Each Christmas season I usually purchase one new Christmas CD to accompany HP's Holiday Hits (Volumes I and II) to liven up the season. While there will never be another Christmas compilation as good as A Cabbage Patch Christmas, I am optimistic that other artists will one day live up to the expectations set forth by Sybil Sadie and Otis Lee. Quite possibly my favorite Christmas CD in recent years is Sarah McLachlan's Wintersong because who doesn't love a peppy and upbeat tune like River to get one through the holidays? A close second to Sarah is Jewel's Joy - A Holiday Collection minus her rendition of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. It is almost enough to inspire me to run to the nearest Kmart, purchase a hunting license, learn how to shoot a rifle and embark upon a little night hunting on Christmas Eve if you know what I mean. And please whatever you do, learn from my mistake and do not waste your money on this CD no matter how tempting the bonus track of Kelly Clarkson singing "O Holy Night" sounds. It's just not worth the pesos.
Now perhaps you are wondering how I select the yearly CD. If you are, then might I recommend you get a hobby or take a nap or something, but for those of you still reading along, I will tell you. It's a highly systematic process that involves me looking at the back of a CD usually while standing in line at Target. If I happen to see my current favorite song of the season listed as a track, then into my cart the CD goes. Impulse shopper? Not me. This is exactly what happened on Saturday afternoon. While standing in line, the CD display at the end of the register lane caught my eye and I picked up Peace on Earth by Casting Crowns. Then I saw it: "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" and I was so excited because I really love this song this year for some reason. It's just beautiful. So after paying for my loot, I headed to my car and paid no attention to the car waiting for my parking space...I had a new CD to listen to immediately. Oh, the joy of living in a world of instant gratification. I skipped past all of the other songs until I got to the sole reason I spent an additional 9.99 in the first place. As I listened I thought to myself - this is a pretty intro but it seems a little long... So I opened up the little CD booklet thingy (I only speak in technical terms, obviously) and what I had suspected was confirmed: INSTRUMENTAL. Don't get me wrong - I love instrumentals but not when I purchase a vocal group's CD. I would probably react the same way if I popped in a Kenny G CD only to hear his singing voice. It's a very pretty instrumental version of the song and it is growing on me so maybe I'm being too harsh on Casting Crowns. Besides, I only listen to these CDs for a month out of the year anyway. Apparently there are more instrumental versions of this song than I realized though because when I went to add it to my Christmas blog play list, really the only non-instrumental choices were Phillips, Craig and Dean or Clay Aiken. And I've never been much of a Clay-mate.
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