{"id":9276,"date":"2018-11-12T18:00:02","date_gmt":"2018-11-13T00:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/?p=9276"},"modified":"2018-11-12T11:03:03","modified_gmt":"2018-11-12T17:03:03","slug":"a-measure-of-modern-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/2018\/a-measure-of-modern-christmas.html","title":{"rendered":"A Measure of Modern Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s 6 weeks until Christmas Eve. And no, I&#8217;m not playing Christmas music yet. I&#8217;ll save that until December.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Music is perhaps one of the best measures of what Christmas has become in our world today.<\/strong> I think it was last year when I heard about a poll that ambitiously tried to identify the greatest Christmas song of all time. Of all time!<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/bowie-crosby.jpg\" alt=\"David Bowie and Bing Crosby\" width=\"275\" height=\"251\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-9277\" \/>I&#8217;m not sure what the specific poll was, but I did a little searching and found a few similar polls, with similar results. And I ask you &#8211; what in the world has happened to Christmas?<\/p>\n<p>The greatest Christmas song of all time &#8211; <strong><em>all time<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>So let me give you the general categories of the top 10, without naming them all. You can imagine.<\/p>\n<p><strong>First, the collection of &#8220;general Christmas atmosphere&#8221; songs.<\/strong> Bells a-ringing, snow a&#8217;falling, time with loved ones. I like these kinds of songs actually, but the most popular seem to be the most shallow of the shallow &#8211; painfully so. No meaning behind any of the bells and lights at all &#8211; not even fondness for family.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Next, the typical &#8220;peace on earth&#8221; songs.<\/strong> Feed the children, stop the war. These, sadly, came the closest to anything related to the Bible. The closest in the whole list is the haunting <em>&#8220;The Little Drummer Boy (Peace On Earth)&#8221;<\/em> sung by Bing Crosby and David Bowie. Nothing biblical, just the legendary drummer boy. The song longs for peace, but can&#8217;t quite find the answer.<\/p>\n<p><strong>But that doesn&#8217;t bring us to the three that are arguably the most popular.<\/strong> Of course you have to have the obligatory love song &#8211; <em>&#8220;All I Want For Christmas Is You&#8221;<\/em>. But from there you descend to the top of the list, where the songs are skeptical, and generally outright immoral.<\/p>\n<p>Sad, shallow, immoral &#8211; a Christmas without meaning has become a Christmas that stabs like a knife. Welcome to the top 10 Christmas songs &#8211; <em><strong>of all time<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Christmas has its roots in the interest that the very first Christians had of Jesus&#8217; birth. The high language of John, and the specifics of Matthew and Luke. The meaning of this story transcended cultures and inspired art and music and transformed lives for centuries.<\/p>\n<p>So I started thinking &#8211; <strong>what would I consider to be the greatest Christmas song of all time?<\/strong> Not necessarily my favourite &#8211; but truly the greatest?<\/p>\n<p>There are lots to choose from (and non are in the top 10 lists).<\/p>\n<p>I finally came up with my pick. So between now and Christmas Eve, I&#8217;d like to pull it out and talk about it in detail. And maybe try to get some of these other songs out of my head.<\/p>\n<p>And maybe we can find the answer to the question Bowie at least asked &#8211; <em>Peace on earth, can it be?<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s 6 weeks until Christmas Eve. And no, I&#8217;m not playing Christmas music yet. I&#8217;ll save that until December. Music is perhaps one of the best measures of what Christmas has become in our world today. I think it was last year when I heard about a poll that ambitiously tried to identify the greatest [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,9],"tags":[1997,49,725,1996,1117,1153,458],"class_list":["post-9276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotional-and-bible","category-news-and-current-issues","tag-bing-crosby","tag-christmas","tag-christmas-songs","tag-david-bowie","tag-john","tag-luke","tag-matthew","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>A Measure of Modern Christmas - Finding direction<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/2018\/a-measure-of-modern-christmas.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Measure of Modern Christmas - Finding direction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It&#8217;s 6 weeks until Christmas Eve. And no, I&#8217;m not playing Christmas music yet. I&#8217;ll save that until December. Music is perhaps one of the best measures of what Christmas has become in our world today. I think it was last year when I heard about a poll that ambitiously tried to identify the greatest [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/2018\/a-measure-of-modern-christmas.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Finding direction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-11-13T00:00:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/bowie-crosby.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jim\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jim\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cottrillcompass.com\\\/blog\\\/2018\\\/a-measure-of-modern-christmas.html#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cottrillcompass.com\\\/blog\\\/2018\\\/a-measure-of-modern-christmas.html\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jim\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cottrillcompass.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/e27f701e051dfb9c158f9637b14f8685\"},\"headline\":\"A Measure of Modern Christmas\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-11-13T00:00:02+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cottrillcompass.com\\\/blog\\\/2018\\\/a-measure-of-modern-christmas.html\"},\"wordCount\":484,\"commentCount\":4,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cottrillcompass.com\\\/blog\\\/2018\\\/a-measure-of-modern-christmas.html#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cottrillcompass.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2018\\\/11\\\/bowie-crosby.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Bing Crosby\",\"Christmas\",\"Christmas songs\",\"David Bowie\",\"John\",\"Luke\",\"Matthew\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Devotional and Bible\",\"News and current issues\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/cottrillcompass.com\\\/blog\\\/2018\\\/a-measure-of-modern-christmas.html#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cottrillcompass.com\\\/blog\\\/2018\\\/a-measure-of-modern-christmas.html\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cottrillcompass.com\\\/blog\\\/2018\\\/a-measure-of-modern-christmas.html\",\"name\":\"A Measure of Modern Christmas - Finding direction\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cottrillcompass.