Stories Behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas

Heartwarming Stories Behind Popular Carols

De: Ace Collins

Narrado por: Marc Cashman

Behind the Christmas songs we love to sing lie fascinating stories that will enrich your holiday celebration. Taking you inside the nativity of more than 30 favorite songs and carols, Ace Collins introduces you to people you’ve never met, stories you’ve never heard, and meanings you’d never have imagined.

The next time you and your family sing "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen", you’ll have a new understanding of its message and popular roots. You’ll discover how "Angels from the Realms of Glory", with its sublime lyrics and profound theology, helped usher in a quiet revolution in worship. You’ll learn the strange history of the haunting and powerful "O Holy Night", including the song’s surprising place in the history of modern communications. And you’ll step inside the life of Mark Lowry and find out how he came to pen the words to the contemporary classic "Mary, Did You Know?"

Still other songs such as "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" trace back to mysterious origins - to ninth-century monks, nameless clergy, and unknown commoners of ages past. Joining hands with such modern favorites as "White Christmas" and "The Christmas Song", they are part of the legacy of inspiration, faith, tears, love, and spiritual joy that is Christmas. From the rollicking appeal of "Jingle Bells" to the tranquil beauty of "Silent Night", the great songs of Christmas contain messages of peace, hope, and truth. Each in its own way expresses a facet of God’s heart and celebrates the birth of his greatest gift to the world - Jesus, the most wonderful Christmas song of all.

©2001 Andrew Collins (P)2008 Zondervan

A Fun Contribution to Holiday Lore

This was really fun to listen to (the paper copy is also great and comes with cool illustrations and the lyrics.).

Some cautions about some of the history: 1. Collins suffers a bit from unfounded Progressive conceits (e.g. “the old way was reactive, unfeeling, and dead until a new radical came along and changed things! Old____ is bad and gloomy, new____ is liberating and fun! The hero is always the guy throwing off tradition” etc.) that sometimes gets tiresome; 2. Collins trades in a few ideological frameworks that are not supported by actual evidence (e.g “the dark ages,” etc.) that can distract the historically-minded reader; 3. Some of his interpretations don’t seem accurate (E.g. The Twelve Days of Christmas song as a crypto-catechism appears to be an urban legend.).

All that said, these are easy issues to bracket, and they should not distract from the reality that cultural history is composed by many elements that are not, strictly speaking, historical. In this sense, it contributes to cultural history as lore—remember, the title is “stories…” not “history” proper. And Collins does not disappoint. He is an excellent collector and interpreter of lore. This is not to say that Collins gets everything wrong either—far from—just to put the book in the right perspective and to remind people to not judge it by the same standards as a formal history.

This book is unique and valuable piece of culture, it is also just really fun to listen to. If one can manage their expectations about history, it is endlessly enjoyable as a music/Christmas lover can listen again and again. Highly recommended.

Beautiful Account of Beloved Christmas Song

So many books and films want to minimize the Christian influence on Christmas traditions. Thankfully, this is not one of them. The author writes a reverent and engaging book looking back to early Christian times through the modern day. The author expands on many of the songs of Christmas past and how they remain alive today. With excellent narration the time literally flies by and before you know it you will be looking for more works by Ace Collins.

Stories behind songs

I absolutely loved this book I have listened twice and will probably listen again. You learn so much about the stories inspiration and who actually wrote it and sang it. Highly recommend