Day 23: A Christmas Fairytale

I can't remember the first time I heard this song, or even if I knew it was the Pogues then, but I remember falling in love with it the moment it was done. This song is, in all its broken promises and shattered dreams, one of the most heartbreakingly beautiful tales of Christmas ever. It ranks right up there with "It's a Wonderful Life", in the way it illustrates the "reality" of some Christmases.

I have never grown sick of this song. Play it 9 times in a row, and I'll want a tenth, and I'll sing every word, every time, and likely cry 9 of those 10 times. It's that ending; it kills me every time.

I could have been someone...
...well so could anyone. You took my dreams from me, when I first found you...
I kept them with me babe.
I've put them with my own,
Can't make it all alone,
I've built my dreams around you...

The boys of the NYPD choir still singin' "Galway Bay",
And the bells are ringing out for Christmas Day...

And it swirls to the end, a sad waltz into the unknown dark, and a last memory of love and hope fading with the last bars of music. This may be my favorite Christmas song.

(For last year's thought's, go here.)

Fairytale of New York - The Pogues


MP3 File