My Favorite Things

I just heard the song ‘My Favorite Things’ on the radio. When did this song become a Christmas song and why? I love the Sound of Music and the songs in it, but neither the movie nor the songs scream Christmas. The movie was set in Salzburg, Austria at the start of WWII; nothing in it lends itself to the holiday season. There were no lights, snowmen, reindeer or even a sprig of mistletoe to be seen. To associate this song with Christmas is really s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g.

I think if you want a song that’s perfect (and also stretching) for the holiday season it should be Gloria Gaynor’s I Will Survive. This song was about surviving a breakup, but come the holidays it could symbolize surviving time with family. Think about it, once a year you get together with family you choose purposely to see once a year and spend an extended amount of time with them. An extended visit is more than 3 days. 3 days gives you time to catch up, after that, catch up on FB. If you have guests that treat your house like a luxury hotel with you as the maid, after 3 days give them a bill equal to the rates of a local luxury hotel and you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how quickly they’ll leave. Here’s your coat. What’s your hurry?

Christmas will come and go and you would have survived shopping, baking, eating, parties, relatives with kids, relatives who ask when you’re going to have kids, relatives who drink too much and relatives who try stuffing the tree up the chimney because they drink too much. You will sing I Will Survive till they leave and when you find the wallet Uncle Sam (who spilt red wine on your white couch) left behind, you’ll have reason to start singing ‘My Favorite Things.’