The following is an excerpt from the chapter "Songs for the Season: The Christmas Albums" from Jakob Baekgaard's Misty: The Music of Johnny Mathis (Sonicbond Publishing, 2022). Songs for the Season: ...
*While Christmas shopping recently, I paused while listening to a hauntingly beautiful song recorded by the incomparable Johnny Mathis. It’s called “Count Your Blessings (Instead Of Sheep)” and it’s ...
The Best of Christmas Like many of history’s most enduring stories, this one took the most unlikely of turns. A virgin woman bears a child, promised by an angel and conceived by God. Born in a crowded town near Jerusalem, the infant has for His nursery a stable—His makeshift crib, a feeding trough. But shepherds worship the boy, and a powerful king fears Him. And when He has become a man ...
This post was first published . -ed. Meet another man who missed the first Christmas: Herod. Matthew 2 tells his story. He was...
The Real Meaning of Christmas The story’s told of a little girl who’s passing out the presents to her family on Christmas morning. After finding gifts for each member of her family, she was puzzled that there wasn’t a gift for the One whose birth was being commemorated. “I guess everyone forgot about Jesus,” she said. If you want a truly meaningful Christmas season, it stands to ...
Some were sentimental, saying Christmas is a family time, a time for children, and so on. Others were humanistic, seeing Christmas as a time to celebrate love for one’s fellow man, the spirit of giving, and that sort of thing. Others were crassly hedonistic, viewing Christmas as just another excuse to party.