KYLE writes:

The current attack on retro Christmas-time entertainment brings to mind all of the pop vocalists of the past who had five decade careers in radio, television and film yet today, we only hear them at Christmas time. The lasting legacy of some of America’s most iconic popular vocalists will likely be their Christmas recordings. Crooners like Crosby, Dean Martin, Perry Como, and Andy Williams hosted dozens of Christmas specials.

From the perspective of someone born in the 1980s, the America of these Christmas shows seems so remote. These shows drew millions of viewers and featured the top selling recording artists of the time singing openly and boldly about Jesus Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary on network television without fear of excluding all religions. That is hard to wrap your mind around when you think of how buffoonish and illicit music performances are today as they revel in debauchery.

Luckily you can still view many of these shows on YouTube or on DVD. The clips added here (see more below) are from TV specials from the 50s, 60s & 70s. Andy Williams on one of his specials singing “The Village of St. Bernadette”, Bing Crosby singing “Do You Hear What I Hear” in 1963 on Bob Hope’s Christmas Special and above, Perry Como singing a heroic rendition of “Ave Maria” on his 1978 special, “Early American Christmas”.

Laura writes:

The goal is to reduce Christmas to mass revelry and shopping, a pagan festival of fun. These videos won’t last forever on Youtube. And there will be no sacred Christmas music on national television 20 years from now, if there is any now.

While these crooners sang some beautiful hymns, note the absence of crucifixes and sacred images of Jesus and Mary in their videos. The stage set in Bing Crosby video is kind of creepy, and the Perry Como church looks like a Quaker meeting hall. It’s austere and cold.

My point is that the One World Religion was being fostered then too.

— End of Original Entry —

Kyle responds:

You make a good point on the secular set designs, even back then. At least the cross is visible in Como’s video. To your point I’m sure the absence was directed by the Jewish television producers that, by the 60s, were pretty open with their naked hostility towards Christmas and Christians. As you mentioned in the Dragnet post, the Catholic Legion of Decency did well at staving off the decadence until about the early 60s. They were foaming at the mouth to present films like The Graduate and The Exorcist to mainstream audiences but waited for the Catholic Church to throw the towel in before the mask slipped.

The fact that it was “edgy” for Charles Schultz to fight the Jewish TV producers to include Linus’ recital of the Gospel in the “Charlie Brown Christmas” special in 1964 goes to show how much the influence of Christians in the culture had slipped by then.

Kyle adds:

I know it wasn’t your intent but I couldn’t help but laugh a bit when you said the colonial Williamsburg church Como sings in looked like a Quaker hall and Crosby’s set design is “creepy”. Hah! Forgive me, I’ve been told my sense of humor skews to the sardonic, but I see your point though.

Here’s another swell clip from a Como DVD I own. He sings O Holy Night with a Nativity display appearing towards the middle of the song until the end. I just love the baritone voice of these guys. I wish I had a singing voice like them. In my head I sing like Bing but in reality I sound closer to Kermit the Frog.

Laura writes:

Oh, that was Williamsburg! Sorry about that.

George writes:

A comparison that would be interesting would be a survey of different languages and the number of secular vs. religious Christmas songs in each language.  English seems to have an over abundance of secular songs that are constantly repeated on TV and radio. For example – The Christmas Song, Silver Bells, Santa Claus is Coming To Town, It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas, Mele Kalikimaka, White Christmas, All I Want for Christmas is You, Holly Jolly Christmas, Santa Baby, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, Blue Christmas, I’ll Be Home For Christmas, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Jingle Bells, Sleigh Ride, Let It Snow (although the last three were not composed as Christmas songs but are touted as such today). My parents were German immigrants and the German Christmas songs I learned as a child were all religious. Even German Christmas LPs purchased in the late 70’s had perhaps one or two secular songs. (I can’t speak for modern German TV and radio.)

Laura writes:

Interesting. That difference (between American and German music) never occurred to me. The influence of Hollywood and the music industry is surely the cause.

A Reader writes from France:

Well, I have nothing to say about the television aspect, but I really do not like that traditional pop music, even Andy Williams singing about St. Bernadette. It doesn’t strike me as beautiful. There is so much wonderful Old World Christmas music worth digging up (however, it’s not yet the time to celebrate of course!).

For one, the group Anonymous 4 has quite a few wonderful albums. There’s Thys Yool by Martin Best Ensemble. Puer Natus Est by Stile Antico. And the albums by Apollo’s Fire. I also enjoy the instrumental album To Drive the Cold Winter Away by the Silverwood Quartet.

For Advent we may of course enjoy songs like “Angelus ad Virginem.”

Laura writes:

I hear you.

I can listen to Andy Williams once or twice, but after that — it gives you cavities. I have to say though that after hearing what is played at my local supermarket in the way of Christmas music, this is great art. What do you have to do to get the attention of these people so they turn the stuff off? If I collapsed in the produce section and started weeping, “I can’t take it anymore, I can’t take it anymore, I can’t take it anymore,” would they listen?

The reader from France writes:

I agree with George. And I can tell you that being in France has not allowed me to escape from the horrible Christmas music in the stores. I hear all the same American music, except it seems as new hipster versions.

Laura writes:

Oh, that’s sad. It’s not music, it’s infernal noise, it’s pollution, it’s criminal abuse of children, who also have to hear this trash. Hell is constant noise like this. I just want to get out of the stores as quickly as possible.

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