The Flint Journal
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Book Marked
By Gene Mierzejewski
JOURNAL BOOK EDITOR

Christmas, indeed, can come in a box. In our secular society, the holiday season has become less a festival honoring the birth of Christ than an ever-expanding frenzy of shopping, eating and partying, Throughout it all, though, Christmas carols have offered a balm for the hearts and souls of devout believers and simple fun-lovers alike.

Sure, the tunes lose much of their luster when they spew from speakers At malls, providing Muzak to buy by, but they retain their power in Christmas tree-lit living rooms and churches aglow with candlelight. Take away those special melodies, and you strip the yuletide of the magic that makes even cynics think peace on Earth and goodwill toward men might, just might, be more than an impossible dream.

That's why Ronald M. Clancy's "American Christmas Classics" ($59.95, Christmas Classics Ltd.) is so special. Clancy has put Christmas in a box that includes 46 carols on a set of three top-notch CDs and a beautifully illustrated and informative book that tells the history of Christmas in America and the stories behind the songs.

The artists range from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Bing Crosby and Andy Williams to Mahalia Jackson, Tanya Tucker, Chet Atkins and Brenda Lee, and all musical bases are covered. The songs include all the old favorites -- such as "O Little Town of Bethlehem," "Go Tell It on the Mountain" and "White Christmas" -- and such newer classics as "Do You Hear What I Hear?" and "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree."

Clancy's text doesn't play second fiddle to the music. Among the fascinating historic tidbits he presents are that the Puritans' antipathy toward celebrating Christmas lingered into the 19th century in New England, John Henry Hopkins' "We Three Kings of Orient Are" (1857) was the first American carol to become popular in England, and Bobby Helms' "Jingle-Bell Rock" was written exactly 100 years after James S. Pierpont's "Jingle Bells" (1857).

Making "American Christmas Classics" a truly multimedia event are its wonderful illustrations compiled from original artwork, magazines, sheet music and Christmas cards.

This is the second entry in Clancy's projected 10-part "The Millennia Collection: Glorious Christmas Music, Songs and Carols." Well worth checking out is the debut volume, "Best-Loved Christmas Carols" ($39.95, Christmas Classics Ltd.), which includes a handsome book, CD with 25 carols and a songbook.