When should you start Christmas music?
My first Christmas gig was way back at the end of October. The next week, a sales clerk at an open house cringed when I played Carol of the Bells this side of Thanksgiving.
As a musician who has to practice, my season starts even earlier. Last year, when I made my Christmas CD, I was arranging and recording carols from January to June, then playing and promoting the CDs July through December. It felt like I was in a storybook world that lived Christmas all year round.
Now I totally agree with the store clerk and my friends complaining about carols on FB; we should enjoy the season we are in instead of always be selling the next one.
But there are other noncommercial qualities to Christmas. I like to be the first noel you might hear this season. I put The First Noel on my CD, and not just because it is a beautiful melody. I like the story.
“The first noel that the angel’s did say was to certain poor shepherds in fields as they lay.” Here are the shepherds, everyday guys at their everynight job. They worked the night shift. It wasn’t a holy-day for them. It wasn’t vacation. They didn’t have two months of advent and Walmart radio carols to prep them with the expectations of Christmas. They had their heads down in sheep droppings. Then angels burst out of the blue—or in this case the black—night sky. “Good news!” they shouted. “God is with you.”
That’s even more shocking than seeing Christmas discounts advertised in August.
Noel. God is with us. We need to know God’s presence isn’t just with us on holidays or vacations. He is in the middle of our work day every day of the year. That is a reason to give thanks. That’s a reason to work. That’s a reason to start some Christmas carols early.