Favorite Christmas Song

Donny Hathaway's "This Christmas" is my favorite Christmas song of all time. In the song Hathaway describes a Christmas scene filled with love, happiness, and caring; not to mention soul. The song is for all to enjoy and the words to the song describe a Christmas for family or just sharing Christmas with people you care about. The song was released in 1970 and is much older then me, but I grew up with it as a staple of Christmas and it has help to create a positive image of love and togetherness in my mind. I think this positive image is the reason the song "This Christmas" was used as the title and theme song for the movie "This Christmas" just released. This particular movie is about family at the holidays and dysfunction that is often in families, but during Christmas everyone is overwhelmed with the spirit of Christmas.

Although "This Christmas" is my all time favorite Christmas Song it is on my most favorite Christmas album called, "A Soulful Christmas" and it is a collection of classic Christmas songs sang by classic soulful artists. The collection comes from the Philadelphia Classic R&B radio station, WDAS 105.3fm. Some of the artists include Luther Vandross, The Temptations, Diana Ross and the Supremes, and Nancy Wilson.

It is hard to pin point other favorites because all the songs are great and performed by great artists, but I like "What Do the Lonely Do at Christmas" performed by the singing group, The Emotions. I also enjoy The Supremes rendition of "Silver Bells". Even though the song "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" is on this album three times it is performed by three different artists and in different renditions including, The Jackson Five's very up beat version with a young Michael Jackson singing "Santa Claus is coming to Town, Oh Yeah!"

By the end of November, my family is looking through our CD collection for "A Soulful Christmas". We play this album in the car and in our home. When we visit our extended family we take the album. Everyone enjoys it and we all sing along. While wrapping gifts we enjoy the album and on Christmas Eve the album keeps us cheerful as we anticipate Santa's Arrival.

I know this sounds unlikely in this day in age, but in all of my family's dysfunctionality, "A Soulful Christmas" album and the song "This Christmas" bring us together each Christmas.