Sunday Open Thread | Holiday Music

Christmas Candles4Do You Hear What I Hear?” is a Christmas song written in October 1962 with lyrics by Noël Regney and music by Gloria Shayne Baker.[1] The pair were married at the time, and wrote it as a plea for peace during the Cuban Missile Crisis.[2] It has sold tens of millions of copies and has been covered by hundreds of artists.[2]

Noel Regney wrote the lyrics for the song, while Gloria Shayne Baker composed the Christmas carol‘s music in October 1962.[2] This was an unusual arrangement for the two writers. Usually it was Baker who wrote the lyrics for their songs while Regney composed the music, as they did when they wrote a song based on the classic children’s song “Rain Rain Go Away“.[1][2]

Regney was inspired to write the lyrics “Said the night wind to the little lamb, ‘Do you see what I see?’ ” and “Pray for peace, people everywhere,” after watching babies being pushed in strollers on the sidewalks of New York City.[1] Baker stated in an interview years later that neither could personally perform the entire song at the time they wrote it because of the emotions surrounding the Cuban Missile Crisis.[1] “Our little song broke us up. You must realize there was a threat of nuclear war at the time.”[1]

About SouthernGirl2

A Native Texan who adores baby kittens, loves horses, rodeos, pomegranates, & collect Eagles. Enjoys politics, games shows, & dancing to all types of music. Loves discussing and learning about different cultures. A Phi Theta Kappa lifetime member with a passion for Social & Civil Justice.
This entry was posted in Christianity, Christmas Songs, Current Events, Music, News, Open Thread, Politics, Praise, Spirituality, Worship and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

149 Responses to Sunday Open Thread | Holiday Music

  1. [facebook url="https://www.facebook.com/jerseydemic/videos/10154023136665681/" /]

  2. rikyrah says:

    Luvvie Ajayi @iLuvvit
    Muslim-Owned Cafe Defaced With Nazi Graffiti, Then Firebombed – The Daily Beast http://luvvie.me/1RiJYxm <– this HAS to stop.

  3. rikyrah says:

    Dean Obeidallah @Deanofcomedy
    Muslims only account for 1 percent of US population but 10 percent of all Drs in the US per The Economist. Clearly it’s a healthcare jihad

  4. Ametia says:

    CAROLINA PANTHERS REMAIN

    UN-DE-FEAT-ED!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql8H-33u-j0

  5. Kathleen says:

    Good Evening, Chics & Chicettes! SG2, that was so sweet of you to invite me to share my memories. I must say I am enjoying all of the stories and thinking that I need to be more conscious of creating new memories and traditions with my family and friends.

    I was an only child the first 16 years of my life and we moved a lot because my dad was in radio and, well, that’s what radio people do. (I even spent a few Christmases in St. Paul, Ametia.) Most of the time it was just the 3 of us celebrating because our families lived so far away. But we all loved Christmas, and enjoyed picking out and decorating the tree (it had to be a real tree), though the getting the tree up was always fraught with drama and arguments between my parents (somehow our trunks were always twisted and strange which made it hard to get the tree straight). I was raised Catholic so my mom would buy the big Advent card with windows representing each day in Advent, which I would get to open every morning.I would get more excited because I knew with every window Christmas was getting closer. I remember the ribbon candy (thanks to SG2) and my mother’s Christmas cookies, which were always the spritz butter cookies with sprinkles and her famous cut out sugar cookies (still the best cookies I ever had). Since back in those days Dad would have to work Christmas Day morning (unless it fell on a Sunday), I’d open my presents from “Mom and Dad” that night, then see my present from Santa the next morning. Since my mother also firmly believed that Christmas did not end until after January 6, (Feast of the Epiphany) all the decorations had to stay in place.

