Favorite Holiday Music?

[Ebony]

It's Advent for me, and we're fast approaching many different 
holidays from the various religions.  And as I'm too under the 
weather to go to church today :-( as I began work on my Christmas 
fanfiction I got to thinking about my favorite aspects of the holiday.

It's the music.  Not the food, not the decor, not the time off from 
work, not the snow (oh, please let us have a white Christmas again!), 
not even seeing the family again (I see them lots anyway).  For me 
it's the music.

I know it's December when I hear carols and popular holiday music.

My preferences seem to evolve over time.  As a little girl, I 
loved "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" and "One Little Christmas Tree" 
best.  By middle school, I liked "Silent Night", "Judas Maccabeus" 
(which is more for Hanukkah!), and "Lo, How A Rose E'er Blooming" 
because we sang the former in our school choir and we played the two 
latter in band.  

In high school, it was "O Holy Night" and Vivaldi's "L'Invierno" 
(sp? "Winter" is what I want) from the Four Seasons from church choir 
and playing in the school symphony orchestra.  And by college, it was 
Handel's Messiah, although technically it's not just Christmas 
music... I think it's actually more fitting for Easter (what some 
Protestant churches are now calling Resurrection Sunday, mine 
included).

I think my favorite Christmas song right now is "Someday at 
Christmas".  Stevie Wonder, 1969, from the album of the same name... 
I'm from Motown and we *still* love our music.  :-)  It's one of 
those Vietnam era carols... lately I seem to be stuck in the mid-20th 
century where music is concerned!

---
Someday at Christmas, men won't be boys
Playing with moms like kids play with toys
One warm December our hearts will see
A world where men are free

Someday at Christmas, there'll be no war
When we have learned what Christmas is for
When we have found what life's really worth
There'll be peace on Earth

Someday all our dreams will come to be
Someday in a world when men are free
Maybe not in time for you and me
But someday at Christmastime...

Someday at Christmas, we'll see a land
With no hungry children, no empty hand
One happy morning people will share
A world where people care

Someday at Christmas, there'll be no tears
All men are equal and no man has fears
That one shining moment is one prayer away
>From our world today

Someday all our dreams will come to be
Someday in a world when men are free
Maybe not in time for you and me
But someday at Christmastime...

Someday at Christmas, men will not fail
Hate will be gone and love will prevail 
Someday in a new world that we can start
With hope in every heart...

Maybe not in time for you and me
But someday at Christmastime...
Someday at Christmastime.
---

Appropriate for this holiday season, I think, especially after the 
fall we've just had.  Here in America we have a popular court show 
called "Divorce Court", our bombs are raining down on Afghanistan and 
we wait with bated breath for the next retaliation on our own soil, 
and the sick cancer of prejudice towards our fellow brother and 
sisters still infects the collective consciousness of humanity.

And except for the first verse, the song is appropriate for the 
Potterverse, I'd say... 

What are your favorites?

--Ebony AKA AngieJ