Why Is My Favorite Things Considered A Christmas Song?
Long before Julie Andrews featured in the film adaptation of The Sound of Music, which was filmed in 1964 and premiered in April 1965, she performed the song “My Favorite Things” on a Garry Moore TV holiday special in 1961. This was the first time the song became connected with Christmas.
What is the origin of the song My Favorite Things?
| “My Favorite Things” | |
|---|---|
| Song | |
| Published | 1959 by Williamson Music |
| Venue | Showtune, Jazz |
| Composer(s) | Richard Rodgers |
| Lyricist(s) | Oscar Hammerstein II |
A show tune titled “My Favorite Things” was written by Rodgers and Hammerstein for the musical The Sound of Music, which premiered in 1959. This song was presented to the audience for the first time in the very first Broadway performance by Mary Martin, who played Maria, and Patricia Neway, who played Mother Abbess.
Why are Christmas songs important?
Why do we sing songs during the Christmas season? We relate the narrative of the birth of Jesus Christ and the nativity via the singing of Christmas carols because they are a form of musical storytelling. In addition to describing the events that took place around the time that Jesus was born, the carols provide us the ability to embody and convey the scenes of the nativity that are filled with pleasure, devotion, and amazement.
- Christmas carols are sung throughout the winter months in the Northern hemisphere, which are the coldest months of the year.
- In addition to retelling the narrative of Jesus’ birth, these songs offer joy and warmth.
- The Christian faith linked together the celebrations of Jesus’ birth with customary winter feasts and festivities at Christmas time.
These feasts and celebrations were aimed to bring light throughout the dark, deep winter months of the Christian calendar. Christmas carols have a style that is uplifting and joyous, which is a fitting musical approach to take in light of the event. It should come as no surprise that they have persisted as a well-liked manner to mark the beginning of the Christmas season and to rejoice in its arrival.
The melodies and harmonies of Christmas carols, regardless of whether they are written in a minor or major key, nearly always manage to be both incredibly memorable and compelling. The songs are typically performed by choirs of voices, and they are frequently accompanied by an organ or instrumentalists.
The melodies are powerful and resonate with a positive message. Continue reading for a list of the top 30 Christmas carols of all time.
What is the most requested Christmas song of all time?
It turns out that “Silent Night” is not just the most popular carol; it is also over twice as dominating as “Joy to the World,” which is a distant second with 391 records to its name. There have been 733 copyrighted recordings of “Silent Night” since 1978.
Why does Christmas make me feel so happy?
Give us a HO, would you? Image by Kevin Sanderson, available from Pixabay. It’s not hard to picture Christmastime with images of Santa Claus, holly, gluhwein, turkey, and happy families laughing together. When the bells start to jingle, does the brain register feelings of joy, happiness, and warmth? And what does the field of neuroscience have to say about these sensations? Do you agree that Christmas is a multifaceted experience? To begin, locating oxytocin in both your chest and your sock is an important factor.
This also applies to your heart. In order to examine the neurological relationship to that Christmas sensation in the brain, a study was conducted in which twenty-two persons saw pictures of either a Christmas or non-Christmas motif while being scanned in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine, which analysed their neural data.
Feeling in the Christmas spirit Activation in brain areas such as the amygdala, which are associated to the prior sensation of Christmases past, occurs when you look at pictures of yourself as a child with Santa, tasting mince pies or pudding; nevertheless, a particular region of the brain has not been identified.
- That is, until researchers in Japan discovered a relationship between Christmas and happiness in the brain.
- How about Christmas in the East? Source: This image is provided by Pixabay in its current form.
- A Merry Christmas in Japan Scientists in Japan have discovered that there is a connection between being happy and a part of the brain known as the precuneus.
They scanned the brains of fifty individuals and used a happiness rating questionnaire to explore the experience of happiness. They imply that a larger right precuneus is connected with happier moods than those with a smaller precuneus. Other uplifting feelings such as happiness, excitement, and having a Christmassy mood, as well as a greater sense of purpose in one’s life, are connected to this region.
However, it goes without saying that we do not know if the findings from this relatively small sample of Japanese people can be generalized to apply to the joyous feelings that everyone experiences during Christmas. A straightforward application of cause and effect to the question of whether or not the precuneus was activated is also difficult for us to accomplish.
Inside Out During the holiday season, perhaps it would be most appropriate to tune in to Disney Channel? It is suggested in the Disney movie “Inside Out” that different parts of the brain are responsible for different feelings, including happiness, fear, anger, disgust, and sorrow.