    My most memorable Christmas was the year we flew to California to celebrate with my paternal grandparents, aunt and uncle. My Grandmother bought me a Betsy Wetsy doll (I loved to play with dolls) and commissioned a friend of hers to hand tailor an exquisite wardrobe for Betsy, which included a fully lined coat, fur hat and a fur muff in addition to other gorgeous dresses. But what I enjoyed most was having my aunt, uncle and grandparents there with us. That was very rare.

    Fast forward a hundred years later and I’m now a grandmother of 2 teen boys who live in Florida. My daughter and son in law now have their own traditions, which include putting up and decorating the tree the day after Thanksgiving (except this year, for the first time, Dad and Mom let my grandsons and my grandson Zach’s girl friend do the honors). My son in law bakes the most wonderful cookies every year, but my grandson Sean loves to bake, so he will be doing the honors there. I’m flying down to Tampa to be with them, which makes me very happy. Sean assured me he would save me some cookies. I really like my grandsons. They’re thoughtful, empathetic, talented, and intelligent, and they tell me they love me on Facebook!

    Again, I must thank you all for helping me realize the importance of treasuring traditions and connections new and old. May you all enjoy peace, love, joy and good health this season and all year. Merry Christmas, Dear Ladies!

    • Thank you for sharing your memories with us. I’ll bet it was cool as everything to have a dad in radio? Those cookies makes my mouth water. Tell Sean to send me some cookies. I like cookies. :)

    • Ametia says:

      Kathleen! Thanks for sharing your memories. Yes, good food, family & freinds are a God send. Your grandsons sound like real TREASURES.

      Peace & good will to you and your family.

    • Liza says:

      I’m Catholic too and I remember that Jan 6 is “Little Christmas” when the three kings arrived bearing gifts. We kept our Christmas tree up until Jan 7, at least.

    • yahtzeebutterfly says:

      You have added much spirit to this Christmas memory page, Kathleen. I loved hearing about your son-in-laws baking and your grandsons’ cookie making. I wish you a wonderful Christmas with them in Florida!

      How exciting to have that special Christmas in California with your grandparents, aunts and uncles!! What an exciting gift the Betsy doll was for you!

      I loved hearing about your Advent card because they were so special to me also. I know what you mean about your excitement building up as you opened more and more windows.

      This year I found a wonderful wooden Advent calendar with drawers for our grandchildren. I printed out some of my favorite quotations, cut them into tiny strips of paper, and put one in each drawer with a coin. It was a quite a feat to fold the following quotation and make it fit in one of those Advent drawers:

      One song can spark a moment,
One flower can wake the dream.
      One tree can start a forest,
One bird can herald spring.
      One smile begins a friendship,
One handclasp lifts a soul.
      One star can guide a ship at sea,
One word can frame the goal.
      One vote can change a nation,
One sunbeam lights a room.
      One candle wipes out darkness,
One laugh will conquer gloom.
      One step must start each journey,
One word must start each prayer.
      One hope will raise our spirits,
One touch can show you care.
      One voice can speak with wisdom,
One heart can know what’s true.
      One life can make the difference,
      You see, It’s Up to You!

  6. Ametia says:

    OMG HOLLERING

    SUNDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2015
    WARN

    Semi-Open Sunday Thread: “American Cock So Big And So Strong” While a Muslim Woman Has Fun Dancing Like the Three Stooges and an Black “Muslim” Breitbart Wannabe Threatens Donald Trump With a Gun on Youtube
    http://www.chaunceydevega.com/2015/12/semi-open-sunday-thread-american-cock.html

  7. Ametia says:

    Sunshine, Kathleeen, WHERE ARE YOU?

  8. rikyrah says:

    I have loved reading your Christmas memories. Thank you.

  9. Ametia says:

    <

  10. Mary Davis says:

    Hi SouthernGirl2
    My first comment. I think it went into moderation.

