Neil p • Dec 20, 2018 Was surprised one of my favorite Christmas Songs could not be found on YouTube. So I made a quick slideshow.
In Brown’s song—which you are welcome to listen to here—the story of Jesus is subtly inverted. Rather than a story of miraculous birth—”It was the night before Christmas,” the song begins, “but nobody was really noticing that”—it is a story about the routine of birth (“something women do” and that “men kinda, sorta, a little bit . . . help”) in which the only miracle is the gift of life that we’ve all been granted.
| Just getting born is such an amazing thing. You’d think we’d all just be nice forever after— Just to get to be a part of it. You’d think that anybody that ever held a little baby in their arms Would be so careful not to ever do any damage To another human being—or to the creation Of which we are so obviously a part. |
| The song presents a story of Jesus that escapes Christianity, which is perhaps why I find it so lovely and piercing. It opens the door to thinking about the hidden promise of a holiday that too often asks us “what we want” rather than reflecting on the joys of what we’ve been given. The story in the song is not about a boy who grew up to “found any big religions, with shiny churches, gold, and swords” but rather a story “about a world so much better than this one.” In this story, the unnamed boy “was just a child full of love, who went around and talked about love.” And so it follows that the lesson of such a child is not that he was exemplary (though perhaps he was), but that we too often fail to recognize the potent and profound goodness of so many people among us, past and present—not children of God, but examples of humility and decency. |
| Sometimes when I get distraught About our world and what we’re doing to it I remind myself that little children like that are being born every day. They may not make a lot of big news But in their life, they’re kind;They take care of people;They don’t blow things all out of proportion. They spread the news that this life,So mysterious and hard, is a wonderful enterpriseThat should be cherished. |
| And Brown, led all along by the slow strum of guitar, speaks sorrowfully but clearly as he tells his listener: |
| So Christmas, if it’s anything at all,It’s every day. It’s every night. And even when things look dark, way down…In the human heart,That we all share… There’s a light. |
Test by Jon Queally
Managing Editor
on behalf of the entire Common Dreams team