on the rare occasion that it does. Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s “Carol of the Bells” is arguably the most passionate, soul moving modern day Christmas song in rotation.

Though TSO is instrumental, I can hum along with the opening licks, “Hark! How the bells, Sweet silver bells, All seem to say, Throw cares away…” and as if a commandment, I do indeed throw all my cares away. For it’s Christmas time….a time for love and servitude. A time for giving—not only of one’s treasure, but of one’s time and talents as well. In case it wasn’t clear in yesterday’s Letter to Santa, I. Love. Christmas: for all of the feelings it conjures—gratitude, blessed, a sense of commitment to the community—and TSO has the magical ability to put these feelings into musical notes that mystify the senses and captivate the soul. When “Carol of the Bells” plays, with its awesome guitar riffs, one cannot help but immediately buy in to the spirit of the season. Georgia Cates was correct…Music is what feelings sound like.