This is not true from a neurological perspective, but it may help families maintain the peace and keep the belief that maintaining Christmas cheer is analogous to having an emotional language that helps resolve unnecessary conflict. What exactly are feelings and emotions, and which one comes first? Are our feelings automatic, programmed responses that are ingrained in our brains? Is there a switch that can turn on the joy? According to the findings of experts such as Paul Ekman, the human brain is capable of experiencing fundamental feelings such as fear, grief, surprise, and enjoyment.
On the other hand, the fMRI data did not uncover any particular brain pathway that was associated with holiday pleasure. In addition, there is not one particular brain activity that is connected with having a sophisticated grasp of the Christmas spirit.
It is more accurate to refer to what one is experiencing as a “Christmas feeling” rather than a “Christmas mood.” Dial-a-Feeling This picture was taken by Mohamed Hassan and can be found on Pixabay. Sensations at Your Disposal It is necessary to distinguish between feelings and emotions, as I mentioned in a previous piece that I authored.
The conscious awareness that the brain is tallying up the best response to an experience is what we refer to as feelings. The brain compiles information about your current physiological state, your surroundings, and other experiences, which leads to the formation of an individual’s subjective psychological or conscious feeling.
You experience happiness during the Christmas season due to the positive connotations you have associated with the holiday. This occurs because your brain associates the happiness you felt when spending time with family and the thrill you felt when opening presents with the emotions you felt when you were a child.
Putting Addresses on Christmas Cards We acquire the ability to give names to the emotions that we experience, which explains why we use the same words to describe experiences that were analogous to those from previous Christmases. This is due to the fact that we are of the opinion that it is OK to create an atmosphere reminiscent of Christmas towards the end of the year.
However, there is not one single neurological process that can be linked to a particular Christmas experience. In the meantime, until we discover more about the brain, it is more of a worldwide event. This is the best explanation that we can provide at this time based on our study into the neural network.
When it comes to emotions, brain activity does not always have the same label. This is due to the fact that each occurrence is created from and is connected with a particular experience. Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree! Could it be that when you think of certain Christmas songs, you picture a Christmas tree? It’s possible that other experiences are what your brain associates with the feeling of “Christmas happiness.” Because of this, the celebratory customs practiced by your family may not always make sense to your close friends or to a new significant other.
When we become aware of sentiments associated with Christmas, our brains generate an emotion, and we then experience the sensations associated with Christmas. Who is this Christmas Scrooge? Image by KERBSTONE, published on Pixabay; source: Being a Scrooge or a Grinch Could it be that your family is the source of your stress? It is frequently difficult to make it through the Christmas season without a fight breaking out in the family.
A sensation might be described as either Christmas happiness or the dread of having to deal with the politics of celebrating the holidays with one’s family. If you’ve had a lot of bad luck throughout the holiday season, you might be feeling more “Grinchy” than Christmassy right about now.
A Record That Is Stuck You can increase that Christmas experience regardless of whether you typically feel cheerful or stressed out since you have access to the same tools. Your thoughts and memories from prior Christmases are merely being replayed in your head like an old recording. The more pleasant memories that your brain has throughout the Christmas season, the more elegantly you will be able to locate that Christmas happiness in the years to come.
Hugs Not Bugs Discover the holiday activities that you take the most pleasure in partaking in if you want to get into the spirit of the season. Spend time with the people that mean the most to you, and bring back joyful memories of the routines that made you feel connected to others. 
Why is Christmas music so nostalgic?
Roasted chestnuts being done over an open fire. You can almost feel Jack Frost biting at your nose. You’re probably familiar with all the Christmas carols that just won’t leave your brain, right? This article will delve into some of those topics. Everyone is aware that there is a rationale behind the fact that listening to your favorite Christmas music usually makes you feel nice and warm on the inside.
- When you hear songs like “Silver Bells” or “Blue Christmas,” you get a unique sensation, and it’s not simply because you appreciate them and remember them fondly.
- Rather, this rush is something quite else.
- Here is a quick look at some of the reasons why some of your favorite Christmas songs are so incredibly reminiscent of the past.
There is, of course, the scientific explanation for this. Dopamine is a chemical messenger in our brain that helps us feel pleasure. Neuroimaging reveals that some songs can hit listeners with dopamine, and Vice reports that this can happen when they listen to such songs.
A human’s ability to associate memories and other pictures with music is likely due to the fact that music has a tendency to activate the visual cortex of the brain. It is natural for you to associate the happiest, cozier times in your life with the songs that you listen to throughout the Christmas season.
