Alissa Wilkinson's Christmas Playlist
When inquiring of my favorite writers and artists about the Christmas music that means the most to them, I turned habitually to someone I tend to ask for recommendations in almost everything.
When inquiring of my favorite writers and artists about the Christmas music that means the most to them, I turned habitually to someone I tend to ask about "the best" in almost everything.
I run into Alissa Wilkinson everywhere I go, it seems — so it's hard to remember how we first met. I think I first noticed her work when she and I were both writing film reviews for Paste Magazine. I didn't know many women who were writing film reviews at the time (still don't), much less women who were writing about film with an interest in the faith-related questions at the heart of them.
In time, she would join me and other reviewers on the team at Christianity Today, and now she is the chief film and TV critic there, writing, managing, and editing coverage of art and entertainment, and running a blog called "Watch This Way." She is also an assistant professor of English and humanities at The King's College in New York City, and during my first visit there she introduced my at an International Arts Movement event, IAM Encounter 10... which felt funny, because it seemed like I should be introducing her. (So I'm finally paying back some of what I owe her.)
I should also note that she preceded me into Seattle Pacific University's MFA in Creative Writing program, and earned that degree a little over a year ago, so now I'm also grateful for her good counsel as I chart my own path through those waters.
Alissa and her husband Tom, an art photographer and filmmaker, have become two of my dearest friends, and I've learned that it's good to pay attention to their discoveries and preferences in everything from books to bakeries, from apps to appetizers, from movies to microbrews. This summer, Alissa will lead a seminar on faith and food at Glen West, the Glen Workshop in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and I am jealous of anyone who has the privilege of attending that.
Check in at Christianity Today to see just how Alissa continues to cause great civil unrest by telling the truth and standing up for the redemptive power of excellence and integrity in a time when Christians need that challenge. She's one of my heroes.
And now here she is with her own recommendations of music that has become significant for her and for Tom during the Christmas season. Feel free to update your own playlists accordingly.
(And if you've missed them, don't miss last week's contributions to this series from Joe Henry, Ashley Cleveland, and Sara Zarr.)
•
ALISSA WILKINSON:
Mean Girls
So then, I've ordered my list roughly chronologically, to coincide with Christmases I've known and people I've loved.
1.
Amy Grant — “Emmanuel”
A Christmas AlbumThe Messiah
2.
Michael Card — “Shepherd's Watch”
The Promisepracticed
3.
Jars of Clay — “Little Drummer Boy”
very
4.
Vince Guaraldi — “Christmas Time is Here”
Charlie Brown Christmas
5.
Jill Phillips — “Labor of Love”
6.
Andrew Peterson — “Gather Round Ye Children Come”
Behold the Lamb of God
7.
Sufjan Stevens — “Oh Come, Oh Come Emanuel”
Sufjan Stevens has made a lot of really wonderfully whimsical Christmas albums—five, in fact—that include everything from properly mournful renderings of Advent songs and ancient hymns to weird Sufjanesque ditties (“Get Behind Me, Santa” is one of my favorites). This, though: this is the one to listen to. Those flutes. It makes me think I'm around a campfire with shepherds through the silent years, waiting, and waiting.
8.
Sara Bareilles and Ingrid Michaelson — “Winter Song”
Tom found this on a Christmas compilation that, yes, he'd also picked up at Starbucks (we're not in the habit of this, I swear) and sent it to me—”You'll like it,” he said. Over the years it's held different meanings for me, depending on who I was missing most that December, but lately it makes me think of my father, who died eight years ago, and whose presence is always palpably missing from our family celebrations even though my brother and I have both gotten married since then: “This is my winter song / December never felt so wrong / 'Cause you're not where you belong / Inside my arms.”
9.
Rosie Thomas — “River”
You've Got Mail
10.
John Legend and Stephen Colbert — “Nutmeg”
A Colbert Christmas!totally not
11.
Bob Dylan — “Must Be Santa”
no idea
12.
The Killers - "Joseph, Better You Than Me"
Elton John
13.
Over the Rhine — “New Redemption Song”
I cheated a little and saved this for the end, because this year feels like one where we definitely—all of us—need a new redemption song, and Karin Bergquist's voice is the one that can sing the prayer best: “Lord, we need a new redemption song / Lord, we've tried, it just seems to come out wrong / Won't You help us please, help us just to sing along / A new redemption song, a new redemption song.” I think we ought to make this the Christmas song we all sing this year. Don't you?