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cottrillcompass.com\\\/blog\\\/2018\\\/a-measure-of-modern-christmas.html#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cottrillcompass.com\\\/blog\\\/2018\\\/a-measure-of-modern-christmas.html#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cottrillcompass.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2018\\\/11\\\/bowie-crosby.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-11-13T00:00:02+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cottrillcompass.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/e27f701e051dfb9c158f9637b14f8685\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cottrillcompass.com\\\/blog\\\/2018\\\/a-measure-of-modern-christmas.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/cottrillcompass.com\\\/blog\\\/2018\\\/a-measure-of-modern-christmas.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cottrillcompass.com\\\/blog\\\/2018\\\/a-measure-of-modern-christmas.html#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cottrillcompass.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2018\\\/11\\\/bowie-crosby.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cottrillcompass.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2018\\\/11\\\/bowie-crosby.jpg\",\"width\":275,\"height\":251,\"caption\":\"David Bowie and Bing Crosby\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cottrillcompass.com\\\/blog\\\/2018\\\/a-measure-of-modern-christmas.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cottrillcompass.com\\\/blog\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"A Measure of Modern Christmas\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cottrillcompass.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cottrillcompass.com\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"Finding direction\",\"description\":\"The personal blog of Jim and Shari Cottrill, Canadians living in Mexico.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cottrillcompass.com\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cottrillcompass.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/e27f701e051dfb9c158f9637b14f8685\",\"name\":\"Jim\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/36d84585b0d8eabd2c03be43e3103e0b0807c4b8ed5a648aa7225232af05697e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/36d84585b0d8eabd2c03be43e3103e0b0807c4b8ed5a648aa7225232af05697e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/36d84585b0d8eabd2c03be43e3103e0b0807c4b8ed5a648aa7225232af05697e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jim\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/CottrillCompass.com\\\/blog\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cottrillcompass.com\\\/blog\\\/author\\\/administrator\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A Measure of Modern Christmas - Finding direction","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/2018\/a-measure-of-modern-christmas.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A Measure of Modern Christmas - Finding direction","og_description":"It&#8217;s 6 weeks until Christmas Eve. And no, I&#8217;m not playing Christmas music yet. I&#8217;ll save that until December. Music is perhaps one of the best measures of what Christmas has become in our world today. I think it was last year when I heard about a poll that ambitiously tried to identify the greatest [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/2018\/a-measure-of-modern-christmas.html","og_site_name":"Finding direction","article_published_time":"2018-11-13T00:00:02+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/bowie-crosby.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Jim","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jim","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/2018\/a-measure-of-modern-christmas.html#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/2018\/a-measure-of-modern-christmas.html"},"author":{"name":"Jim","@id":"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/e27f701e051dfb9c158f9637b14f8685"},"headline":"A Measure of Modern Christmas","datePublished":"2018-11-13T00:00:02+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/2018\/a-measure-of-modern-christmas.html"},"wordCount":484,"commentCount":4,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/2018\/a-measure-of-modern-christmas.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/bowie-crosby.jpg","keywords":["Bing Crosby","Christmas","Christmas songs","David Bowie","John","Luke","Matthew"],"articleSection":["Devotional and Bible","News and current issues"],"inLanguage":"en-CA","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/2018\/a-measure-of-modern-christmas.html#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/2018\/a-measure-of-modern-christmas.html","url":"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/2018\/a-measure-of-modern-christmas.html","name":"A Measure of Modern Christmas - Finding direction","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/2018\/a-measure-of-modern-christmas.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/2018\/a-measure-of-modern-christmas.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/bowie-crosby.jpg","datePublished":"2018-11-13T00:00:02+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/e27f701e051dfb9c158f9637b14f8685"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/2018\/a-measure-of-modern-christmas.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-CA","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/2018\/a-measure-of-modern-christmas.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-CA","@id":"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/2018\/a-measure-of-modern-christmas.html#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/bowie-crosby.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/bowie-crosby.jpg","width":275,"height":251,"caption":"David Bowie and Bing Crosby"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/2018\/a-measure-of-modern-christmas.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A Measure of Modern Christmas"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/","name":"Finding direction","description":"The personal blog of Jim and Shari Cottrill, Canadians living in Mexico.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-CA"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/e27f701e051dfb9c158f9637b14f8685","name":"Jim","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-CA","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/36d84585b0d8eabd2c03be43e3103e0b0807c4b8ed5a648aa7225232af05697e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/36d84585b0d8eabd2c03be43e3103e0b0807c4b8ed5a648aa7225232af05697e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/36d84585b0d8eabd2c03be43e3103e0b0807c4b8ed5a648aa7225232af05697e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jim"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/CottrillCompass.com\/blog"],"url":"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/author\/administrator"}]}},"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9276\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}