"(Christmas) Baby, Please Come Home" by Anberlin, Saturday, December 11, 2021
PRETTY LIGHTS ON THE TREE. "Baby, Please Come Home" has been covered by many artists including Mariah Carey, Michael Bublè, Death Cab for Cutie, Jars of Clay, among others. One of the most famous covers is the 1987 U2 version. Released on the album A Very Special Christmas among covers of Christmas classics by other popular artists, the album was created to raise money for the Special Olympics. The album was released during the album cycle for one of U2's biggest albums, The Joshua Tree, which made U2 one of the biggest bands in the world at that time. The bluesy rendition of the Christmas classic actually features Darlene Love on background vocals to accompany Bono's crooning. Perhaps the U2 version is synonymous with today's song, but it was the Anberlin version that always makes it to my annual Christmas lists. Recorded for the 2005 Tooth & Nail project Happy Christmas, Vol. 4, Anberlin's version of this song has landed on several Christian Rock holiday albums and ended up on 2007's B-side project, Lost Songs. Since the winter of 2005, this became my adult Christmas favorite. I listened to it on Christmas mixes in the car until Lost Songs arrived in November of 2007. It was the song that I'd drive my sisters around Christmas shopping to. The synth-y intro to the forlorn guitar solo before the guitar "crashes" at the end made me think about how Christmas plans always kind of fall apart and we're just left with the chaos of the season--the shopping, the parties, the getting together. And if we're lucky, we'll have some moments of silence as we stare at the Christmas lights on the tree or we witness the soft sound of snow.
THE CHURCH BELLS IN TOWN, THEY'RE RINGING A SONG. It's two weeks until Christmas, and I'm forcing myself to feel something. In Korea, Christmas is a day off of work for schools and most offices; however, because it's a Saturday this year, it's like it doesn't exist. Christmas was my favorite holiday when I was a kid. We sang Christmas songs at church. When we lived in New York, we cut down a tree and decorated it maybe two weeks before Christmas. In New York it always snowed before Christmas in my childhood. One year was a little warmer, and it rained on Christmas Eve, but by Christmas morning the rain had turned to snow. The season always started with choosing and cutting a tree a week or two before Christmas. We’d decorate it and little by little presents would appear. We weren’t told about Santa except that some kids believed in him. Next we celebrated at my Great Grandmother's house the Saturday night before Christmas with my first and second cousins. The presents were always a letdown for a kid--gloves, socks, hats. Every year I hoped that there would be something fun, but I never minded because there was always great food and so many family members to see. Christmas Eve was always spent at my grandparents' house with cousins, and the gifts were always more fun. I got Matchbox or Hot Wheels. My family started the tradition of opening presents on Christmas night. My parents didn't want to deal with the 5 am wake up, but they always let us open one present on Christmas morning. It was usually a board game or something we could play with until the night. We'd always leave the Christmas tree plugged in all day on Christmas day. We usually unplugged in the later morning the other days and turn it on at night, but Christmas was special. We usually played board games, watched Christmas movies, or played with Legos on Christmas day, waiting for the sun to set. Some years since I moved to Korea, my family said that they'd "Save Christmas for me" until I could get home in early January. In 2020, I said that I would try to come home every year, but it's looking like maybe I can start that in 2023.
Michael Buble:
Death Cab for Cutie:
Jars of Clay: 
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