faithMile

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hzN3Xrv47M[/youtube]

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas – Luther Vandross

This Christmas classic is a happy little song about how the present can be celebrated while being grateful for the past. However, the original lyrics, written for a scene in a movie, were quite the opposite. The lyrics lamented an upcoming move and everything the characters had to leave behind. After several changes, we end up with the current classic, sang soulfully here.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiGeR0lwpkI[/youtube]

What Child Is This – Vanessa Williams

Every once in a while, Christmas gets a little jazzy. While this usually happens when a jazz musician creates an instrumental of a popular Christmas carol, this one is a little different. Vanessa Williams goes from pop to jazz in this version of What Child is This infused with hints of Carol of the Bells.

According to Wikipedia, this song was written during a time the author was bedridden and depressed. Although that is never a state anyone wants to be in, I think sometimes our greatest gifts come from the times we are holding on to faith and hope the hardest – and our attempts to remind ourselves of what we still have can be the greatest inspiration to others.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pj1mVUEHeUE[/youtube]

This Christmas – Donny Hathaway

No Christmas song list is complete without this one. For me, this is THE Christmas song I heard when my family actually gathered around the Christmas tree with presents. Every time I hear it, it takes me back there. Penned in 1970, it was an instant classic. It has been remade countless times, but the original is always the best.

Lyrics courtesy of Metrolyrics:

Hang all the mistletoe
I’m gonna get to know you better, this Christmas
And as we trim the tree
How much fun it’s gonna be together, this Christmas

Fireside is blazing bright
We’re caroling through the night
And this Christmas will be a
Very special Christmas for me

Presents and cards are here
My world is filled with cheer and you, this Christmas
And as I look around
Your eyes outshine the town they do, this Christmas

Fireside is blazing bright
We’re caroling through the night
And this Christmas will be a
Very special Christmas for me, yeah

Shake a hand, shake a hand now

The fireside is blazing bright
We’re caroling through the night
And this Christmas will be a
Very special Christmas for me, yeah

Hang all the mistletoe
I’m gonna get to know you better, this Christmas
And as we trim the tree
How much fun it’s gonna be together, this Christmas

The fireside is blazing bright
We’re caroling through the night
And this Christmas will be
Very special Christmas for me

Merry Christmas
Shake a hand, shake a hand now
Wish your brother Merry Christmas
All over the land now, yeah

Merry Christmas