Welcome to Yuletide Intonations!

“Christmas time/what a wonderful, bittersweet holiday”

— Ben Folds, “Christmas Time Rhyme”

Today is December 1, so like it or not, the holiday season is upon us. Time for me to listen to some seasonal tunes and reflect a bit on what I’m hearing. You are welcome to come on this musical sleigh ride of mine.

It happens every year at this time: I get the idea to write a series of entries, based on whatever Christmas music I happen to be listening to. I love Christmas music, but not in a “turn on the Christmas radio station in mid-November and just listen to whatever it presents until December 26” kind of way. There is just way too much breadth and depth and history to holiday music to limit my listening to that Mariah song (which, I assure you, I think is just fine) on repeat for six weeks. And also, I don’t start listening to Christmas music until Thanksgiving evening, at the earliest. There are rules, you know.

Anyway, I often get off to a good start with these entries, but then slack off by December 12 or thereabouts. But I’ll try again this year, starting now.

This afternoon, I have been listening to a brand new addition to the holiday music canon, Sleigher, by Ben Folds. Folds is known both for witty, offbeat pop songs and more melancholy fare, so it was intriguing to imagine which direction he’d take with a Christmas album.

Turns out, Folds starts off kind of blue, then brightens towards the end. In doing so, Folds has added a fine addition to the tradition of quieter holiday albums that serve as perfect soundtracks to the more personal aspects of one’s journey through the holidays.

Folds opens Sleigher with “Little Drummer Bolero”, a piano instrumental that would fit comfortably on two classic holiday albums, George Winston’s December, and the Vince Guaraldi Trio’s Charlie Brown’s Christmas (which I wrote about here). All three of these albums offer musical encouragement that it’s fine to not be walking around all merry and bright every single day in December.

Knowing this is helpful to me because in recent years, I have come to recognize my own patterns of merriness and brightness. I have learned that, for various reasons, my moods swing perceptibly during the initial post-Thanksgiving period until around December 12 or so. This is especially true when Thanksgiving arrives early, which thankfully was not the case this year.

This mindset varies from year to year. I’m OK today, for example, but I probably was not at all in the mood from merriment and celebration one year ago today.

I understand this about myself now, but there was a period when I didn’t recognize the pattern and just couldn’t figure out why I was in such a rotten mood. Now, I have more certainty that I’m going to ride out the blue feelings.

I feel like Ben Folds gets this, at least if the moody songs on side one of Sleigher are any indication. Folds isn’t trying to get anyone to level up as “festive” but his honesty in acknowledging his ambivalence is helpful.

Folds does lighten up toward the end of the album, even presenting “Xmas Aye Eye”, a manic tune that does indeed feature lyrics generated via artificial intelligence. So that’s a fun bit of goofiness but it doesn’t make you forget the somewhat forlorn tone of the first side of the record.

Anyway, Ben Folds recognizes that for as much fun as the holidays can be, they’re also tough. During any given year, December can be tougher for some of us than others of us. Keeping that mind, maybe we all ought to try to give our fellow human beings the best present of all: just be kind to them. You never know how desperately somebody else may need that gift.