Whether you are one of those people who start assembling your holiday playlist the day after Halloween, or you are among those ready to pull your ears off if forced to listen to one more pop star try to top Mariah Carey’s rendition of “All I Want for Christmas” (what, just me?), this song is for you.
It’s also for you if you happen to be hopeful, despite some of what’s happened in our region over the past two years. And, I’m venturing a guess that very few Vermonters know about this song, let alone count it among their favorites, though it’s a profoundly poignant holiday ballad even more fitting now than when it came out three decades ago.
It’s also not clear to me why this song has not benefited from as much airplay as other holiday songs, or why it has not emerged as the soundtrack or theme for some bittersweet if predictable holiday movie or some other holiday attraction. The song has somehow also escaped becoming background music for a heart-tugging TV commercial, which is almost miraculous, especially considering the events of the past two years — events that not only have rocked the world, but our own state and our own region.
The song is “Grown-Up Christmas List” and its title belies its powerful lyrics, which transcend any formalized religious beliefs aside from the reference to Christmas. (And let’s face it, Christmas as a “concept” has all but overtaken the religious meaning of it, sad as that is.) In fact, to borrow from a clever tagline a major retailer is using in its current holiday campaign, “Grown-Up Christmas List” is fitting for whatever “all-a-days” (plural intended) one is celebrating this time of year.
For those who are not familiar with the song, its lyrics address “childhood fantasies” recited by a mature adult, as if they are visiting Santa or praying to a deity. The adult speaks of a “lifelong wish not for myself, but for a world in need,” and that there be “No more lives torn apart. … That wars would never start.”
Since those lyrics speak to massive world challenges few of us like to think about, let alone hope to solve, the song might strike some as treacly idealism. Yet there are countless struggling Vermonters whose needs have quadrupled over the past two years, and we are fortunate there are nonprofits and other dedicated Vermonters who serve them. In the words of Project VISION, they “see a need, meet a need” — and then some. There are, indeed, real life-threatening battles being fought every single day, right here in Vermont — for food security, affordable housing, health care, safety and security — battles that most of us are fortunate we do not have to fight alone.
And what about those who are spending the holidays apart from their loved ones? Whether by necessity, or by choice, or by misunderstanding or a combination of all those factors, the rest of the “Grown-Up Christmas List” message is universal, especially the following verse:
And time would heal all hearts
And everyone would have a friend
And right would always win
And love would never end.
“Grown-Up Christmas List” was composed by musician David Foster and lyricist Linda Thompson-Jenner, and originally recorded by Foster with pop singer Natalie Cole, for a 1990 album Foster released. Natalie Cole’s rendition of it has supplanted her father’s (Nat “King” Cole, of course) recording of the song most people know as “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire” as my favorite tear-inducing holiday song of all time.
Over the years, “Grown-Up Christmas List” was recorded and featured on albums by singers whose voices are just as powerful as Natalie Cole’s, including Amy Grant, whose rendition is arguably the most popular, and American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson, who first recorded it in 1997. All these renditions are on my Apple playlist, and I defy anyone to tell me they’re ready to rip their ears off if I play them again. (To be clear, my husband is the most patient man on the planet, going on four decades, and he is the reason for the advice I often give to young professionals, that one’s choice of life partner is the most important career decision they will ever make.)
Most of us reading this newspaper are, as my song says, “all grown up now” but all but the most self-sufficient among us can agree that we “still need help somehow” Given the cataclysmic events of the past two years, I have no doubt everyone has their own version of a “Grown-Up Christmas List.” Here’s hoping this inspires patience, fortitude and gratitude — for all that you have, and whatever you wish for, grownup or not.
Liz DiMarco Weinmann lives in Rutland.
