Stories Behind the Best-loved Songs of Christmas by Ace Collins (2001)

Posted on 2023-12-13 by thelittleman

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.
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I’ve got a small stack of holiday-themed books to read this Christmas season, and I decided to follow-up a terrible Christmas book with something more worthwhile. I’m not much of a singer or a poet, but it’s only the second week of December, and I’ve already gone caroling twice, so reading about the stories behind the songs I’m singing seemed like a good idea.

I was impressed with how meaty the 31 essays in this book were. Ace Collins takes us back in time for each of these tales, weaving together the historical background and relevant family information for writers and musicians alike. These mini biographies help paint the setting for why and how the authors penned their simple poems and lyrics, and he also emphasizes the impact each song initially had and the influence it continues to have today. It’s pretty shocking, actually, that many Americans know the words of these songs by heart and yet have likely never thought to ask where they came from and why they’re so popular.

The 31 songs included are mostly religious, though Collins slips a few secular titles in too, songs like “Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer” to keep things light. Even the stories behind the secular titles, though, can be inspiring too, so there’s really no chapter in this book worth skipping.

For this short review, I’ll highlight just five of my favorite chapters with the snippets of information that sort of blew my mind.

“God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”

Collins’ main point in this chapter is that language has morphed the proper meaning of this old song out of existence. We tend to think that the title is asking God to give some happy men a nice relaxing break, but “God rest ye merry gentlemen” is literally translated as “God make you great, Gentlemen” because “Christ the Savior was born on Christmas day to save us all from Satan’s power”! That’s quite a difference and one worth knowing.

“Joy to the World”

What surprised me about the backstory to this song is that it wasn’t originally written for Christmas but was instead intended to be a simple re-write of Psalm 98. Isaac Watts would be surprised where this song has ended up.

“Jingle Bells”

This song is shocking on two counts. First, it was written as a Thanksgiving tune and makes no references at all to Christmas. Second, it was first sung in churches (lines about gambling and romance and all) and only later made it out into the secular world. Now, I don’t plan to sing this in my church next November, but it does get a guy thinking.

“O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”

This song is chock-full of Scriptural references and has been chanted for centuries by Catholic monks. Its main emphasis is that Christ’s arrival and work is a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies. This is definitely one you could focus on in church. Heck, you could even turn it into a pretty solid sermon!

“The Twelve Days of Christmas”

I wrote an essay based off this chapter called “The Worst Song of Christmas,” because few other songs annoy me as much as this one (TV commercials that put new lyrics to “Deck the Halls” is a close second). But in the book, Collins notes the “secret code” hidden inside the lyrics of this song by 16th Century Catholics hiding from the Anglican church, so the repetition of those 12 Days takes on a new meaning suddenly. It doesn’t make me love the song, but I at least have a new appreciation for it!

The biographical-snippet-style of this book reminds me a lot of my favorite collections of missionary biographies by M.R. Conrad, Daring Devotion and Daring Dependence. They’re brief, informative, and often captivating, which makes this 31-chapter book highly readable and enjoyable. You can read a chapter a day or six in a sitting, whatever your fancy, but no matter what, I think you’ll be both educated and entertained.

The only negative comment I have against this book is Collins’ incredible overuse of the superlative. He describes virtually evert song as “one of the most loved Christmas songs of all time” or some variation of it. Clearly, these are popular songs, but the overuse of “most” grated on me the more I read. I’m not generally so picky, but reading that word was like listening to NFL Commentator Chris Collinsworth who does the same thing during football games: everyone’s “one of the greatest ___ in the National Football League.” If everyone’s “one of the greatest,” then they’re not the greatest and we shouldn’t talk about it. Like The Incredibles taught us: “If everyone’s special, then no one’s special.”

I plan to give this book away to our choir director at church this week, and I hope she enjoys it as much as I have. I’ve got two more Ace Collins books on my shelf that deal with Christmas music and traditions. We’ll see if I have time to work through those before the season is done.

©2023 E.T.

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