By Our Reporter
Sunday, December 2, 2018 will be the beginning of a new Catholic liturgical year of Advent, heralding the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ. From then, it will be officially time to start singing Christmas songs bringing nostalgic feelings of the events in the little hilly town of Bethlehem where Mary was delivered of baby Jesus in a manger more 2000 years ago.
However, Christmas songs aren’t like other songs. It started with carols and now various genres of songs are rendered including pop, soul and reggae by various performers overtime.
Interestingly, Carols were first sung in Europe thousands of years ago, but these were not Christmas Carols. They were pagan songs, sung at the Winter Solstice celebrations as people danced round stone circles. The Winter Solstice is the shortest day of the year, usually taking place around 22nd December. The word Carol actually means dance or a song of praise and joy! Carols used to be written and sung during all four seasons, but only the tradition of singing them at Christmas has really survived.

Early Christians took over the pagan solstice celebrations for Christmas and gave people Christian songs to sing instead of pagan ones.
In 129, a Roman Bishop said that a song called “Angel’s Hymn” should be sung at a Christmas service in Rome. Another famous early Christmas Hymn was written in 760, by Comas of Jerusalem, for the Greek Orthodox Church. Soon after this many composers all over Europe started to write ‘Christmas carols’. However, not many people liked them as they were all written and sung in Latin, a language that the normal people couldn’t understand. By the time of the Middles Ages (the 1200s), most people had lost interest in celebrating Christmas altogether.

This was changed by St. Francis of Assisi when, in 1223, he started his Nativity Plays in Italy. The people in the plays sang songs or ‘canticles’ that told the story during the plays. Sometimes, the choruses of these new carols were in Latin; but normally they were all in a language that the people watching the play could understand.
However, Apex News presents to you best 50 groovy Christmas songs to put you in the festive mood.

50. ‘Santa Claus’ –The Sonics
51. ‘Hey Sis, its Christmas’ – RuPaul
52. ‘Christmas Time (Don’t Let the Bells End)’ – The Darkness
53. ‘Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want To Fight Tonight)’ –The Ramones
54. ‘It Doesn’t Often Snow at Christmas’ –Pet Shop Boys
55. ‘Santa’s Got A Bag Of Soul’ – Soul-Saints Orchestra
56. ‘One More Sleep’ – Leona Lewis

43. “I Believe in Father Christmas” –Greg Lake

42. ‘Frosty the Snowman’ – Cocteau Twins
43. ‘Wonderful Christmas Time’ – Diana Ross

40.  ‘Mary’s Boy Child’ – Harry Belafonte

39. ‘Christmas in Harlem’ –Kanye West featuring Cam’ron, Jim Jones, Vado, Cyhi Da Prynce & Pusha T
40. ‘What Christmas Means to Me’ – Stevie Wonder
41. ‘Underneath the Tree’ – Kelly Clarkson
42. ‘Merry Xmas Everybody’ – Slade
43. ‘Midnight Sleighride’ – Sauter-Finegan Orchestra
44. ‘Just Like Christmas’ – Low
45. ‘In Dulce Jubilo’ – Mike Oldfield
46. ‘2000 Miles’ – Pretenders
47. ‘Put a Little Love in Your Heart’ – Al Green and Annie Lennox
48. ‘I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday’ – Wizzard
49. ‘Dear Santa (Bring Me a Man This Christmas)’ –Weather Girls
50. ‘Jingle Bell Rock’ – Bobby Helms
51. ‘Zat You, Santa Claus?’ – Louis Armstrong
52. ‘River’ – Joni Mitchell
53. ‘The Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth’ – Bing Crosby & David Bowie
54. ‘O Come, O Come, Emmanuel’ – Sufjan Stevens
55. ‘O Tannenbaum’ – Vince Guaraldi Trio
56. ‘Run Rudolph Run’ – Chuck Berry
57. ‘Sleigh Ride’ – The Ronettes
58. ‘8 Days of Christmas’ – Destiny’s Child
59. ‘Wonderful Christmas Time’ – Paul McCartney
60. ‘Santa Claus Go Straight to the Ghetto’ – James Brown
61. ‘Blue Christmas’ – Elvis Presley
62. ‘Christmas in Hollis’ – Run-DMC
63. ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town’ – Jackson 5
64. ‘Driving Home for Christmas’ – Chris Rea
65. ‘Step Into Christmas’ – Elton John
66. ‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside’ – Dean Martin
67. ‘Christmas Rappin’’ – Kurtis Blow
68. ‘Merry Christmas Baby’ – Ike and Tina Turner
69. ‘Happy Xmas (War Is Over)’ – John Lennon & Yoko Ono
70. ‘Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree’ – Brenda Lee
71. 7. ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ – Band Aid
72. ‘Christmas Wrapping’ – The Waitresses
73. ‘Fairytale of New York’ – The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl
74. ‘White Christmas’ – Bing Crosby
75. ‘Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)’ – Darlene Love
76. ‘Last Christmas’ – Wham!
77. ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ – Mariah Carey

(With agency reports)