NPR

A Musical Lament For Those Who Don't Feel The Magic Of Christmas

It's not fair that Christmas "becomes this embodiment where we as a people project all of this expectation and hope on this one day," says songwriter Kirby Brown. So he wrote a song about it.
Kirby Brown says we place too much pressure on Christmas to embody "all of this expectation and hope."

Most Christmas songs are upbeat, such as Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You." Others are funny or loaded with double entendres, such as the Jackson 5's rendition of "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus." The rest are midnight Mass favorites, such as "Silent Night."

All good. All great.

But for those who suffer from sadness or loneliness during the holidays, singer Kirby Brown saw a need for a different type of song.

Sure, there have been sad Christmas songs. But, he says, none really expressed what Brown experiences during the holiday season — that feeling of missing out.

"I generally do feel emotionally raw during this season," he says.

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