Songs for a Contemplative Christmas
Last December I shared a playlist of my favorite Christmas albums. Those can still be found here or here.
This year, I am going to share a handful of individual Christmas or Winter themed songs that are particularly moving to me for one reason or another. I’ll have another playlist link and share links so you can enjoy these pieces, too. These songs all hit me through their moving (and often melancholy) reflection of the winter months, or help me to lift my spirit and mind towards the real joy of the season in which the incarnation and Christ’s advent advanced Salvation history, and point to a new creation.
Thorn and Thistles – We Are Messengers with Kieth & Kristyn Getty
This is a brand new song composed by Irish-born musicians Darren Mulligan of the band ‘We Are Messengers’ and hymn-writing duo Kieth and Kristyn Getty.
This is one of those songs where the music, the melody, and the lyrics work so well together to convey the broken state of affairs into which Jesus Christ was incarnate.
To a world of thorn and thistle Shadowed still by Eden’s fall
On a night so unexpected Enters the Lord of all
Holy hands with fragile fingers, Our redemption in His veins
To a world of thorn and thistle Jesus came
Snow – Sleeping at Last
This one will almost certainly be unfamiliar to you, but has been a consistent winter companion of mine for many years. This song was written by Ryan O’Neal and could stand alone as a poem, but made infinitely more rich through subtle piano and vulnerable voice. This piece captures the dissonance some of us feel between the joyful expectation of the season and a reality that those often go unfulfilled.
The branches have traded their leaves for white sleeves
All warm-blooded creatures make ghosts as they breathe
Our families huddle closely Betting warmth against the cold
But our bruises seem to surface Like mud beneath the snow
So we sing carols softly, as sweet as we know
A prayer that our burdens will lift as we go
Like young love still waiting under mistletoe
We'll welcome December with tireless hope
Star of Wonder – Phil Wickham
Something about the tone of this song is just so hopeful and uplifting for me. If you couldn’t tell from the previous two songs, I can personally trend towards the melancholy during the winter months and this song just gives me a lift in my spirit of what Christ-incarnate came to do.
Holy Savior in this manger Come to set the world to right
Heavens glory here before me Born to bring the dead to life
O Come O Come Emmanuel – The Gray Havens
This is a classic Christmas hymn, and perhaps my favorite Christmas hymn. Again, because it leans into the longing for the idyllic world that this season points toward but is not yet present. This hymn does so through the lens of ancient Israel longing for deliverance and faith-filled hope that Emmanuel – God with Us – will arrive.
O come O come Emmanuel And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here Until the Son of God appear
Rejoice, rejoice Emmanuel Shall come to thee O Israel
The Christmas Song – Joey Landreth
Joey Landreth is perhaps my favorite song-writing-guitar-player active right now. And a few years ago he put out his solo rendition of the classic Christmas Song (you know the one: “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire…”.
Just his voice and his unique guitar. And makes me feel like we were all just sitting around the fire by the Christmas tree and our ol’ friend Joe just happened to pick up a guitar and start playing!
Merry Contemplative Christmas!
