Keep Christmas with You (All Through the Year)

  I’ve chosen a song this week that it is not well-known but I think deserves a place in the seasonal standard reprertoire.  It is Keep Christmas with You (All Through the Year) by Sam Pottle and Dave Axelrod (whom I confess I’ve never heard of) and comes from the TV special "Christmas Eve on Sesame Street".

      However much I can sometimes dread the Christmas holidays beforehand, I am struck with how I am finally won over by them and then subsequently let down by what seems their all-too-fleet passing.

      This song unites a lovely melody and an equally lovely sentiment about that inevitable anticlimax.  Replaying the video tape in order to get the verse, I was again touched by the tune’s simple magic, and memories of a time when – without nostalgia – we watched things like "Christmas Eve on Sesame Street".

     Click on the title in red to hear it.  The lyrics are below.

 Keep Christmas with You (All Through the Year)

 Verse:

When Christmas time is over

And presents put away

Don’t be sad.

There’ll be so much to treasure

About this Christmas day

And the fun we’ve had.

So many happy feelings to celebrate with you

And oh the good times hurry by so fast.

And even when it’s over

There’s something you can do

To make Christmas last.

Refrain:

Keep Christmas with you

All through the year.

When Christmas is over

You can keep it near.

Think of this Christmas day

When Christmas is far away.

Keep Christmas with you

All through the year.

When Christmas is over

Save some Christmas cheer.

These precious moments

Hold them very dear

And keep Christmas with you

All through the year.

Christmas means the spirit of giving

Peace and Joy to you.

The goodness of loving,

The gladness of living,

These are Christmas too.

So keep Christmas with you

All through the year

When Christmas is over

Save some Christmas cheer.

These precious moments,

Hold them very dear

And keep Christmas with you

All through the year.