What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?

sung by rufus wainwright




sung by nancy wilson


sung by diana krall


enthusiasm of jim carrey


U2 says happy "new years day"

the new year - death cab for cutie


happy new year! - abba

MUSE

In parallel with my Sounds of Science blog entry, here is my extension of MUSE, a great band with a mix of fast and slow, rock and piano.

This first one has a great and beautiful piano interlude, so make sure you at least catch that part of the song...

BUTTERFLIES & HURRICANES


SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLE

Poor Grandma...

Dr. Elmo's Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer


sung by The Irish Rovers

Oh Come All Ye Faithful

Love came down at Christmas,
Love all lovely, Love Divine;
Love was born at Christmas;
Star and angels gave the sign."
— Christina Rossetti

"Oh Come All Ye Faithful" sung by Jason Mraz


sung by Luther Vandross


sung by Third Day


Mankind is a great, an immense family... This is proved by what we feel in our hearts at Christmas."
~ Pope John XXIII

Merry Christmas Baby! sung by The Ramones

'Twas the Night Before Christmas...

"Knowing what we know, how much more do we want to give Him something? But He seems to have everything. Well, not quite. He doesn’t have you with Him again forever, not yet. I hope you are touched by the feelings of His heart enough to sense how much He wants to know you are coming home to Him. You can’t give that gift to Him in one day, or one Christmas, but you could show Him today that you are on the way. You could pray. You could read a page of scripture. You could keep a commandment. If you have already done these, there is still something left to give. All around you are people He loves but can help only through you and me. One of the sure signs that we have accepted the gift of the Savior’s atonement is that we give gifts to others."
— Henry B. Eyring (Because He First Loved Us)



The Osmond Family and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing Silent Night

From my Childhood, and for All Kids...

I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round, as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. ~Charles Dickens

Christmas is the season for kindling the fire of hospitality in the hall, the genial flame of charity in the heart."
~ Washington Irving (1783-1859), American short-story writer and essayist.

Burl Ives' Frosty the Snowman


A Holly Jolly Christmas


Vince Guaraldi, Peanuts' Christmas Time is Here


It's The Most WOnderful Time of The Year


Spike Jones' All I Want For Christmas is My Two Front Teeth (for Fayth)


The Carpenter's


Here Comes Santa Claus


Santa Claus is Coming to Town


Perry Como's Home for the HOlidays


Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree


Jingle Bell Rock


The Osmond's

Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!

"We hear the beating of wings over Bethlehem and a light that is not of the sun or of the stars shines in the midnight sky. Let the beauty of the story take away all narrowness, all thought of formal creeds. Let it be remembered as a story that has happened again and again, to men of many different races, that has been expressed through many religions, that has been called by many different names. Time and space and language lay no limitations upon human brotherhood." ~New York Times, 25 December 1937, quoted in Quotations for Special Occasions by Maud van Buren, 1938, published by The H.W. Wilson Company, New York

"Christmas is the gentlest, loveliest festival of the revolving year - and yet, for all that, when it speaks, its voice has strong authority." ~W.J. Cameron

Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow! by Vaughn Monroe

sung by Dean Martin


sung by Michael Buble


sung by Nancy Wilson


Baby, It's Cold Outside, sung by Doris Day and Bing Crosby


sung by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Jordan


sung by Zooey Deschanel

The Beatles want to carol too...

The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other. ~Burton Hillis

When we recall Christmas past, we usually find that the simplest things - not the great occasions - give off the greatest glow of happiness."
~ Bob Hope, American film actor and comedian.









Do give books - religious or otherwise - for Christmas. They’re never fattening, seldom sinful, and permanently personal."
— Lenore Hershey

Christmas--that magic blanket that wraps itself about us, that something so intangible that it is like a fragrance. It may weave a spell of nostalgia. Christmas may be a day of feasting, or of prayer, but always it will be a day of remembrance--a day in which we think of everything we have ever loved."
~ Augusta E. Rundell

It's All About the Bells...

Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childish days; that can recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth; that can transport the sailor and the traveller, thousands of miles away, back to his own fire-side and his quiet home! ~Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers, 1836

Silver Bells, with Fats Domino


Carol of the Bells, with Julie Andrews (intro of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen)


Jingle Bells, with The Brian Setzer Orchestra


sung by Diana Krall

sung by Green Day


Jingle Bells, with Glenn Miller


GAP commercial


My idea of Christmas, whether old-fashioned or modern, is very simple: loving others. Come to think of it, why do we have to wait for Christmas to do that?"
~ Bob Hope, American film actor and comedian.

