My Favourite Christmas Song: Jingle Bell Rock

When I was in Elementary School, Christmas was synonymous to Christmas Concert. Whenever November rolled around and my music teacher said we would be starting a new song, every kid in the class broke out into smiles and sat up a little straighter, knowing the annual Holiday festivities were about to begin.

At my elementary school, the Christmas program never changed; each grade always performed the same song. It was not tedious or boring to the children or the parents though; it was exciting. The younger ones waited year after year for the opportunity to sing "Frosty the Snowman" during their second-grade year and kindergartners knew they would be singing "Jingle Bell Rock" their next year.

And that last one, "Jingle Bell Rock", happens to be my favourite Christmas song, because of this Christmas concert put on every year during my childhood. I don't name "Jingle Bell Rock" as my favourite immediately when people ask, but it is always there, never failing to bring a smile to my face whether I hear it faintly over a radio system or I am blasting it in my car.

Our Christmas concert was not just thirty-some-odd kids singing, standing on bleachers in straight lines; oh no, we were much more. Each song had solo parts, dance moves, and an overall show to it.

The overall show is why "Jingle Bell Rock" stays with me today, fourteen years later. It was the infamous piece of the night, with everyone looking forward to little 6-year-old children stumbling around on the bleachers, trying desperately to remember both the words and the movements.

I saw this show four years in a row because of an older brother, and each year I loved "Jingle Bell Rock"; including the year that I was in it. I was in kindergarten the first time I saw it, and I anticipated it for the full year. I wanted to be one of those people, warbling and hollering in what would hopefully be the right note while I threw my arms in the air or shuffled my feet alongside my fellow classmates.

"Jingle Bell Rock" is so memorable, and thusly my favourite Christmas song, for many reasons. First was the dance moves. If you can picture 30 first-grade children "giddy-upping" standing on bleachers then moving into spinning in a circle while they jubilantly sing, "jingle around the clock", you would have a hard time refraining from smiling too. The second reason is because the song is just fun by itself. Hearing the upbeat but seasonal song immediately makes everyone I know start bobbing his or her head and singing along.

And the third, most important reason it is my favourite is because of my memory while performing it. I still remember yelling the words, trying frantically to remember all the words while flailing around and keeping up with my classmates. I still remember throwing my arms up as I started turning, realized I was going the wrong way (whoever thought to tell 6-year-old kids to turn to their right had to have known we would be spinning in every direction possible) and sped up in the other direction, effectively knocking my friend standing next to me. I can remember all the audience members clapping and smiling, laughing as we struggled to deliver this performance of our lifetime.

"Jingle Bell Rock" isn't just my own memory, but one for my family as well. Ever since the first year we saw it being performed, we have mimicked the dance moves every time we hear the song - and I know when we hear it this holiday season, we'll discuss that memorable first-grade performance as we yell it out and throw our arms out while we "dance and prance in Jingle Bell Square." "Jingle Bell Rock" is my favourite Christmas song because of how much of the season it embodies to me: holiday music within a beloved memory that sparks the feeling of love and joy for my entire family.