LAUREN PIESTER
Gargoyle staff reporter
Posted Saturday, Dec. 15, 2007

I LOVE CHRISTMAS MUSIC.

Christmas isn't one of my favorite holidays, what with the weather, the stress of buying presents, and the always-looming temptation of eating WAY too much. But the music, I love.

Of course, from January to November, I hate it and refuse to listen to it. You start singing "Jingle Bells" during one of those 11 months, and I might just strangle you. But starting Dec. 1, I am a Christmas music fiend.

I listen to it, I dance to it, I hum it, and most importantly, I sing it.

I sing it in my room, in the car, in the locker room, during free periods, passing periods, (appropriate) classes, while running around the track, while lifting weights, while walking to and from PE, while shopping, while eating, while showering. Basically, during the month of December, I sing Christmas songs all the freaking time.

Even if I'm not singing out loud, I'm singing in my head. Constantly.

I don't know why. If you think about it, a lot of Christmas songs are super annoying, and don't even make a lot of sense, mostly because some of them are so old.

Then you notice how there are only a handful of different songs, but there are just hundreds and hundreds of different versions of each of those songs. For most Christmas songs, I could honestly listen to the same song for an entire 24-hour period and not ever hear the same version twice. I find that pretty amazing.

Christmas music is just wonderful. It gives you this warm, fuzzy, happy feeling. It makes you think of sitting with a good (probably trashy) book by the fireplace, sipping hot chocolate, listening to "White Christmas," and watching the snow fall gracefully past the window.

It seems as if currently Uni is quite lacking in the warm fuzzy happiness department, what with those unbelievably, ridiculously unnecessary finals coming up next week. Everyone seems to be suffering from a cold, depression, sleep deprivation, or irritation at classmates and teachers whom they've just seen too much of recently.

This is why I've taken to singing Christmas songs out loud at school. I just want to bring a little cheer, a little happiness to help us persevere through the last week of school before break.

But every time I start singing, Mr. Scrooge sitting next to me grumbles a harsh, "Would you just shut up?" Or he walks by, quietly muttering to no one in particular about how much he hates people who sing in the hallways.

I find it terribly sad that as soon as someone starts trying to make people happy, everyone just turns into the Grinch. I'm just trying to bring you a little joy, make you smile just a little bit, and you complain, trying to drag me down into your pit of holiday despair with you.

Well, I'm not going without a fight. In fact, I'm not going until I can successfully bring my classmates out of the slump we've all fallen into.

So, next time you hear me singing, instead of lamenting your complaints or telling me to shut up, even if you suck at singing — like, even if you sound like a dying mutant cow — join in. I promise you'll feel better. Together, we can bring happiness back into the world.

Plus, you know you only have to hear my holiday warblings for another week, as WINTER BREAK starts soon! So stop complaining, because I'm not going to stop singing.