The Nightmare Before Christmas...

Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas-time. ~Laura Ingalls Wilder

"what's this?"

Elvis has the Christmas Spirit...

Christmas is the season for kindling the fire of hospitality in the hall, the genial flame of charity in the heart. ~Washington Irving

It comes every year and will go on forever. And along with Christmas belong the keepsakes and the customs. Those humble, everyday things a mother clings to, and ponders, like Mary in the secret spaces of her heart."
~ Marjorie Holmes, American writer.







"One of the most glorious messes in the world is the mess created in the living room on Christmas day. Don't clean it up too quickly."
~ Andy Rooney (1919-), American writer, producer, humorist.

White Christmas...

I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. ~Charles Dickens

Unless we make Christmas an occasion to share our blessings, all the snow in Alaska won't make it 'white'."
~ Bing Crosby (1904-1977), American singer and film actor.

White Christmas by Bing Crosby


sung by Martina McBride

sung by The Beatles


sung by Michael Buble


Like snowflakes, my Christmas memories gather and dance - each beautiful, unique and too soon gone."
~ Deborah Whipp (1964-), web designer.

"There's nothing sadder in this world than to awake Christmas morning and not be a child."
— Erma Bombeck

It Came Upon a Midnight Clear...

For centuries men have kept an appointment with Christmas. Christmas means fellowship, feasting, giving and receiving, a time of good cheer, home. ~W.J. Ronald Tucker

Christmas, my child, is love in action."
~ Dale Evans (1912-2001), American film actress, singer and songwriter. Wife of Roy Rogers.

It Came Upon a Midnight Clear - sung by Frank Sinatra

sung by Burl Ives


sung by Julie Andrews


I do like Christmas on the whole.... In its clumsy way, it does approach Peace and Goodwill. But it is clumsier every year."
— E.M. Forster

I truly believe that if we keep telling the Christmas story, singing the Christmas songs, and living the Christmas spirit, we can bring joy and happiness and peace to this world."
~ Norman Vincent Peale (1898-1993), American Protestant religious leader, author.

The Chipmunks' Christmas...

Oh look, yet another Christmas TV special! How touching to have the meaning of Christmas brought to us by cola, fast food, and beer.... Who'd have ever guessed that product consumption, popular entertainment, and spirituality would mix so harmoniously? ~Bill Watterson, Calvin & Hobbes





Let Christmas not become a thing
Merely of merchant's trafficking,
Of tinsel, bell and holly wreath
And surface pleasure, but beneath
The childish glamour, let us find
Nourishment for soul and mind.
Let us follow kinder ways
Through our teeming human maze,
And help the age of peace to come
From a Dreamer's martyrdom.
~Madeline Morse

I'll Be Home for Christmas...

To perceive Christmas through its wrapping becomes more difficult with every year. ~E.B. White, "The Distant Music of the Hounds," The Second Tree from the Corner, 1954

To the American People: Christmas is not a time or a season but a state of mind. To cherish peace and good will, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas. If we think on these things, there will be born in us a Savior and over us will shine a star sending its gleam of hope to the world."
~ Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933), American president. Presidential message (December 25, 1927).

sung by Josh Groban


sung by Elvis Presley


sung by Michael Buble

Christmas is forever, not for just one day,
for loving, sharing, giving, are not to put away
like bells and lights and tinsel, in some box upon a shelf.
The good you do for others is good you do yourself...
~Norman Wesley Brooks, "Let Every Day Be Christmas," 1976

"What is Christmas? It is tenderness for the past, courage for the present, hope for the future. It is a fervent wish that every cup may overflow with blessings rich and eternal, and that every path may lead to peace."
~ Agnes M. Pahro

Winter Wonderland...

Fail not to call to mind, in the course of the twenty-fifth of this month, that the Divinest Heart that ever walked the earth was born on that day; and then smile and enjoy yourselves for the rest of it; for mirth is also of Heaven's making. ~Leigh Hunt

The Church does not superstitiously observe days, merely as days, but as memorials of important facts. Christmas might be kept as well upon one day of the year as another; but there should be a stated day for commemorating the birth of our Saviour, because there is danger that what may be done on any day, will be neglected. ~Samuel Johnson

Winter Wonderland - sung by Doris Day

sung by Nat King Cole and Dean Martin


sung by Jason Mraz


winter wonderland - sung by louis armstrong


GAP commercial


Our world was created with a sense of order. For every loss, there is a gain. Sometimes we are so blinded by the loss that we don't see the gain, don't recognize the gift."
— Those Christmas Angels By Debbie Macomber (page 254)

Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love."
~ Hamilton Wright Mabie (1845-1916), American author, essayist and critic.

