"Christmas has always made me nostalgic, but I have come to realize, with something of a jolt- perhaps because I just turned 65-that my sense of nostalgia is not what it used to be. When I was younger, I happily got all wistful when hearing Johnny Mathis or Perry Como because I would think of my parents and the Christmases I knew as a little kid."
"So yes, when I hear Vince Guaraldi, I still think of being bundled up in my pajamas with a mug of hot chocolate and A Charlie Brown Christmas. But if you look at my Spotify list of Christmas songs, you'll see that these days I am truly nostalgic not for Percy Faith but for ... Billy Joel and the Alarm."
Christmas nostalgia evolves over a lifetime, moving from childhood-era associations toward the music of adolescence and young adulthood. Early memories center on parents, family traditions, and concrete household cues like taped Christmas cards and childhood toys. Later nostalgia gravitates toward contemporaneous popular music, with comfort drawn from artists encountered in teenage and college years. Physical places change and parents die, reducing the immediacy of early childhood memories. Streaming playlists now reflect the shift, favoring artists like Billy Joel and the Alarm over orchestral arrangers such as Percy Faith, while classic holiday standards continue to hold enduring emotional resonance.
Read at The Atlantic
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