Category: Childrens

We’ve all seen that photo: the howling kid on Santa’s lap, another ruined (and expensive) photo from the mall.

Michael Gurley takes us there with his cute, comic kids’ song “I Ain’t Gonna Sit on Santa’s Lap.” Aww, he comes around after his tantrum!

Christmas lights can be just one more thing on the to-do list for holiday atmosphere. No biggie.

The “Lights so Bright” in Paul Cartledge, Philip Jewson’s kidstune merely pave the way for Santa, angels, and presents. It’s a warning sign, not a symptom.

Marcy Tigner’s aw shucks Shirley Temple approach to “Colored Christmas Lights” makes me worried she’s singing about a segregated neighborhood. But her eyes are full of all these things, including holiday sparklies. Kidsong of bygone days.

Cod Sent Flute sums up the randomness of the season with the quiet garage poem “Christmas Lights.” Those lights are there, perhaps, to show us Jesus.

The usual complaint about sunny California Christmas puts “The Lights and Buzz” into their proper pigeonholes by Jack’s Mannequin. Incidental alt, with a message.

Fiat Lux may be confused for God himself. Among first lines of books, it’s a lovely enigma and can be taken many ways. But Christmas is so dark, lights are called for. The birth of Mr. Christ might call for the lights.

One of the well known lights are carried by a couple French girls to announce the Nativity to the town (don’t tell Herod!). “Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella” is a fair tune of some centuries’ standing, and probably does better in the French with lyrics. I enjoy Sufjan Stevens‘s whispered telephone call, as well as LA’s Carnival Art’s early ’90s rollicking populist near-punk (which seems about right, even with the Whoville bit at the end).

“The Four Lights of Advent” is a light, airy kids’ instructional tune from Mary Thienes Schunemann about the ancient Xmas celebration of flaming on the Sundays leading up to 12/25. Candles are fun!

You know what the Christmas Star is for! Showing, not telling.

Ash strolls over a lava field in his snow suit rocking out how “There’s a Star” in the night sky which brings hope and other dreams of a new age.

Here, here, here says “The Christmas Star” from the Wiggles. So short, it’s not any genre at all.

Golden Apples sweetly (shrilly) tells us how the “Pretty Little Twinkling Star” shows us where Jesus lies. Glistening, streaming, it seems quite fluid. Insistent kidsong.

That interfering atmosphere above us makes the job of a star seem intermittent. The godstar of 0 A.D. may have blazed on the cnadle of the cake of the world, but for us it twinkled.

Well, the kids get it. “Twinkle, Twinkle, Christmas Star” bastardizes the nursery rhyme yet aggrandizes it as well. Sheila Wilson may have stumbled upon the greatest Sunday School earworm ever. Better than the other kidsong versions.)

Bells at Christmastime might just be one more prop what fell out the box from the attic when you upended that tangle of merry morass.

A supernumerary, the bell adds to the list in Patti Page’s “Christmas Bells.” (This is an older version.) Scmaltzy romantic pop fun. Byron Lee & The Dragonaires & Friends‘ duet underlines the how-you-doin’.

“And the Bells Rang” let’s you know where bells rate… last. The Golddiggers tip pop into easy listening so nobody younger than thirty will like this, unless they’re buttering up gramma. (This was a year before Bing’s release.) (But a few years after Tex Beneke, Ray Eberle & The Modernaires With Paula Kelly.)

Little Rita Faye cornpones the ham with “Sleigh Bells, Reindeer, and Snow.” It’s a list, read it.

Shad Weathersby adds bells to every aspect of Christmas with “Swingle Jingle.” For kidsong, it kinda does swing.

We know Santa’s sleigh has bells, ‘cuz it’s a sleigh. Guess who else’s sleigh has bells–everyones! Sing that to a pipe, city slicker!

The Cricketones are back from that album i grew up with playing “Ding-a-Ling Dong, the Sleigh Bell Song.” Which means you can sing-along all you want, ‘cuz that’s the whole set of lyrics pretty much. Kidsong gleefulness.

Some kids’ toon showcased some dumb plodding tune perhaps called “Snowflakes Fall, Sleigh Bells Ring.” We’ll get into it later, but this laundry list of Xmas details does not a carol create, gang.

Here’s one you might know: Gene Autry intros and burbles through “Sleigh Bells.” It’s so happy and all that it feels like you’ve been eating too much sugar.