Christmas Carols

 

Christmas Gift Ideas: Carols

Christmas is an ideal occasion for exchanging gifts. Christmas celebrates the birth of one of the greatest visionaries the world has ever seen - Jesus Christ - the itinerant, charismatic and indefatigable preacher who laid the foundations of one of the greatest religions. Christ was a heavenly messenger of goodwill, peace and love. The fact that Christmas celebrates the birth of this heavenly miracle worker and messenger renders this festival the ideal occasion for expressing our love and gratitude for our loved.

This underscores the importance of Christmas gifts. There are many things and symbols associated with this joyous festival. Every country of the world has made its own contribution to this amazing repertoire of myths and symbols, thereby creating an aura of mystique and charm around his festive season. Gifts are beautiful and memorable tokens of the love, warmth and passion in our hearts. Gifts remind the receiver that they have played a key role in adding to the beauty and excitement of the giver's life, and so they give eloquent expression to the giver's overwhelming feelings of gratitude, goodwill and faith in the altruistic nature of flesh and blood. And Christmas is the best excuse for expressing our love for our loved ones by exchanging gifts. The moment we think of Christmas gifts, many articles and ideas come rushing to our minds demanding our attention - cards, trees, songs, carols, cakes, chocolate, sweets and what not.

CDs and cassettes of Christmas carols are great

Christmas gifts. The Apostles expressed their love for Christ by singing songs of praise taken from the Book of Psalms Of Old Testament. As founders of the churches, their enthusiasm rubbed off on the first churchgoers and inspired their new congregations to let the world know of their great love and passion for God through melodious and devotional hymns and songs. But unfortunately they did not leave us any copies of the musical scores. One of the earliest known Christmas songs is from the 4th Century composed by St. Hilary of Poitiers. It was during the 12th Century AD that St Francis of Assisi officially added Christmas carols to church services. He proved himself to be a patron of the arts by inspiring the composers and poets of his time to produce Christmas music. Many simpler Christmas songs were introduced during the Renaissance - the 1400s, the time of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo The earliest known copy of an English carol was written by Ritson about 1410.

When Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, 1454 copies of carols could be distributed fairly freely. We need to remember that Christmas celebrations were suppressed by puritans at that time. Christmas did not gain world wide popularity until late last century. Most of the famous Christmas songs were composed recently.

Perhaps the most famous Christmas carol is Silent Night, written in 1818 by an Austrian assistant priest Joseph Mohr. He was trying to repair the church organ which had broken. He made an attempt to write three stanzas that could be sung by choir to guitar music. "Silent Night, Holy Night" was sung for the first time at the Midnight Mass in St. Nicholas Church in Oberndorf, Austria. Today, "Silent Night, Holy Night" is sung in over 180 tongues by millions of people all over the world. The highest selling Christmas single of all time is Bing Crosby's White Christmas, the celebrated soundtrack of the holiday movie classic Holiday Inn. More than 30 million copies have been sold. Every Christmas season, music companies cheerfully unveil Christian and secular Christmas songs by artists of all age groups.

Some of the other most popular Christmas carols are "All I want for Christmas", "Dance of the sugar plum fairy", "Do you hear what I hear"", "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas", "Jingle Bells" and the remixed and rock versions of "Jingle bells" and "Oh come all ye faithful".

When you give CDs or cassettes of Christmas carols as gifts to your loved ones, there are many things you need to take care of. With a little care, you can make your gift the best one that the receiver has ever got from anyone. Some of the things that are to be taken care of are the wrapping of the gifts and also the placing of special, intimate messages inside the gift packages. Very often, we spend astounding amount of money to buy the perfect gift for our loved ones and yet act as the most mean and parsimonious miser when it comes to penning a few words of love and warmth for our loved ones. Remember, a few lines of love coming straight from the deep and mysterious cockles of your heart can work magic in the heart of your loved one. Your words add to the beauty of your gift. So never discount the importance of writing a few words for the receiver. You may choose to write a few words on greeting cards and place them strategically inside your gift packet along with the carols or songs or anything else that you are gifting. You may also want to place yummy, nutritious and exotic chocolate bars within the gift packets. Use your imagination; we have all been endowed with a fecund imagination; let it run riot.

Buying carols for a man is a challenge as the man of today takes care of his personal needs and has everything. But before you select the gift, mull over the likes and dislikes as well as the personal interests and tastes of the recipient. What might be a perfect gift for one man may not be a suitable gift for another man. Also consider the kind of relationship you share with the recipient and his age. Women are extremely sentimental by nature. Christmas Gifts for them must therefore be chosen with a lot of care and thought. The carols must reflect your love and thoughtfulness for her and this should never appear to her that it has been bought in a jiffy for the sake formality. Kids are always especially excited about Christmas as they are showered with heaps of presents from all their caring and loving elders. There are many CDs and cassettes of simple carols and songs in the market for your kids. Most of them come with beautiful multicolor booklets featuring the lyrics of the songs as well as colorful illustrations and exciting games and puzzles.

So, what are you waiting for? Rush to the nearest gift shop and buy carols for your loved one today!