  11. Mary Davis says:

    Hi everyone. Some of you know me from Letterman’s law blog. I just had to share some of my memories from xmas time as a child. My mom had nine boys and two girls. We had a two story house. On xmas eve we could not for the life of us go to sleep for the excitement and the good smell of food coming from down stares. When we did wake up from about four hours sleep, we rushed down stares to find our gifts. My mom and dad would take out the dwawers from the dressers and fill them with gifts, fruit and nuts. Our names were taped on each one. For some reason I always wanted what my brothers had. toy guns, marbles, yoyo’s, and stick horses. I always got a rag doll, tin dishes, paper dolls, and always a tin oven to warm my food in. With so many brothers, I guess my mom was trying to make a little lady out of me, but I was a tomboy up until junior high school. Christmas was so different back then, I am 66 years old. We lived for Christmas time. It was always the best time of the year, and it seemed like it took forever to come. Hi Yatzee. Merry Christmas to all of you, and a happy new year.

    • Hi Mary! Don’t even mention Yoyos. I use to be the queen of yoyos and hula hoops. I rode a few stick horses too until I got older to ride the real ones. We lived for Christmas times too. The best feeling ever. Thank you for sharing your memories with us and do drop by often.

      • Mary Davis says:

        Thank you SouthernGirl2.
        I don’t comment often, but I just love to visit your blog. Thanks for the invite and I will be back.
        Merry Christmas to all.

    • Ametia says:

      Hi Mary. Thanks for the memories. Times have changed, but somethings never change, and that is those GOLDEN memories of Christmas.

      • Mary Davis says:

        Ametia, We didn’t have a lot of material things, but we had a whole lot of love. That is the most important thing. We appreciated all the small things. The only thing we didn’t appreciate was when it was our turn to wash the dishes. Too many dishes to wash at Christmas time.

    • yahtzeebutterfly says:

      How wonderful to see you, Mary, my wonderful friend!!

      I have missed you.

      What super Christmas memories you have. (I, too, with two older brothers, loved many of the types of Christmas presents you have talked about. I loved anything that I could play with outside because I enjoyed sports so much :)

      I think it must have been so much fun for you to find all your gifts in your special drawer. I was just like you as far as being filled with the excitement and anticipation of Christmas the night before.

      *Hugs*

      • Mary Davis says:

        Hey yahtz,
        I really miss you my sister. You already know how proud I am of you. I just know you have been doing wonderful things. I hope you and your family have a very special Christmas and create some special memories. I’m always thinking of you my friend.

        God Bless you and your family
        Hugs back at ya

      • yahtzeebutterfly says:

        And, I am always thinking of you, my sister.

        May you have a blessed Christmas with your family.

        Love you.

    • Ametia says:

      We didn’t get the material things. Mostly we got what we needed, clothing, etc.,the essentials. We shared toys, and most of our things were second hand, and we were grateful.

    • Mary, you’re most welcomed here.

  12. Ametia says:

    Waiting on ellihass and Liza to share a memory or two!

    • yahtzeebutterfly says:

      Yes! And, Vitaminlover, too!

    • Liza says:

      When I think about childhood Christmases the most memorable part seems to be Midnight Mass and being in the church choir. At my Catholic grade school, the 7th and 8th grades were the choir, everyone participated. So, first it was my older sisters and then finally me.

      Our music director was this tiny little nun, Sister Maria Teresa, from the Dominican Republic who was very pretty and very talented. We practiced and practiced and we were GOOD. Midnight Mass was always a major event throughout her tenure.

      But there was this one Christmas when I was in the fourth grade that was really special. Sister MT was my full time teacher and I think this was only her first or second year at our school. So she decides to have this giant Christmas play starring the first through fourth grades. The fourth grade was the choir and the other grades did various things, including of course, acting the story of the birth of Christ. We ordered costumes and we practiced and practiced and gave four performances which I thought were magnificent back then. Sister TM was a ball of energy, I don’t know how she managed to get all of that out of us, but now I think that inclusion played a huge part. Everyone participated, no one was left out.

      So, to this day I prefer the church songs to the secular Christmas music. On Christmas Eve I’ll be listening to Mahalia Jackson sing “O, Holy Night” exactly the way Sister TM taught it to us.

