It’s December. That means it’s officially OK to start thinking about Christmas. So I’ve decided to do a kind of blog advent* calendar, featuring some classic (and maybe not so classic) pop songs and poems related to Christmas. Every day from now to the 25th, there will be a new post containing either a song, a poem, or (if I have a sudden flush of inspiration), both.

This is just for fun, so I’m not going to try to replicate the “30 days of music” concept and attempt to make each post fit a pre-determined theme, and I’m not aiming to make any kind of point about the “true meaning of Christmas” unless it happens to fit naturally with what I’ve chosen for the day. And if some of the selections seem cheesy, well, that’s just how it is. Although I do promise no frog chorus.

So, to begin with, what better place to start than with the song which, for me, is the granddaddy of all Christmas songs. I know that there were Christmas songs before this (and some may make an appearance later), but this is the first Christmas song that I remember from when I was a child. So, here it is: Merry Christmas:

* And yes, I do know that, officially, Advent starts on the fourth Sunday before Christmas, so this year it started on 27th November. But Ellie’s Cadbury’s Advent Calendar starts today, so that’s when I’m starting, too.