The Joy of Holiday Music: How Seasonal Songs Create Connection - S2 E30

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3 days ago
19 min read

Stacy Griffin: Welcome back to Autoimmune Adventures. There's something about this time of year, this long season of light in the darkness that invites us to breathe a little deeper and reconnect with what lifts our spirits. Whether people are celebrating Christmas, Hanukkah, Yule, Kwanza or simply honoring the turning of the year, light is always at the center of it. Candles, twinkling lights, fireplaces, quiet reflection, and woven right into that glow is something equally powerful. Music, music is ancient. It's grounding. It's healing. The resonance, the vibration, the way the sound moves through our bodies. It's not just an emotional thing, it's physical.

It centers and settles our nervous system. It shut, it shifts our mood. It brings back memories that we didn't even know that we needed. During the holidays, especially for those living with chronic illness or autoimmune conditions, music can become a companion, a sort of comfort and a bridge to joy. So today's episode is all about that kind of light - how music brings it back into our lives, and in a little bit, will be welcoming the amazing Annie Toro Lopez, who's joining us to talk about the healing power of holiday music and sound.

But first, before we bring Annie in, we wanna share some of our own favorite holiday music, the songs that bring us comfort, joy, and maybe a little nostalgia. Can you start us off, Alysia?

Alysia Thomas: Yes. Thank you, Stacy. You are so right. I feel like music is really like the heartbeat of the season, and for me, holiday music has always been tied to connection. Whether that is connection to my family or connection to memories. Those little emotional moments that we don't always talk about. Um, and those songs, they just kind of wrap around you like a warm blanket. And every year I find myself returning to the same ones over and over.

Um, so my, my very favorite old one that I listened to growing up on a record player was "Marshmallow World" by Johnny Mathis. Um, Johnny Mathis has my heart. He is the Christmas music king. So, um, that one always, it always makes me happy. It always makes me remember, like that sense of magic that I had about Christmas when I was a child. Um, and then the one that I, has become my, my more recent favorite is called "Ring the Bells," and it is by a woman named Hillary Weeks.

Um, she's not a relation to us, but I've loved her music for years. And that song in particular, um, I've loved from the first time I heard it and my kids now have grown up hearing that one. So those songs that just kind of bring you back into a good head space for the season. They, whether it is bringing you back to like, that sense of childhood wonder or, or family memories that you have, or a song that just reminds you of what the season is all about. I love that. So I'm a big Christmas music fan. I start listening really early. Early. What about you, Beck?

Becky Miller: Um, well, you know me, I, I like music that feels like comfort food, I guess it's, uh, it's also a big tradition for me and a big part of my holiday, and I love to listen to music on my baking days when I'm wrapping presents, um, if I'm going on drives all the times, like, um, I'm preparing, uh, for family gathering here in the next couple of days, and I, I'm totally gonna be listening to Christmas music while I clean. That's, that's kind of, it becomes my life soundtrack during like November, December. But some of my favorite songs, um, Alysia mentioned Johnny Mathis.

We had a lot of Christmas records, but that was one as kids that we just adored, and growing up my favorite modern, like more modern, I guess it's old now I guess, but my favorite song on the Johnny Mathis record was "Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer," and I am a huge fan of the Rankin and Bass, uh, version of that, the show as well. Um, grew up with that, but as I've gotten older, I appreciate a lot of the older carols, like we'd listen to them a lot as kids because - we used to joke around about my mom's favorite radio station, I think it was called KJOY or something like that.

Alysia Thomas: KJOY. KJOY Classics.

Becky Miller: Exactly. And during the rest of the year, it really played kind of awful elevator music, but at Christmas time it played like all the old traditional carols, and so I really grew up with the love of those. I love like "The Holly and the Ivy." I love "In the Bleak Midwinter." Um, I love, love, one of my absolute favorites is "O Come, O Come Emmanuel." And more recently, um, some of the ones 'cause for me also - and I know the season is different for everyone in what you celebrate and what you believe - but for me, um, Christ is a big part of the season for me, and so I love songs that are Christ-centered. They bring me a lot of joy and peace. And one of my favorite ones that's a little bit newer is Lauren Daigel's, um, "Light of the World." I love that. I actually love that whole CD of hers, her Christmas CD, but that is one of my favorite, more recent ones. Um, so. That's me.

Alysia Thomas: I just realized I have got to give a shout out to the Piano Guys.

Becky Miller: Oh yes, absolutely.

Alysia Thomas: They have been also a more, in more recent years in my adult life, they have been, I have every one of their albums and their Christmas albums are fantastic. So good, so, so good. Love the piano guys. When you said, oh, come coming manual. I was like, oh. Their version of that is so beautiful.

It is. It really is. So beautiful. My favorite. Beautiful.

Becky Miller: Yeah.

