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25 Greatest Christmas Songs Countdown: #23 Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!/Count Your Blessings/We Wish You a Merry Christmas

Matthew E27 Comments

When I was a kid my parents had a couple of Christmas albums by the Ray Conniff Singers. The contents ranged from cheesy to not bad. My sister has said that, for her, Ray Conniff is what Christmas sounds like. But the one that sticks with me (the one that made me track the album down on CD years later!) is the medley of “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!”, “Count Your Blessings”, and “We Wish You a Merry Christmas”.

I know that at the time, “Let It Snow…” was my favourite Christmas song. Not sure why it was. It isn’t now; it’s just one of many acceptable songs. And “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” is neither here nor there, although I am surprised to find out how old it is. Sixteenth century! No, the one that gets to me now is “Count Your Blessings,” which is the least known of the three; it was written for the movie White Christmas but is much better here. The thing about this song for me is, well, it plays on my weak spots.

One time two friends and I were talking, and this one friend asked the two of us what our thoughts were about marriage. We’re both married, see, with kids, and he’s not, and he was wondering if it was actually something we would recommend to him. And we did. But I said that one problem with it was that you’re giving hostages to fortune. You now have these people in your life that you not only care about but that you have to care about, and therefore you’re opening yourself up to how terrible it would be if anything happened to them. And there’s nothing to be done about that.

And my other friend said, basically, yeah, but you also get to share in their joys and triumphs and stuff, so you actually come out ahead on that.

Which had never occurred to me.

Not only hadn’t it occurred to me, it doesn’t even work for me. Not that I don’t enjoy watching my kids have fun or I’m not proud when my wife does something awesome again. I do and I am. But deep down I’m paranoid that something’s going to take it all away.

So that’s why the song’s so poignant for me: it’s giving me advice that I know I need and I know I’m incapable of following. This is just me, you understand; I don’t suggest that your reaction to it would or should be anything like mine. But it’s a good song.

Anyway, I give you the Ray Conniff Singers.

#25: Sleigh Ride
#24: Huron Carol

27 thoughts on “25 Greatest Christmas Songs Countdown: #23 Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!/Count Your Blessings/We Wish You a Merry Christmas”

  1. Great post – very revealing. Caring about anyone or anything opens us up to being hurt, but the alternative doesn’t seem like any alternative at all.

    The Ray Conniff Singers are the happiest bunch of assholes this side of the North Pole. Or, rather, they were.

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  3. Rachel: There isn’t really an alternative; people will connect with each other. Or, rather, there is one, but you really have to chase it hard, and for what?

    LotW: It’s good, though, isn’t it?

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  14. Here I go again … “Let it Snow” .. was the 1st song of my 4 song medly I made for the gr. 6s this year. I called it the “Mellow Christmas Medley”. I was trying to make a point. Doubt no-one got it, since Aine forgot to tell the audience that the gr. 6s were having a Mellow Christmas.
    The gr. 6s were driving me crazy with their dissing of each others’ music and dissing my idea of doing a reggae number. I finally got a handle that some would do Bieber … but no way would the boys do Bieber. Etc.
    They kept shoving their ipods into my ear and I’m saying – no way I am committing to any song, til I hear the lyrics and find out if they are dirty!
    Suddenly, at the end, one of the most snobs said: “Hey I want to do Bing Crosby! Bing is COOL!”. My jaw soo dropped at that point. You can never tell.
    I decided on Dean Martin and Let it Snow, cuz Bing just didn’t have something for me this year. (Did 2 of his songs for the geography theme a couple years ago.)
    Mellow Christmas Medley: “Let it Snow”, Bruno Mars – “Lazy Song”, “All I Want for Christmas is You” (more Mariah Carey, but they can think it Bieber), and then “Price Tag”.
    Lot of people were singing along to “Today I don’t want to do anything …”
    I edited the heck out of everything and the groups only got a minute each.
    Then they complained that it didn’t seem they were on the stage all that long. well .. if you didn’t diss each other’s music … and co-operated… !!!

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