Word: songfulness
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...uninitiated, the battle in Britain to have the coveted No. 1 single at Christmas usually goes down like this: it's either won by a song extolling the merits of the time of year ("Merry Xmas Everybody" by Slade, "Do They Know It's Christmas?" by Band Aid); a novelty track ("Mr. Blobby" by, er, Mr. Blobby, "Can We Fix It?" by Bob the Builder); or, for the past four years, a song by the newly minted winner of The X Factor, Britain's wildly popular version of American Idol. Indeed, the chances of any act upsetting X Factor creator...
...need of some Christmas cheer, he can take solace in the fact that he was always in a win-win situation. Rage Against The Machine's track was released by Sony BMG, and Sony owns Cowell's Syco label to which McElderry is signed - so the British No. 1 song is staying in the same corporate family. As for The X Factor winner, he's been magnanimous in defeat. "It's been exciting to be part of a much-hyped battle and they [Rage Against the Machine] definitely deserve congratulations," McElderry said. Perhaps a slightly closer look...
...1800s, the hot toy was the naked, china Frozen Charlotte doll, modeled on a girl who went out to a party one winter night without her wrap because she wanted everyone to be able to admire her pretty dress; by the time she arrived, the popular folk song went, "Fair Charlotte was a stiffened corpse/ And word spoke nevermore." How charming. In 1889 a puzzle game called Pigs in Clover, which involved tilting balls through metal rings, was such an addictive obsession among children and adults alike that President Benjamin Harrison was ridiculed for playing it when he was supposed...
...similarly ancient one. In England, the word wassail - derived from the Old Norse ves heill meaning "be well, and in good health" - came to mean the wishing of good fortune on your neighbors. No one is quite sure when the custom began, but it did give us the song, "Here We Come-A-Wassailing" - sung as carolers wished good cheer to their neighbors in hopes of getting a gift in return. ("A Wassailing" also evolved into the popular "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" - its last verse, "Bring us some figgy pudding" stems from the wassailers' original intent...
...first to print "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen," "The First Noel" and "Hark! the Herald Angels Sing." "Joy to the World" first appeared in the Anglican Church hymnal Hymns Ancient and Modern in 1861. Composed by Isaac Watts, known as the "father of Englsh hymnody", the song actually wasn't written exclusively for singing at Christmastime. Charles Wesley's "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" was originally "Hark! How All The Welkin Rings!" (Welkin means sky or heaven, and came to mean making a loud sound...