The Christmas Song...

At Christmas
A man is at his finest towards the finish of the year;
He is almost what he should be when the Christmas season's here;
Then he's thinking more of others than he's thought the months before,
And the laughter of his children is a joy worth toiling for.
He is less a selfish creature than at any other time;
When the Christmas spirit rules him he comes close to the sublime...
~Edgar Guest

sung by Nat King Cole


sung by Tony Bennett




I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year."
~ Charles Dickens (1812-1870), English author. From 'A Christmas Carol'.

"...Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exists, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy." ~ editorial in the New York Sun, 1897, responding to a letter from 8-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon

"Christmas it seems to me is a necessary festival; we require a season when we can regret all the flaws in our human relationships: it is the feast of failure, sad but consoling."
— Graham Greene (Travels with My Aunt)

"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 (1881-1954), American author, 'Song of Years'.

the dead terrorist carols...

I bought my brother some gift-wrap for Christmas. I took it to the gift wrap department and told them to wrap it, but in a different print so he would know when to stop unwrapping."
— Steven Wright

...every idiot who goes about with a 'Merry Christmas' on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart."
— Charles Dickens (A Christmas Carol)

jeff dunham and achmed, the dead terrorist

O Holy Night...

Except the Christ be born again tonight
In dreams of all men, saints and sons of shame,
The world will never see his kingdom bright.
~Vachel Lindsay

O Christmas Sun! What holy task is thine!
To fold a world in the embrace of God!
~Guy Wetmore Carryl

O Holy Night, sung by martina mcbride

sung by carrie underwood


sung by celine dion

Run, Run, Rudolph...

[I]t is the one season of the year when we can lay aside all gnawing worry, indulge in sentiment without censure, assume the carefree faith of childhood, and just plain "have fun." Whether they call it Yuletide, Noel, Weinachten, or Christmas, people around the earth thirst for its refreshment as the desert traveller for the oasis. ~D.D. Monroe

classic: rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer


the brian setzer orchestra twist


gene autry bringing it back


It is the personal thoughtfulness, the warm human awareness, the reaching out of the self to one's fellow man that makes giving worthy of the Christmas spirit."
~ Isabel Currier.

"Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful." ~Norman Vincent Peale

"Were I a philosopher, I should write a philosophy of toys, showing that nothing else in life need to be taken seriously, and that Christmas Day in the company of children is one of the few occasions on which men become entirely alive."
~ Robert Lynd (1892-1970), American sociologist.

'Zat You Santa Claus?

I hear that in many places something has happened to Christmas; that it is changing from a time of merriment and carefree gaiety to a holiday which is filled with tedium; that many people dread the day and the obligation to give Christmas presents is a nightmare to weary, bored souls; that the children of enlightened parents no longer believe in Santa Claus; that all in all, the effort to be happy and have pleasure makes many honest hearts grow dark with despair instead of beaming with good will and cheerfulness. ~Julia Peterkin, A Plantation Christmas, 1934

Christmas! The very word brings joy to our hearts. No matter how we may dread the rush, the long Christmas lists for gifts and cards to be bought and given--when Christmas Day comes there is still the same warm feeling we had as children, the same warmth that enfolds our hearts and our homes."
~ Joan Winmill Brown, American author and editor.





Christmas--that magic blanket that wraps itself about us, that something so intangible that it is like a fragrance. It may weave a spell of nostalgia. Christmas may be a day of feasting, or of prayer, but always it will be a day of remembrance--a day in which we think of everything we have ever loved."
~ Augusta E. Rundell

They err who thinks Santa Claus comes down through the chimney; he really enters through the heart."
~ Mrs. Paul M. Ell.

He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree. ~Roy L. Smith

The joy of brightening other lives, bearing each others' burdens, easing other's loads and supplanting empty hearts and lives with generous gifts becomes for us the magic of Christmas."
~ W. C. Jones





sung by buster poindexter

Believe...

"At Christmas time I believe the things that children do.

I believe with English children that holly placed in windows will protect our homes from evil.

I believe with Swiss children that the touch of edelweiss will charm a person with love.

I believe with Italian children that La Befana is not an ugly doll but a good fairy who will gladden the heart of all.

I believe with Greek children that coins concealed in freshly baked loaves of bread will bring good luck to anyone who finds them.

I believe with German children that the sight of a Christmas tree will lessen hostility among adults.

I believe with French children that lentils soaked and planted in a bowl will rekindle life in people who have lost hope.

