Mr. Green Christmas

As we know, there are only a handful of holiday songs that have been adopted as classics, and they keep being played every single year.  There are literally hundreds of Christmas songs, but only rarely do new ones get adopted.  We do have some lovely carols like "Silent Night" and "Angels We Have Heard on High," but there are also songs (of varying quality) that celebrate the winter season like "Jingle Bells" and "Winter Wonderland."  Unfortunately, this latter category only describes winter in one way: snowy.  That never applied to me as a kid, so it made it harder for me to relate to the songs.  Then I stumbled across this song from an old stop-motion Rankin/Bass Christmas special that I don't remember seeing, The Year Without Santa Claus.

Like most songs meant to appeal to children, the melody is very simplistic and the lyrics have little variety, but it's the only seasonal song that I know of that offers an alternative to a frosty Christmas.  I particularly like it because both Christmases are shown as being equal, just different.  It can be cold and white or warm and green and still be Christmas.  It's nice to get some recognition that the temperature doesn't make it Christmas, but rather our celebrations.