It’s possible that whenever you sat down to have Christmas dinner with your family, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” was constantly playing in the background. Or perhaps “Silver Bells” was constantly playing in the background while you unwrapped presents from your parents.
Now, whenever you hear those songs, you are taken back in time to a particular occasion that you can recall in great detail; this particular moment was significant to you in some way, shape, or form. Christmas music, in terms of itself, is primarily crafted to be gratifying and uplifting at its fundamental level.
It is also the ideal method for evoking sentiments of nostalgia, which can cause you to feel both delighted and a sense of longing at the same time (for example, for the coziness of Christmas Eve when you were a child). This phenomena is broken down into its essential components by neurologist Dr.
Brian Rabinovitz, who works in the Department of Psychological Sciences at William & Mary. When we hear a music for the first time, our brains immediately begin to classify it and file it away in the appropriate folders. The format of Christmas carols allows for an engaging interaction with the myriad of songs that have been ingrained in our brains over the course of our lives, and these interactions resonate favorably in our heads.
The songs “resolve” in ways that are recognizable to us, and they leave us feeling uplifted and fulfilled after listening to them. Rabinovitz provided an explanation that stated, “That joyful sensation only intensifies as you hear subsequent repeats.” “When you hear something that you are very familiar with, you immediately have high expectations.
- When you make these forecasts, there is a moment of suspense, and then you realize that the prognosis was accurate.” Because of this, there are certain songs that we remember for the rest of our lives, despite the fact that we may not have any strong feelings about them.
- The reason for this is that the songs were written with the intention of being memorable from the very beginning.
One song that has become synonymous with the Christmas season is “All I Want for Christmas Is You” by Mariah Carey. According to an interview conducted by People with the song’s co-writer, Walter Afanasieff, the idea for the song sprang from Mariah Carey’s aspiration to create a “Phil Spector, classic rock ‘n’ roll, sixties-sounding Christmas tune.”
When did “My Favorite Things” become a Christmas song?
Long before Julie Andrews featured in the film adaptation of The Sound of Music, which was filmed in 1964 and premiered in April 1965, she performed the song “My Favorite Things” on a Garry Moore TV holiday special in 1961. This was the first time the song became connected with Christmas.
Why is ‘a Christmas carol’ such a holiday favorite?
There are certain mysteries that may never be answered, such as who constructed the pyramids and whether or not the object that just went by Earth was an asteroid or an extraterrestrial spaceship. However, just in time for the holidays, Billboard has found the answer to who plays Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music.
courtesy of 20th Century-Fox and Getty Images There are certain mysteries that may never be answered, such as who constructed the pyramids and whether or not the object that just went by Earth was an asteroid or an extraterrestrial spaceship. But just in time for the holidays, Billboard has provided an answer to a question that has been puzzling people for a long time: why is the song “My Favorite Things,” which was written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II for the musical The Sound of Music, considered a Christmas song? The music was debuted on Broadway for the first time in the show that opened on November 16th, 1959.
There were lyrical references to snowflakes, sleigh bells, silver-white winters, brown paper parcels tied with strings, and brown paper packages knotted with string; yet, the song was not composed as a Christmas tune. Long before she starred in the film adaptation of The Sound of Music, which was filmed in 1964 and released in April 1965, “My Favorite Things” first became associated with Christmas in 1961, when Julie Andrews sang the song on a Garry Moore TV holiday special.
This was long before the song was featured in the movie version of The Sound of Music. When it came time for the young actors who played the von Trapp children in the film, “My Favorite Things” was not a song that they had heard before, so they had to teach themselves how to sing it. Angela Cartwright, who played Brigitta in the movie, admits that prior to her role, she had never seen the play or heard the music.
“But at the time, I was a huge fan of the Beatles, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise.” Cartwright explains to Billboard that she is aware of the reasons behind the song’s popularity throughout the Christmas season: “This is the time of year when we hear joyful news and count our gratitude.
- The fact that it causes one to reflect on one’s most treasured possessions appears to make it the ideal song for this time of year.
- Are they parcels made of brown paper and fastened with string? Certainly.
- Thank you.” However, Andrews’ performance on Moore’s program did not help solidify the song’s status as a fan favorite over the Christmas season.
It wasn’t until 1964 that the song was included in a compilation of seasonal music; the album in question was titled The Jack Jones Christmas Album. What made Jones the first musician to include “My Favorite Things” on a holiday album, and why did he choose to do so? Jones had already released numerous albums for the independent Kapp label, which was created by Dave Kapp, who produced the majority of Jones’ work.