I believe with Dutch children that the horse Sleipner will fly through the sky and fill the earth with joy.

I believe with Swedish children that Jultomte will come and deliver gifts to the poor as well as to the rich.

I believe with Finnish children that parties held on St.Stephen's Day will erase sorrow.

I believe with Danish children that the music of a band playing from a church tower will strengthen humankind.

I believe with Bulgarian children that sparks from a Christmas log will create warmth in human souls.

I believe with American children that the sending of Christmas cards will build friendships.

I believe with all children that there will be peace on earth."

~Daniel Rosselle

Grown-Up Christmas List...

A Christmas gambol oft could cheer
The poor man's heart through half the year.
~Walter Scott

Christmas is doing a little something extra for someone."
~ Charles Schulz (1922-2000), American cartoonist 'Peanuts'.



As long as we know in our hearts what Christmas ought to be, Christmas is."
~ Eric Sevareid (1912-1992), American newscaster.

O Little Town of Bethlehem...

The earth has grown old with its burden of care But at Christmas it always is young, The heart of the jewel burns lustrous and fair And its soul full of music breaks the air, When the song of angels is sung."
~ Phillips Brooks (1835-93), American Episcopal bishop, wrote 'O Little Town of Bethlehem'.

The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear!""
— Buddy, "Elf"

Frank Sinatra sings "Oh Little Town of Bethelehem"



Christmas is a necessity. There has to be at least one day of the year to remind us that we're here for something else besides ourselves."
~ Eric Sevareid (1912-1992), American newscaster.

"I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Oh! lovely voices of the sky
Which hymned the Saviour's birth,
Are ye not singing still on high,
Ye that sang, "Peace on earth"?
~Felicia Hemans

The Carpenters


Harry Belafonte

I'm Yours!

I know it's not a Christmas song (sorry Nicole, those are coming) but this one is dedicated to Chris. (And I would bet money that the vid is in Kauai- Chris that's another place we need to go!!)

O Christmas Tree...

"Never worry about the size of your Christmas tree. In the eyes of children, they are all thirty feet tall."
~ Larry Wilder, author "The Merry Book of Christmas"

He who has no Christmas in his heart will never find Christmas under a tree."
~ Sunshine Magazine





"Christmas renews our youth by stirring our wonder. The capacity for wonder has been called our most pregnant human faculty, for in it are born our art, our science, our religion."
~ Ralph Sockman (1889-1970), American religious leader.

what if christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more...

Dr. Seuss: "And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more. "




[the brian setzer orchestra - if you want to hear just their rendition of it, skip through the stray cat strut...it's worth it!]

"Christmas is a day of meaning and traditions, a special day spent in the warm circle of family and friends."
~ Margaret Thatcher (1925- ), English political leader.

"At Christmas play and make good cheer, For Christmas comes but once a year."
~ Thomas Tusser (c. 1515-1580), author 'The Farmer's Daily Diet'.

"it's beginning to look a lot like christmas..."

President Thomas S. Monson: "Our opportunities to give of ourselves are indeed limitless, but they are also perishable. There are hearts to gladden. There are kind words to say. There are gifts to be given. There are deeds to be done. There are souls to be saved.

As we remember that “when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God,” (Mosiah 2:17) we will not find ourselves in the unenviable position of Jacob Marley’s ghost, who spoke to Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens’s immortal "Christmas Carol." Marley spoke sadly of opportunities lost. Said he: 'Not to know that any Christian spirit working kindly in its little sphere, whatever it may be, will find its mortal life too short for its vast means of usefulness. Not to know that no space of regret can make amends for one life’s opportunity misused! Yet such was I! Oh! such was I!'

Marley added: 'Why did I walk through crowds of fellow-beings with my eyes turned down, and never raise them to that blessed Star which led the Wise Men to a poor abode? Were there no poor homes to which its light would have conducted me!'

Fortunately, as we know, Ebenezer Scrooge changed his life for the better. I love his line, 'I am not the man I was.'

Why is Dickens’ "Christmas Carol" so popular? Why is it ever new? I personally feel it is inspired of God. It brings out the best within human nature. It gives hope. It motivates change. We can turn from the paths which would lead us down and, with a song in our hearts, follow a star and walk toward the light. We can quicken our step, bolster our courage, and bask in the sunlight of truth. We can hear more clearly the laughter of little children. We can dry the tear of the weeping. We can comfort the dying by sharing the promise of eternal life. If we lift one weary hand which hangs down, if we bring peace to one struggling soul, if we give as did the Master, we can—by showing the way—become a guiding star for some lost mariner."