John Whitehead's Commentary

Christmas should be a beautiful time filled with fun and excitement. But there is a mounting movement to do away with it. Indeed, many schools exclude the mention of the word "Christmas." And some even refuse to let kids sing about the Christmas holiday.

But it's not only the schools that have taken over the role of Scrooge. Many workplaces avoid even the mention of the "C" word. In fact, someone recently e-mailed that they no longer have Christmas parties. Instead, they're called "end of the year" parties. At the firm's recent holiday party, people whispered "Merry Christmas" to each other, as if they were discussing pornography.

But it gets worse. They're doing away with Christmas trees, too, calling them "Community" trees.

Amid all this insane humbuggery, however, we can still enjoy the season. Along with a bevy of good Christmas movies, there are some really fine Christmas songs. The amazing thing about Christmas music is how the sacred and irreverent meld into an atmosphere of joy and wonder.

Over the years, I've listened to literally hundreds of Christmas records, tapes and CDs. The following are ten of my favorite albums.

1. It's Christmas (EMI, 1989): 18 great songs, ranging from John Lennon's "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" to Bing Crosby's "White Christmas." The real treats on this album are Greg Lake's "I Believe in Father Christmas," Kate Bush's "December Will Be Magic Again" and Aled Jones' "Walking in the Air."


2. Christmas Guitar (Rounder 1986): 28 beautifully done traditional Christmas songs by master guitarist John Fahey. Sublime!


3. Christmas Is A Special Day (The Right Stuff, 1993): 12 great songs by Fats Domino, ranging from "Amazing Grace" to "Jingle Bells." The title song, written by Domino himself, is a real treat.


4. Christmas Island (August/Private Music, 1989): "Frosty the Snowman" will never sound the same after you hear Leon Redbone sing it. Neither will "Christmas Island" on this collection of 11 traditional and offbeat songs.


5. A Holiday Celebration (Gold Castle, 1988): Peter, Paul & Mary, backed by the New York Choral Society, sing traditional and nontraditional holiday fare on 12 beautifully orchestrated songs. Also thrown in is Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind."


6. The Christmas Album (Columbia, 1992): Neil Diamond sings 14 songs, ranging from "Silent Night" to "Jingle Bell Rock." A delightful album.


7. A Charlie Brown Christmas (Fantasy, 1988): 12 traditional Christmas songs by the Vince Guaraldi Trio. Also included is the Charlie Brown Christmas theme.


8. I Wanna Be Santa Claus (Mercury, 1999): 12 Christmas songs by ex-Beatle Ringo Starr, some of which he helped write. Great renditions of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "Blue Christmas." Also included is a new rendition of the Beatles' "Christmas Time Is Here Again," originally released in the '60s.


9. Come On Christmas (Reprise 1997): Dwight Yoakam adds a country flavor to an even dozen Christmas songs. Finely done, but then again, anything Dwight sings is worth listening to.


10. Songs for Christmas (Asthmatic Kitty, 2006). In December 2001, independent singer/songwriter Sufjan Stevens set out to create a Christmas gift through songs for his friends and family. It eventually grew to a 5-CD box set, which includes Stevens' original take on such standards as "Amazing Grace" and "We Three Kings" and some inventive yuletide creations of his own. A lot of fun.

One more thing. We must never forget that the Christmas holiday is named after the Prince of Peace. Thus, it should not so much be a time of getting as of giving. And it should be a time of thinking of others, reaching out to the less fortunate and working to make the world a better place for everyone. As John Lennon sings in "Happy Xmas":

And so this is Christmas,
For weak and for strong,
For rich and the poor ones.
The road is so long.
And so happy Christmas
For black and for white,
For yellow and red ones.
Let's stop all the fight.

Merry Christmas. God bless us everyone.

ABOUT JOHN W. WHITEHEAD

Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. His most recent books are the best-selling Battlefield America: The War on the American People, the award-winning A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, and a debut dystopian fiction novel, The Erik Blair Diaries. Whitehead can be contacted at staff@rutherford.org. Nisha Whitehead is the Executive Director of The Rutherford Institute. Information about The Rutherford Institute is available at www.rutherford.org.

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