Christmas brings to mind a lot of treats, including watching the kids open their presents, good food and and atmospheric music. You may not get your choice for all of them, but you can for music. Not only can you raid our Christmas CD collections, but a quick look into Naxos Music Online gives a seemingly endless list of Christmas recordings to get you into that yuletide spirit.
There is nothing like being read a story out loud, even for us grown-ups. I once worked in a Rudolf Steiner community in Germany where we were read Christmas stories by candle light on Christmas Eve and it was magical. I was pleased therefore to notice Classic Christmas Tales on Naxos, as well as The Night Before Christmas narrated by Stephen Fry. The latter supplies Christmas music with the story embedded into it (if you just want the story.
There is also a recording of Victorian carols with readings of Dicken’s A Christmas Carol embedded in the same way. I can’t think of a nicer way to spend a quiet evening before Christmas than to listen to these with some youngsters. Another Christmas favourite which shows up in Naxos Video is The Nutcracker ballet and I will certainly be watching that.
Of course there are lots of traditional albums of Christmas carols to browse through and plenty of classical Christmas music too, including the Bach Christmas Oratario and Handel’s Messiah. Or you might like a bit of jazz, or even some vintage 30s & 40s songs, or the Grimethorpe Colliery Band playing some of your favourites.
- These albums (and over 60,000 more) are available online for free from anywhere with your library card number and PIN.
- Listen to free online music from Naxos Music Library and the Source.