Jones’ albums had all been produced by Dave Kapp. Mickey Kapp, Kapp’s son, was the one responsible for producing the Christmas LP. Mickey was reportedly questioned by Lou Simon, senior director of music programming for SiriusXM, about how the song came to be included on Jones’ Christmas performance. “He mentioned to me that a song plugger from Williamson Music had approached him with a request back in 1964.
He asked Mickey if he would be willing to record one of the songs from the score of The Sound of Music with a Kapp artist because a movie version of the show was going to be released in the spring, and there wasn’t a hit song from the show – they wanted something that would be as big as “Maria” from West Side Story.
The plugger stated that they were concerned about ticket sales due to the fact that this was such a high-budget movie, and they believed that having a hit song would assist them in doing so.” Mickey and the representative from Williamson took into consideration all of the songs from the show as well as the catalog of Kapp artists, which featured musicians like as Louis Armstrong and the vocal group Ruby & the Romantics.
Armstrong was a natural choice for the role because earlier that year, he had a record from another Broadway show that reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The song’s title was “Hello, Dolly! After Mickey informed the song plugger that he was preparing a Christmas album for Jones, the guy from Williamson proposed that the singer record “My Favorite Things.” Mickey agreed to the suggestion.
Mickey argued that the song in question was not one associated with the Christmas season. The promoter recommended including sleigh bells in the performance. Jones has confirmed to Billboard that he and Mickey Mouse had discussed the topic and both agreed that it would make a fantastic Christmas song.
“I still sing the song live today,” says the musician, who will be embarking on a tour in the early months of 2018 for a series of 80th birthday concerts in the United Kingdom. “I still sing the song live today.” “The first thing I do is play a medley from The Sound of Music.
It consists of three songs: the title song, “My Favorite Things,” and “Climb Ev’ry Mountain.” Because we play it as a quick swing number, “My Favorite Things” does not really sound like a Christmas song when we perform it.” Paul Lowden, who first met Jones on New Year’s Eve 1971 at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas, is going to be one of the musicians that will join Jones on the tour of the United Kingdom.
“I was the conductor of the orchestra that night when I heard Jack sing “My Favorite Things,” and wow, did he swing!” Lowden tells Billboard. “That recording from 1971 is still in my possession. Working with Jack is a professional luxury for any musician, and it is an honor for me to be performing on the Hammond B-3 organ alongside him.” In 1964, the holiday album “Jack Jones Christmas Album” reached its highest position on Billboard’s list at No.15 (and was released on CD for the first time in November 2016 on the Real Gone label).
- Although Jones was the first musician to include “My Favorite Things” on a Christmas album, by December 1965, the composition by Rodgers and Hammerstein was included on holiday LPs by the Supremes, Andy Williams, and Eddie Fisher.
- Jones was the first musician to include “My Favorite Things” on a Christmas album.
The next year, in 1966, Barbra Streisand included it on the Christmas album that she had made, and the following year, in 1968, Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass produced a holiday version of the song. The next year, Alpert’s instrumental track was issued as a single, and it is the only version that has ever appeared on the Billboard Hot 100 chart; it reached its highest position at number 45.
Even the legendary pioneer of jazz, John Coltrane, gave it a recording, producing a 14-minute rendition that was used as the title track for the album he released in 1961. Since those early recordings for the holiday season, “My Favorite Things” has been included on Christmas albums by a wide variety of artists, including Johnny Mathis, Kenny Rogers, the Carpenters, Lorrie Morgan, the Whispers, Luther Vandross, SWV, Petula Clark, Perry Como, Barry Manilow, Anita Baker, Dionne Warwick, the Brian Setzer Orchestra, Kenny G, Rod Stewart, Carole King, Chicago, Kelly Clarkson, Mary J.
Jones recalls that he and Tony presented a television show in Canada, and during it, the two of them sang a duet version of the medley from The Sound of Music. “Tony is a dear buddy of mine, and unfortunately, it is the only video I have of the two of us singing together.” The holiday album that Julie Andrews recorded with Andre Previn in 1967 and titled Christmas Treasure had 14 traditional songs associated with the holiday season, but “My Favorite Things” was not one of them. 
Who sang my Favorite Things in the sound of music?
My Favorite Things is a show tune written by Oscar Hammerstein II for the musical The Sound of Music, which was produced by Rodgers and Hammerstein in 1959. This song was presented to the audience for the first time in the original Broadway production by Mary Martin, who played Maria, and Patricia Neway, who played Mother Abbess.