{"id":6914,"date":"2025-12-21T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/?p=6914"},"modified":"2025-08-16T19:51:54","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T00:51:54","slug":"christmas-songs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/?p=6914","title":{"rendered":"Christmas Songs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Short and sweet thought for the week\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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It\u2019s beginning to look a lot like Christmas and I\u2019m so glad. I love the Christmas season. While some hate the hustle and bustle of Christmas shopping, I relish it. Yes, I know Christmas commercialism has gotten way out of hand, but Christmas is a time when the whole world celebrates the Savior\u2019s birth whether they think they do or not. Without Christ, there really is no \u201cChrist\u201d-mas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I especially love Christmas songs. This includes Christmas carols like Silent Night, holiday standards like White Christmas, and goofy songs like Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer. I\u2019m not remotely offended even though I am a grandma!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Music can be a positive powerful influence. Studies show that music can boost moods, reduce stress, sharpen recall, help slow cognitive decline, and bring back pleasant memories. Neuroscientists say that music and memory are like neighbors in the brain\u2014physically close and emotionally connected. When we hear a melody tied to our past, it affects the same regions that help us store and retrieve long-term memories. It\u2019s not just a flashback, but more like a sensory time machine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People will forget where they put their keys, but will remember the words to carols like O Come All Ye Faithful or O Little Town of Bethlehem, even if they aren\u2019t Christians. I think God must smile when He hears atheists sing, \u201cO come let us adore Him.\u201d In some ironic way, they are giving honor to the one they deny exists. On the other hand, I\u2019m sure it pleases Him greatly to hear Christians jubilantly sing Joy to the World!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So have yourself a merry little Christmas! Don\u2019t be shy about singing or humming along when you hear a favorite song. After all, it\u2019s been a rough year. So we need a little Christmas and a lot of Christ who makes the season possible.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCome, let us sing for joy to the Lord\u2026\u201d ~Psalm 95:1 (NAS)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Short and sweet thought for the week\u2026 It\u2019s beginning to look a lot like Christmas and I\u2019m so glad. I love the Christmas season. While some hate the hustle and bustle of Christmas shopping, I relish it. Yes, I know … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6914"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6917,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6914\/revisions\/6917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}