Celebrating Christmas brings back memories of neatly wrapped presents, the family gathering around the warm fireplace, lip smacking turkey roasted to perfection, wreaths and LED lights that spread light and festive colour, and the carols sung by the neighbourhood choir group. There is one more piece to the festive picture; something that is always a part of the celebrations, but which does not stand out as the other parts.

The Evergreen Christmas Songs

Christmas day would be incomplete without its songs. Most of us may not remember the soft, pleasant songs playing in the background as we cuddled closer to our mothers and fathers. Another thing we may not remember is that these songs streamed out from the radio sets that sat on the dining table or in a corner of the room, away from our eyes and minds, but never far from our ears and hearts.

Christmas Radio

Listening to the evergreen Christmas songs on the radio has been an invisible yet important part of our holiday tradition. The smooth songs and the sonorous voices of the radio announcers would fill the living room as mothers whipped up cakes, pastries, and delectable treats and as fathers lounged in their recliners. The children would be excited with their new gifts – mostly toys – and run around the house, playing with them.

Different radio stations had different types of programing for the holidays. Some stations would just play the songs on loop, some ran contests for the listeners, some had readings of popular Christmas stories, while some stations talked about human interest stories that rang true of the festive spirit. If nothing else, listening to the radio provided a sense of comfort similar to having an egg nog.

Providing Sound Comfort

We had delicious food, warm friends and family, and the sound comfort of Christmas radio filling any blank space in our holiday celebrations.

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