It’s been a prolific season of reading for me this Christmas, as I try to work through some of the Christmas-themed books on my shelves. Of the six I’ve read so far, Ace Collins’ first book on Christmas music, Stories Behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas, has been my favorite. This follow-up volume was less so.
In both books, Collins offers a succinct biographical background to the author and/or musician behind each of the 31 songs he covers, and he does so extremely well. These mini-biographies set the historical stage and give us the most pertinent info in an interesting, educational way—a way that makes you want to keep reading the next chapter, and then the next. As I mentioned in my review of the first book, the only other author I know who does that so well is M.R. Conrad in his devotional missionary biographies.
I enjoyed that first book in part because every song was familiar to me. That’s not the case in this second book. In fact I can confidently say I’d never heard of 15 of the songs in this list of 31, and many of the remaining songs I was only faintly familiar with. Perhaps I haven’t listened to Elvis Presley or the Gaithers enough. That being the case, the title might be better changed to More Stories Behind MY Best-Loved Songs of Christmas.
Many of the selections in this book were also secular titles, though Ace tries hard to draw out some Christian principles from them (even “Here Comes Santa Claus”). The problem with that, as any preacher will tell you, is Jesus didn’t come to make us a good people while ignoring Him along the way. I’m no stickler when it comes to holiday traditions, but Santa (not the original St. Nick, mind you) usurped Jesus at Christmas, much like that crazy rabbit replaced Him at Easter. People want the holidays without God, and that’s problematic. Zondervan might have better edited the list of songs in this book, because there are some great sacred titles not mentioned in Collins’ total list of 62.
This last thought makes me wonder if I (or you) could come up with a list of 31 more sacred Christmas titles not represented in either of these books. You can find the lists here on the Internet Archive: First Book and Second Book. Might be a fun exercise for you this holiday season!
The news wasn’t all bad for this book, of course. Not knowing almost half the titles meant that I got to explore YouTube and listen to the unfamiliar tunes for the first time. I especially liked listening to “It Wasn’t His Child” sung by Tim McGraw (even though I’m not a country music fan), and the Gaither songs reaffirmed to me the fact that I don’t like the Gaithers. All in all, it was a fun time listening to new songs.
I gave the first book away to our choir director, and I plan to give her this follow-up as well. I’ll be challenging her to make her own list of songs not represented in these two books, and I’ll leave you with the same. What songs do you think Collins should have researched instead of these 62?
©2023 E.T.