I’ve been to a few baby showers, and no one brought the baby little stones, though that is the story of Christmas, that there was a magnificent child whose first gifts were all rocks of some kind. Well precious stones and aromatic resin that kind of looks like rocks.

Then there is the tale of the little drummer boy, who brought music. That was always my favorite, what a great gift, so much more meaningful, no disrespect to Melchior, Gaspar and Balthazar.

But yesterday I was on a work video call and one of my colleagues had her 9 month baby and as soon as I saw her face I started ooo-ing and “wubby wubby wubby” ing and that kid just smiled and clapped her hands and I completely forgot about the annual report. We were all working on Christmas Eve, the bailiwick of Ebenezer Scrooge, but the situation looked brighter when that kid started grinning.

I know that would have been me, two thousand twenty five years ago. It’s kind of embarrassing to admit, but I think my gift would have been to (try to) make the baby laugh. The drummer boy’s performance got a smile, which was more than the fancier gifts got, according to reports. Admittedly I am ignorant regarding the value of precious stones and incense in the ancient world, but music and a smile, while hard to wrap, can soothe and lift where riches and scents cannot.

So the last gift on my list to Santa this year is just that - music and levity. Again, I’ve asked for things I already have, so it’s really just a list of gratitude and appreciation and besides, I kind of bought myself that 20th anniversary super limited-edition pressing of my favorite White Stripes album from eBay a few weeks ago.

But I didn’t open it yet, because it was too close to Christmas.

Christmas at our house is all about music. Not all of my friends celebrate this specific holiday, but we can still share a few of the songs - mostly the ones about weather - snow and cold and winter… those are universal-ish.

For about ten years I held an annual winter holidays lunchtime celebration for the creative production team I was in charge of, which we called Christmahanasolistwanzaa”. I also created an original carol for the event every year, which was mostly impressive because it’s such a difficult word to rhyme. These songs were very tongue-in-cheek but very heartfelt, and some of the folks I worked with still text me that they hear them every year on their holiday playlists.

I thought that it was high time to make a little new one, focused on the weather, applicable to anyone in the Northern Hemisphere. I refrained from using our old holiday moniker to make it a little easier on myself as I only had three hours to do it because I worked all day Christmas Eve.

But I did get that smile from that kid. Totally worth it.

Happy Christmas.

And if you’d like to hear the song, please click on this week’s narration.

Sniffles and sneezesfrom Nor-Easter breezesare nothing to look forward toSkies are not complementaryWhen mixes are wintryBut they seem much warmer with youTrees are bare but I’m wearing six layersAnd something’s in the airEverywhere

Well, I can get by the weatherIf iI can just spend my December Together with you

Yes, I can get by the weatherIf I can just spend my

December togetherwith you.

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