Christmas music/nostalgia

Last night I almost turned on some Christmas music I keep on my computer and play this time of year. It's my favorite versions of songs, rather than the hodgepodge of mostly stuff I don't like when I go out in public or listen to other peoples' Christmas music.

I thought, "You know, I'm glad I haven't been out & about in the retail world lately. I think it's a better way to live--keeping my Christmas music-listening private, not taking it in from public sources and experiencing that sense of "of course this stuff is playing" that so many other people I know don't get to experience for their holidays. They live without that public solidarity, and I can, too.

But then I realized something: I wouldn't HAVE my kick-ass Christmas music collection if I hadn't been exposed to a whole lot of Christmas music over the course of my life. If I'd only heard music played in private & religious gatherings and only bought music from places & websites dedicated to fulfilling Christian needs, I wouldn't have been exposed to perhaps some of my favorite pop takes on Christmas music. (Mostly the songs that were pop to begin with, such as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.) I might not have known that when it comes to hymns and older songs, I like the sound of simple 4-part harmony that sounds like caroling better than any fancy renditions. After all, I've never been caroled to by Christian neighbors or caroled to other Christian neighbors. Okay, I might still know what caroling is from Christmas children's books kept & read in my house at that time of year, but you know why I've heard it?

Because it's a bit part of TV specials! Public-access TV.

Otherwise I wouldn't know what it sounded like and wouldn't have known I wanted to hunt down a 4-part harmony version of "Deck the Halls."

But there is good news. Maybe I could have all this even if the public world didn't expose me to parts of my holiday that my fellow holiday-celebrators have never personally shared with me.

Maybe, if we all had to keep it inside and at each others' houses because there were less public affirmation, we would be at each others' houses more. We might crave more Christmas. And then I'd hear more music played at friends' homes, and in the end, I'd have been exposed to just as much of my holiday's music as I have by visiting people less and hearing it in public more.

Interesting.