      • Alright now! Isn’t it amazing how one memory can stand out and stay with you forever? I love memories like this.

      • Ametia says:

        Thank you Liza! Your memory of singing in the choir is so very precious.

        I have to agree with you about Sisster TM and inclusion.

        Everyone got to expend the energy, she held the vision.

        Back in the day, our schools & teachers helped carry on the TRUE spirit of the Christmas holidays.

        • They really did, Ametia. I remember for a Christmas program the girls had to wear black or blue skirts and white shirt. We were on stage singing and I felt so happy & excited because it was close to that wonderful day.

      • Liza says:

        Sister Maria Teresa worked us hard, and she did teach us the true spirit of Christmas. So did many of the other nuns, I owe a great deal to them.

      • yahtzeebutterfly says:

        What a beautiful memory you have shared with us, Liza!

        I would have loved to heard your Christmas program. What a great teacher and choir director you had. Sister Mary Teresa blessed you with her enthusiastic leadership and music talent!

        Now I am going to Youtube to listen to Mahalia Jackson sing O Holy Night!

      • Liza says:

        I’ll never forget that play. We were so proud to have done that.

    • eliihass says:

      Sorry I missed all the fun yesterday Ametia…My mouth is watering from all the yummy food pictures and descriptions…But more importantly, how amazing is it that all the wonderful memories shared from different people, cultures, faiths and eras have the same things in common – love and family…

      Ours was and continues to be the same…A meshing of faiths and traditions…Manischewitz, latkes, the yummiest freshly baked goodies, eggnog, decorating Christmas trees – and yes, even midnight mass! We would spend the days leading up to Christmas wrapping gifts of books, socks, scarves, toys etc. that my mother would take us to drop off at a hospital where we’d visit with random patients old and young. We’d give them each a single rose and spend a minute saying hello. As a child, it was life-changing observing the varied reactions in this place full of sick people and briskly walking nurses and doctors. The surprised looks, smiles, shock, and the many emotions – unspoken and expressed – as we made our rounds dropping off gifts and flowers. Sometimes we’d meet with the occasional cold reception, but my mom would explain that they were in pain from their illness. We’d drop off boxes of assorted foods, clothes and toys at the local church or shelter, drop off gifts for our immediate neighbors usually for the kids in each family, and then head home to start our own family celebrations.

      Our home was always filled with music – Handel’s Messiah which for some inexplicable reason always led the playlist every Sunday, Easter and at Christmas…the most wonderful aromas of all sorts of foods cooking and baking…Neighbors would drop by after we’d surprised them with gifts, to bring us what I imagine were hurriedly put together gifts for our family…And my parents would always be like “..you really shouldn’t have..” And they meant it too, especially my mom. She didn’t want our gifts to trigger gifts – or make the neighbors think they had to reciprocate…Most times, we’d already received cards from them in the mail, and that was enough as far as my mom was concerned. My mother was and is still one of those…all gifts if edible and homemade, usually went straight into the garbage – and she really didn’t want them wasting their food or their money since we’d never eat them – and she was leery about re-gifting homemade edibles made by others to anyone else. Yet she would feed these neighbors her own creations – and even send them home with a cake and other yummy goodies..

      Christmas eve was spent watching old classics, and Christmas morning was always the most exciting…Couldn’t wait to open our gifts which were usually from a short list we made for Santa. One thing we really needed, one thing we wished we could get but didn’t think parents would indulge us, and always a book, an envelope with a little bit of money, and a Christmas ornament for each of us. I have a Christmas ornament from every year of my life…as does every child born into our family. LOL..

