Year-round Yuletide oddities
Following the twinkling star and sing along for the new born holiday.
“The Star Proclaims the King is Here” tells Branches Band with a bit of a medieval backbeat. You been served, so be guided.
Charles Coffin brings us “What Star is This?” with impelling, beaming, announcing, and even fulfilling what God decreed. OG gospel, but–wotta star, it does it all.
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.
Let’s anthropomorphize that Star of the Nativity a bit more.
Diamond Rio compares the beacon with a candle in the wind in “The Star Still Shines.” It beckons, wise men. If you lose your way, you get this hint o’ light. I mean today.
It shines, it dispels, it beckons, it guides all y’all. “Star of Wonder” from James Loynes is middle of the road easy listening for a grand recital showing. What a busy star.
So, is that star over Bethlehem just hanging out? Is it just there, like passively looking? Or is it watching? Check it.
A busy busy “Star” from Liz Vandervelden is asked to come, watch; then shines, guides (to the tree). It’s like a nine-year-old wrote this catchy kidsong!
Johnny Reid’s “Winter Star” gets country jiggy with the folk stylings, calling out the light of love and peace for agency. Lead us home.
The Star is the medium and the message. Good news, everyone!
Vanquishing the gloom, “In the Heavens Shone a Star.” Pete Feltman gently gospel-rocks us with the happy heralding of this announcer,
“One Star” from The Orient was bearing those glad tidings with folk austerity. The New Christy Minstrels make it playful, but portentous.
Did the Star of Jesus move, or just stick in the black velvet of Israel’s roof?
Sufjan Stevens does that minimalist folkrock thing he does so well with “Star of Wonder.” It takes a bit to start, but it won’t end. Mesmerizing.
The Star of Bethlehem was like Coming Attractions for humankind.
“See the Star!” betokens Cathy Jones (feat. John Houston) with plonking church piano gospel that may just get you swaying.
That billboard for God’s birthing might be the brightest thing in the zenith. It might do more than simply shine.
Wendy Moses twists up the kidsong with a soupçon of calyspo in “It was a Starry Night.” And it was BRIGHT.
Burning so bright, came Jesica Bennett’s “One Special Star.” Brace yourself for this aria, it’s pithy.
Sheila Walsh updates us on the child, son, savior, you know. But this pop-gospel emphasizes how brightly it was foretold in “Star Song (There is Born a Child.”
It might pierce, or blaze according to Resound Worship in their pop Xian song “See the Star.” Can’t miss the star, more likely.
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.)
Not sure how long those wise men took to follow that star (from Nativity to Epiphany), but it must be tiring to fission that hydrogen. So, how about just a GLOW?
Ricky Skaggs does that blue-collar retelling of Joseph and Mary country music loves with “New Star Shining.” It’s still shining today. Powered by some pink bunny battery or sumfin’.
Simon Wolfe gives us a Motown serenade against some south of the Border brass for “Beneath the Stars.” It’s like a Santa-Jesus mix-up dream.