It’s an increasingly rare joy nowadays to find popular-culture entertainers making a children’s video that really celebrates the meaning of Christmas—showing great reverence for the religious aspect while still including plenty of silly fun.
The Wiggles are a four-man singing group from Australia who are familiar to many young children from TV, videos and concert tours. A few of their early songs were rather repetitive for adult ears (that’s why kids love them), but I myself truly enjoy many of their songs. (Much easier on the ears than Barney, in my opinion.)
The Christmas videos “Santa’s Rockin” and “Yule Be Wiggling” contain many original songs as well as some Christmas tunes you’ll recognize. The Wiggles—Jeff, Murray, Anthony, and Greg (these were made before Greg was replaced by Sam)—are joined by characters kids who watch the show will recognize: Dorothy the Dinosaur, Captain Feathersword, Wags the Dog and Henry the Octopus (whose eight arms are a great advantage when it comes to gift wrapping). The Wiggles vary the shows with different things such as interviews with how people celebrate Christmas in other countries, a larger segment on how it is celebrated in the summer in the Wiggles’ homeland of Australia, and cameo appearances by a few of the Wiggles’ own children (can you imagine going to show and tell and preschool and saying, “My dad/uncle is one of the Wiggles!?).
Some Wiggles songs are adapted for the show, such as “My Dog Wags” which bemoans the dog’s barking but with a verse added about how they want the dog to sleep so Santa will come; silly songs written just for these shows such as “Dorothy’s Christmas Roses”, and reverent renditions of traditional carols and new songs honoring the baby Jesus.
Santa’s Rockin’ shows a nativity scene featuring children singing O Come All Ye Faithful which gave me goose bumps. It also features a guest singer—“King Mondo”—-whose outfit made him look like a lounge lizard, but who sang one of the loveliest songs about the Christ Child I’ve ever heard: “This Little Baby is Born Again”…been reborn in the hearts of men…every Christmas, this Child is born again”. We hear this while watching scenes of loving parents and children.
Yule Be Wiggling features Irish singer Morgan Crowley singing the beautiful Carol of the Birds (“Curoo, Curoo”) while children play the roles of the Holy Family. It contains other Christmas hymns as well.
There is a third Christmas video which I haven’t seen, entitled “A Wiggly Wiggly Christmas“.According to customer reviews, its song list contains a larger number of well-known Christmas favorites. I myself rather enjoyed all the new songs on the previous two albums I mentioned, but some parents appreciated having more songs their children could recognize and sing along to.
I know that not everyone celebrates Christmas and I’m happy to say “Happy Holidays” if I don’t know what someone celebrates. But I have missed having Christmas more specifically talked about by children’s favorite entertainers, especially in a way that conveys how special Christmas is. These videos are gems.
Please see these related blogs:
Learning About Other Cultures and Religions Through Children’s Television