      As with Christmas, New Year’s eve was always and still is a strictly family affair for us…Just family…We clean house, prepare for the new year with clean and new – We’re all showered and in our new matching jammies by 11:30…We then ushered in the New Year at the stroke of midnight together as a family in prayer led by my mother…And then we blew out the old year with these fun noisy whistles which we blew until they stopped working – or our cheeks hurt – whichever came first…we then toasted the new year with apple cider for the kids, and champagne for the parents – hugs, kisses, happy tears…then zzzzzzzzz…

      • yahtzeebutterfly says:

        Thank you so much for sharing your memories, Eliihass. What a beautiful spirit your parents instilled in you through your visits with gifts to hospital patients. Such memories and helpful deeds from childhood are so important to the nurturing of young hearts.

        How wonderful that you had that beautiful meshing of faiths within your family celebrations.

      • Beautiful, Eliihass! I love this.

  13. Ametia says:

    So SORRY; I never could do these:

    [caption id="attachment_66422" align="aligncenter" width="640"]Fruitcake Fruitcake[/caption]

  14. I’ve cleaned out one cabinet. Getting ready to tackle another. Oh boy! I hate throwing things away but I have to. I can’t take this clutter.

  15. Ametia says:

    Watching Super Soul Sunday with Oprah & Former POTUS Jimmy Carter

  16. After Christmas I always went to stay w/ my grandparents until New Year’s. God, they spoiled me rotten. My granny would make the best hot chocolate. Mmmmm…

  17. Ametia says:

    There are certtain holiday traditions that will endure for me as I’ve matured.

    Some of the food, music, tv classics. What has changed for me is the circle of friends and family gatherings, and the curtailing of buying stuff for folks just because it’s what everyone is doing.

    Now my gatherings are about face-face time with people who I enjoy being with, for uplifting conversations, folks who acknowledge each other SOUL-SOUL.

    For me, it is all about re-defining and creating new experiences and memories. Now pass those nuts, yahtzee! LOL

  18. Ametia says:

    LOVE FOR THE TRUMPSTER IS RETALIATION AGAINST THAT BLACK PRESIDENT

    P.E.R.I.O.D

  19. Ametia says:
  20. Ametia says:

    We had these during the holidays too. Please, have some!

    2534909-mixed-nuts

  21. Ametia says:
  22. yahtzeebutterfly says:

    This Christmas song became one of my favorites upon my hearing it for the first time at a school assembly:

    https://youtu.be/STWC5Dr4_rw&rel=0

  23. I just love logging on to the site and seeing the snow flakes falling. Makes me happy.

  24. My parents always always had this candy in the house for Christmas and a box of Apples & Oranges. You could smell the Apples when you walked through the door.

    Old Time Christmas Candy

  25. Jonne’ says as she was driving along on the way to church this morning, she asked Haley & Jay what do you think Mama would like for Christmas?

    They both yelled in unison…

    Chicken

    Crying with Laughter

  26. Ametia says:

    Beyond His Tenure, Holder Hasn’t Left The Civil Rights Fight

    Updated December 12, 20156:28 PM ET
    Originally published December 12, 20155:06 PM ET

    Former Attorney Gen. Eric Holder’s career has been a series of firsts.

    As the first African-American to serve as this country’s top law enforcement official, he came into office in 2009 promising to rebuild the Justice Department’s Civil Rights division.

    There, he aggressively enforced voting rights, supported same-sex marriage and became a lightning rod for criticism from conservatives. In fact, Holder was the first sitting cabinet member to be held in contempt of Congress in 2012 when he failed to deliver documents and testimony related to the “Fast and Furious” gun-running operation in Arizona.

    His six-year tenure marked a first in another way: It was the longest term between an attorney general resignation and the time a successor was confirmed.

    After stepping down as attorney general earlier this year, he returned to private practice as a partner at the law firm Covington & Burling. NPR’s Michel Martin sat down with him to talk about his life and work since leaving office.

    AUDIO of Interview here:
    http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=459377337&m=459502992

  27. rikyrah says:

    Good Morning Everyone :)

  28. yahtzeebutterfly says:

    Good Morning :)

    Thanks for the wonderful Christmas music, SG2.

    https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/91/14/25/9114250d30ba99d6068a48034dd331b6.jpg

Leave a Reply