Christmastime Is Here

I heard that Costco has Christmas tree displays up across the aisle from the Halloween candy. Before the heat even broke in most parts of the country, we're already being forced to think Christmas. In fact, my inbox these past two weeks has been filled with notifications of Christmas music becoming available from our favorite Christian artists - and Faith Hill, too!

Is it time already to start thinking about playing Christmas music? It's the beginning of October; we have a good two months before Thanksgiving. But I guess our promotion friends want to make sure we all know what's available for this Christmas season - both brand new and the classics.

Then began the discussion amongst us about what to play and when to play. And boy, the philosophies of how we handle Christmas music came out. Some of us play a mix of old standards from Bing and Sinatra; others shy away from anything that doesn't remain Christ-centered. Some of us go all Christmas all the time right after Thanksgiving; others might do a little more ramp up to 24/7 Christmas. Some of us play Christmas music because it seems like the right idea for the Christian station to celebrate the Christian holiday; others hope to lure in new listeners by playing everyone's favorite Christmas songs, hoping to evoke some good Christmas memories.

The one thing I did notice as everyone offered their opinion about how they handled Christmas music - no one disparaged anyone else for their opinion or the way they handled Christmas music at their station. It was like that sense of peace, hope and love that we all want at Christmastime is already here.

Billy