Christmas Morning Bells - Christmas Piano Songs

This is the 14th track on my CD.   The CD is titled, Christmas Piano Songs and is a collection of Christmas music that I have enjoyed since I was a child.  All of the music on this CD is instrumental piano music with no vocal.  These songs were ones that I often performed in church or for different caroling events that we did such as nursing homes.

Christmas Morning Bells is a piano piece that I created out of my love for waking up on Christmas Day.  I so remember when I was a kid, the joy of waking up early (or trying to stay asleep through the night) and seeing the gifts that Santa Claus had left under the Christmas Tree. 

For us, the gifts were not plentiful, but my mom always managed to make it into a special holiday.  For weeks leading up to Christmas morning, I would live in anxiety and anticipation.  I am still mesmerized by the lights and beautifully wrapped presents under the Christmas tree.  I don't think I will ever get too old for this in my life.

This piano piece tries to capture that joy and innocence of being a kid and celebrating the morning of waking up to see what was under the tree.  It is a celebration of all that is good and peaceful in our life and the true meaning of Christmas throughout the world.  There are no words to this song as the emotion and feeling is all captured in each note.  Enjoy the song and Merry Christmas to you and your family on this special day.


Hopefully you will enjoy my version of these songs on the piano.  These songs are great for having on hand during Christmas parties or even as you unwrap your gifts at Christmas.  I realize the stores overplay Christmas music, but to me, this CD is something special an unique.  I hope you do check it out!

Joy On Christmas Morning Part 3

Joy On Christmas Morning
Part 3

This is part 3 of a three part series, please start with PART 1

No matter how hard I try during this time of year, I still succumb to the pain, anxiety and despair of this season. I so badly want to find a way through this rather than face the anxiety, nervousness, stress and tension that I feel.. I want to feel the joy of a child on Christmas morning rather than the anger that bubbles up within me and forces me to hibernate from the outside world during this season. I don't want to feel lifeless and drained as I try to cope with the mixed emotions and pain. I would love to believe that I could wave a majic wand and it would all be a normal and fun and exicting time of year. However, I would not be living in reality if this were true.

Each year, I keep trying and hoping that somehow this year will be different for me. In fact, I can see that things have changed and I am growing through some of the hurts. Yet, as the days get closer to Chrsitmas, my body physically changes as if someone places a thousand pound weight on my shoulders to carry around. I fight to flee this yearly ritual, but I am not able to run fast enough. So, each year I try to do something at Christmas time and I have learned that if I don't do this early in the month of December, that by the middle of the month, I literally have no energy left to carry it out.

Joy On Christmas Morning Part 2

Joy On Christmas Morning
Part 2

This is part 2 of a three part series, please read starting with PART 1

Yes, Christmas was full of joy when I was a child, but that is only half of the story. Christmas morning was one day that I looked to with anticipation, but also dread. You see, most of my family were not grateful for presents they would receive. I always gave something from my heart that matched something that I thought would be special to them and usually it was done on very few dollars that I had to my name. Sometimes I would create something deep from my heart and give to them. The only thing is that all too often I heard the disappointment they had as "this was all they got" type of attitude filled the room. If it didn't meet their expectations, you would know about it and my heart got broken many times.

One example of this was when I was in college and struggling to make it through school and pay bills. I had no help from home and had to pay for college completely on my own. I saved my pennies all year long to buy Christmas presents and managed to have $5 a piece to spend on them. I carefully took the money and tried to buy as much as I could of things that I thought they would use and like. On Christmas day, I heard comments like "this is all I got and we spent more on him then he did on us". It broke my heart and it hurt because I had taken everything I had to buy them these things and I had put so much thought into it. After all, I could have bought a months' worth of food with that money but I chose to give. Of course, that was not the only time I had heard these words, or would it be the last.

Joy On Christmas Morning Part 1

Joy On Christmas Morning
Part 1

I'm amazed at my age that I still get as excited about Christmas as I do. I would think that after all these years, it would start to wane. Even though there isn't the celebration these days, because quite frankly it sometimes hurts too much, I still find myself getting just as excited as I once did when I was a child.

The joy on Christmas morning was something I waited all month for and even though our home life was in constant turmoil, this was the day of the year that offered an escape. It was the one day of the year that Santa would come and give us presents and life would be more peaceful for a few hours. Granted, I realize that we got very few things, but honestly I did not care if someone would have wrapped empty boxes and gave them to me. I just wanted to see wrapped presents under the tree. I was mesmerized by the pretty colorful wrapping paper, the shiny sparkling lights and ornaments on the tree.

The smells of cookies baking and candy being made by my mom, to the frosting of cookies, it was a special time of year in our house. I always enjoyed it when we would frost the Christmas cookies and surprise some lucky recipient. It warmed my heart with joy. My mom would go all out making peanut brittle, divinity, fudge, cookies of every kind, and especially the cutout cookies we would frost together.

Relaxing Christmas Piano Music

How about some relaxing Christmas music?

My new song "Christmas Piano Music: Christmas Morning" just
went live on iTunes today.

There's still time to download the song on

iTunes

Amazon

Napster

Rhapsody

Check out my website for more information about the song as well as sound
clips. http://www.donshetterly.com

And stay tuned for a Holiday Mini Concert Video!