An Amy Grant Christmas: Creating A Space For Gathering
Let’s hold a space for all the sadness that’s a real part of life and then kind of invite into that space the good news: peace on earth, goodwill toward men. Our efforts to reach out and touch each other… It’s easy to do: light a candle, sing a song. – Amy Grant
Amy Grant sings, writes, records and performs, but she also plans weddings (two this year for two of three daughters, and one, for most people, could do you in); she sends grown-up children off to college with all the heart-tugging and empty-nesting entailed, hosts holiday dinners and juggles all the everyday jobs that come with family, vocation and community. Perhaps that is why in between the inspiring carols and hymns, she sings on her latest release with gentle beauty and the timeless standards she croons with the best of them, and she is also able to write or discover original songs that tell the multifaceted human stories that inhabit Christmas. She can create a space that is relatable, personal, and meaningful.
In her holiday’s limited edition box-set called, Christmas, Grant’s gift for telling stories seasons the expansive collection of carols, hymns, pop standards, contemporary worship, and original writes and co-writes. Christmas comprises A Christmas Album (1983), Home For Christmas (1992), and A Christmas to Remember (1999) plus a 7″ featuring the previously limited release “Let the Season Take Wing” backed with “Merry Christmas Darling.” This is the first time in vinyl for the last two LPs and the single. Even those who weren’t born when these albums released have probably heard at least some of their comforting familiarity.
From the time I was a little girl, my passion was creating. I would go into the woods and create a room in the middle of the thick underbrush and say, ‘this is where we will gather.’ My real passion is creating spaces for people to be welcomed, and music is one way for me to create spaces. I was never one of those kids that sung into a hairbrush looking at herself in the mirror.
I’m turning 59 in a week… I look at every day as an opportunity to be in the present moment. I’ve prayed the same prayer most days of my adult life. And that is just ‘Lord, Lead me today to those I need and those who need me.’ I love bringing people together through music and food and then nature. And I believe that’s what I’ve done with the platform I’ve been given.
It’s hard to conceive of all of the creativity Grant has squeezed into her life thus far, and the way she expresses it:
Everything I’ve ever done, I pull people around that I trust and every project begins as a conversation.
And it would seem in Amy’s case; conversations yield beautiful results…
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