Christmas carols are an integral part of the holiday season for me and they are becoming so for the kids as well. M now knows most of the words to Jingle Bells (with some artistic license) and We Wish You A Merry Christmas. A knows a Mandarin version of Jingle Bells too – and we now have various Cantonese versions floating around as well.
Back when I first moved to Shanghai my roommate and I had a running joke about Andy William’s version of “It’s the holiday season…” and every year the first time I head that I think back to Shanghai and our Christmas pancakes and being so far from home.
This year when we were at our Christmas Eve event one of my friends started humming a song trying to figure out which one it was because her son (who is A’s age) had been singing some questionable lyrics. I managed to narrow it down to Carol of the Bells. She started poking around on YouTube and found a version then looked at me in surprise and asked if the song was from the movie “Home Alone”.
I burst out laughing – while it was in the movie, that song is a bit older than the movie for sure!
I think the goal for next year it to try to teach some of the slower songs – Silent Night, Joy to the World, Away in a Manger. Hopefully by that point they will stick a bit better – that said Frosty the Snowman continues to bring joy to our household!