Sunday, December 22, 2013

The Last Christmas Playlist You Will Ever Need (Vol. 1)

The Last Christmas Playlist You'll Ever Need (Vol.1)

For those who don't want to read click the link and enjoy the music.

The Last Christmas Playlist You'll Ever Need (Vol.1)

You will have to create a Spotify account to listen but it is free and gives you access to thousands of songs.  www.spotify.com

For those of you who care about the story:

     Before you is The Last Christmas Playlist You Will Ever Need (Vol. 1). It is the culmination of 3 years of deliberate compiling and evaluation but is set against the backdrop of a lifetime spent anticipating Christmas mornings, trips around town screaming Feliz Navidad from the windows of my friends Toyota Corolla and many years pondering deeply what the true meaning of Christmas is. In the midst of these activities thousands of hours have been spent acquiring and listening to Christmas music. Year after year I created my playlist for the season and soon it became apparent that there are not many new songs worth adding each year.  That's when the universe smiled and an idea was birthed. It wasn’t just a thought but it was a fantastic revelation which would literally alter the rest of my life and presumably the lives of countless others. If you take the time to compile a comprehensive list then you can use the same one from year to year. If we are honest with ourselves there may be one or two songs each year that need to be added to the list. With a few additions you can reuse your list each year and have the ultimate and complete, lacking nothing, Last Christmas Playlist You Will Ever Need. It was with this modest ambition that myself and good friend Eddie Cruz began in earnest in 2011 to compile one play list to rule them all, one playlist to find them, one playlist to bring them all and in the darkness bind them. After 3 years it is finally here. 

     This playlist represents everything that I love about Christmas. It is a celebration of deep theological significance. It includes songs proclaiming unassailable grace and mercy, which only begin to be understood at the incarnation. Songs that look forward to the culmination of God’s great redemption where we can boldly claim great tidings of comfort and joy. Amidst the lofty hymns of yesteryear there also reside classic Christmas Carols celebrating winter wonderlands and children spurning bedtime in order to hear the chimes of Santa’s Sleigh. Finally there are the sometimes questionable, but always in the Christmas spirit, tales of Grandma meeting her untimely demise beneath reindeer hooves and Santa sneaking kisses when he thinks no one is looking. I feel no shame or inconsistency in belting out a, “round yon virgin” followed closely by a, “thumpity thump thump look at frosty go.” For me Christmas is a time for careful consideration of the implications of the theanthropos (that’s Jesus) and a time of levity, celebration and even borderline impropriety. I see the heart of Jesus as He called His followers to deny themselves and take up their crosses after Him (Mark 8:34). This same Jesus called two of His overzealous followers the sons of thunder (I don’t know how else you can take that other than He was having fun at their expense. Mark 3:17) The savior I love is not just a stoic observer but He is full of life and participates in every aspect of this world.

     During Christmas time I find myself at home in the imaginations of C.S. Lewis and see Santa as a figurehead of a world where it truly is more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 21:35). In times of great celebration I lean heavily upon the crutch of imagination, as I know few better ways to adequately tell the truth than with fiction. I hope this Christmas you are moved just as I am that Christ came as a helpless babe. He lived a perfect life and shed His blood on the Cross for our sins. I think it is with characteristic irony that one of the most fantastic stories I have ever heard also happens to be true and in a turn of events not even expected by His closest followers, three days later he rose again and now He extends the offer of forgiveness from sin and the gift of eternal life to all those willing to receive. I hope you might receive the greatest gift this Christmas

Merry Christmas
        Danny P.

Find the music at the link below:
The Last Christmas Playlist You'll Ever Need (Vol.1)