Those who have known me a long time will remember the Audio Christmas Cards that Deb and I would send. It’s been 20 years since the last Christmas cassettes were mailed in 1995 almost 30 years since I sent the first in 1986.
We’ve made many new friends across the past 20 years, and so they never received our annual collection of Christmas recordings. The work would be done in my home project studio and would feature Christmas music, including a selection from the group that a friend dubbed The All-Dean Marietta Choir.
Every year that I planned, prepared, and produced the Audio Christmas Card, I wanted to include this traditional English carol. How Far Is It to Bethlehem? has been a mental fixture for me every Christmas since my freshman year at the University of Kentucky, when I sang with the Choristers, and we sang an entrancingly beautiful arrangement of it.
One of this year’s blessings included a trip to Lexington for a reunion of Choristers who had performed A Shaker Worship Service at the Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill, Ky., also known as Shakertown. Through those renewed friendships, a recording of the 1977 Choristers performing How Far Is It to Bethlehem? resurfaced, and that led to this guitar and vocal arrangement.
This song has always had a quieting effect on me, and I pray that it may bring you a touch of peace and contentment this Christmas. With this, Deb and I offer our Christmas greeting to family, and to friends old and new.
We wish you a blessed and happy Christmas.