I love snow. Probably because, growing up in the Deep South, there wasn’t a lot of it around. Oh sure, we managed a flurry most years, but accumulation was a rare and meager thing: one inch and the whole town shut down. White Christmas? I didn’t know what that song was about until I was a teenager, since having snow on Christmas Day was never even a remote consideration.

Living in New Jersey these past nine years has allowed me to get to know snow better, and I still love it. Yes, it comes on big and brawny sometimes, and shoveling it is a royal pain, but as long as it’s cold outside it might as well be pretty, says I. And it is, at least until it gets mucked up along the roadways with all the dirt and grime of life and travel. Ah, but we must take the black with the white. Always.

Here’s a view out my window when I was recording yesterday:

And that brings us to this month’s song. Written by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne in July 1945 (in Hollywood of all places), it’s always been one of my favorites of the Holiday Season. But that’s kind of a shame really, that it’s so closely associated with Christmas…there’s no mention of that joyously celebrated day anywhere in the song, its authors were Jewish, and it was written in the middle of the Summer in Hollywood, CA for Pete’s Sake!

As lauded as the these two songsmiths are, I know that I’m not the only person to think the opening couplet should have been written slightly differently, and I took the liberty to do just that. You’re welcome.

So – while I present this version as a Christmas song, even though the tone is more somber than festive – remember that it’s okay to sing it whenever snow may appear throughout the year. Even if you’re noshing Gefilte fish by a pool under the bloody red sun of phantastic L.A.

Happy Holidays to you!

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You know what? I love Christmastime. I love the Holiday Season. My spine tingles from all the bell sounds and the crispness of the air, and I know it’s generally the last bright spot before another dreary Winter, so it’s a good time to get in a last round of cheerfulness before the hibernation begins.

And what about the music?! So many great tunes covering so many different feelings in so many styles: the classic spirituals; the celebratory songs of gathering with family and friends in the cold; the lonesome and sad songs of being disconnected from the ones you love; the funny, catchy ones that make you laugh; those great obscure blues numbers about how everything’s gone wrong. Anything you want, there’s a Christmas song somewhere about it. It’s gotten to the point where I even enjoy watching carolers! (Am I mad?)

Now you can tell me how you’re sick of all the bogus Holiday cheer, and how it’s become too commercialized, and the original joy of giving has been overtaken by the joy of getting. You can even tell me you don’t believe in Jesus so what’s the point.

Well, I’d say just try this: forget all that and just be happy for a moment (it’s something you do, you know, not something you are). Don’t worry about how anyone else is treating Christmas, just consider it a fine excuse to smile for a minute. Trust me, there’s a lot more to be troubled about in this world than to get bogged down about a Holiday….