With a whole lot of snow on the ground and decorations all over town, it's safe to say it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.
The holiday season is an opportunity for family and friends to get together. Different people and religions have different ways to celebrate. Growing up we put the Christmas tree up and opened presents on Christmas morning. We had stockings hung and a big turkey dinner on the 25th.
We still do all that, it just gets a little harder to get everyone together with family members moving farther away and work commitments and growing families.
Another big part of the holidays is the ever-present Christmas music. Some time in late November, most stores switch their background music to holiday tunes.
There are all different types of Christmas music. Pretty much every musical recording act has put out a Christmas album. Some, like Michael Buble, make a career out of it.
Popular Christmas songs range from the old standards like Jingle Bells to Here Comes Santa Claus. Some other favourites are Boney M's Mary's Boy Child/Oh My Lord and Paul McCartney's simple yet majestic Wonderful Christmastime.
One of the most unlikely yet popular Christmas tunes is the 1987 hit Fairytale of New York by the Pogues and Kirsty MacColl. It features some rather non-festive language in a fight between lovers on Christmas Eve starting with him in the drunk tank. Racy, for a holiday song; lyrics aside, it's got a great, catchy chorus.
The Pogues are known primarily for Irish punk music with tales about hard-drinking, rough times. Lead singer Shane McGowan certainly lived the life. He mumble shouted his lyrics through a mouth with few teeth thanks to his substance abuse issues.
Some of the Pogues' other big hits are A Pair of Brown Eyes and Sally MacLennane.
Kirsty McColl, on the other hand, had an angelic voice, which certainly juxtaposes nicely with McGowan. She had a few other hits in the '80s including They Don't Know and There's a Guy Works Down the Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis. She also had a modest hit covering Billy Bragg's A New England.
Sadly, McColl died in 2000 at the age of 41 after being struck by a powerboat in Mexico after pushing her 15-year-old son out of the way.
Nowadays with heightened political awareness, songs like Baby It's Cold Outside and even Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer are being scrutinized for lyrics that may suggest inappropriate harassment and bullying, respectively. At least in Fairytale of New York both sides insult the other with equal fervour.
– Craig Lindsay is the reporter for the Mountain View Gazette
