Christmas music

Why is every Christian Christmas song (which should be redundant, but it's not) slow and quiet? Isn't this a celebration of the night that hope finally entered the world? Aren't we remembering the night that began our escape from eternal damnation? Doesn't Christmas commemorate the moment in time when the God of heaven and earth disrobed Himself of the glory of the eternal throne room, and forever adopted the physical form of a man just so he could suffer and die for love? And aren't we the rescued? The redeemed? The saved? The beloved He came for? Aren't we excited about this? Songwriters aren't, evidently; songwriters are excited about Santa Clause.

Why do they all sound like lullabies? I read through the lyrics of Away in a Manger recently and decided it's a bad song. It might be a classic, but it's a bad classic. It's like we're trying to sing baby Jesus to sleep year, after year, after year. First of all, He's not a baby anymore, and even when He was - physically - a newborn, He wasn't a newborn you pass around to aunties. He was a newborn you bring expensive gifts to and worship. He was a newborn with a plan to defeat all the forces of hell.

Such is the plight of a youth worship leader trying to find a whole set of Christmas songs that won't bore Jr. High students to death. Or worship leaders. I can handle a few, but this is supposed to be exciting, right?