Stacy Griffin: We're all very, we are, we love music. Um. We all were involved in music growing up, but I was in choir and so I did a lot of Christmas songs and holiday songs, and so I sung Hanukkah songs and Kwanzaa songs and Yule songs, and I sang a lot of Christmas stuff as well.

Stacy Griffin: But if I were to say what my favorite songs were. Here's a few of them. I'm, I'm really limiting myself here. I love "Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind." It's actually from a Shakespeare play, but they turned it, John Rudder, one of my favorite composers, turned it into a song, and that's one of my favorite winter songs.

I love everything that Pentatonix does.

Alysia Thomas: Mm-hmm.

Stacy Griffin: I love them. I love their holiday music. It makes me happy. And as a choir kid, as a choir nerd, I love that they do it all without any instrumentation except themselves. It is powerful and I love that.

Alysia Thomas: Fantastic.

Stacy Griffin: But I'm a big Christmas carol, like the actual Christmas carols. I love "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen." I love. I love "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel," but I also love like "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing", and "In the Bleak Mid-winter" and "The Wexford Carrol." So I could go on and on, but I will say this, I really enjoy the old ones, but there's some really good modern ones too. So I just enjoy holiday music and because I'm a December baby and my anniversary is in December, and all the big holidays are in December.

I, I fill my life with music as much as I can whenever I can.

Becky Miller: I was gonna say really quickly, I have to give one more shout out to just some really good traditional classics that we love. We all love the Nutcracker Suite.Thank you Tchaikovsky. I know it was like one of his least favorite ballets that he ever wrote, but I love the music to it.

Um, and. I also love "The Messiah." Uh, as Stacy said, we all grew up musically inclined and um, I played the viola growing up and I played the viola a lot of times. Um, our community would do "Messiah," uh, at Christmas time and I love that piece of music. And I know it's a little older, it's a little more traditional, but it's one of my Christmas favorites.

Alysia Thomas: In case you haven't noticed, we get really excited about Christmas music.

Stacy Griffin: Just a little bit. Just a little bit. But our guest today, Annie Tora Lopez, geeks out just as much as we do about music. So we'll let her talk to you a little bit about what she loves so much.

Annie Toro Lopez: You know, I was always, I've always been drawn to music, right? Like I've always, even like my father played the harmonica, which was really fun, and so. Um, you know, when you're little, little, I had family of four, I had three older siblings, so like, you know, you danced and that was always fun. And then they had an upright piano in their basement. And so I played that sort of by ear. I never, well, I did take formal lessons, but it didn't work. So I, um, I sort of played by ear and then later, um, I joined the choir.

So I sang in choir in middle school and high school, and I performed, and then when I was a senior, I, uh, was in, I made Allstate choir and I sang the solo in Allstate choir. So it was a very, it was a pretty big deal. And um, life got busy and I didn't make music anymore. Like it's, it's funny, like for a really big, big part of my life to be honest.

Um. At one point I did pick up the violin and I thought I would, you know, teach myself the violin. And then I ended up taking lessons and she was very encouraging. She's like, you really have a feel for it. 'cause the violin is a voice instrument, right? And so I sang, and so violin was like a pretty easy, I, I, I think I did have a feel for it, but you know, I had two kids and then I was divorced and then I was a single mother with two kids. And so, and then I put myself through school, so there was no time. And then I taught middle school. It just didn't, no, right. Didn't happen. So I, um, kind of fast forward, I guess. I, I, so I, I remarried and, and, um, my husband like heard me, and in 2019 he bought me a keyboard and, um, it's nice to be heard.

And, um, I knew because I had, you know, I, I, I'd never, so I was a first soprano, right? So I never learned the bass cleft. I don't, I really didn't know how to read it. Like it took a lot of brain power to, like, I would be so exhausted about, oh, here, I'll show you. I have it right here. So I taught myself, this is, this was the book I used, and as you can see, it's very well loved and very well used.

Annie Toro Lopez: And I always listened to music. Like I've always, always listened to music, but like creating it is, you know, of course a whole different energy, right?

Becky Miller: Yeah.

Annie Toro Lopez: So, so when my husband got me, um, the keyboard, excuse me, and um, when he got me the keyboard in. 2019 for Christmas, it kind of turned out that I had some time to practice.

Right? That's totally the whole world shut down. So I'm like, okay, well, okay, why not? Right? So I knew right away what I wanted to learn first, and of course, first I had to learn the base clef, right? Before I could do anything else. But, so when my daughter Luna, who's now 31, when she was little and she didn't feel well, we would watch a short film over and over, um, called The Snowman.

It has like a, I don't know if you're familiar, but it has like a grief, um, introspective by David Bow.

Becky Miller: Yeah. And isn't it like almost, no. There it has him. There's a little bit of words, but mostly it's music.

Annie Toro Lopez: It's all music. Yeah. Yeah. I, yeah. I don't even, it's all other than his, his introspective at the very beginning, it's all music.

So that was kind of our, you know, our like show and, there's, you know, a song there called "Walking in the Air," and that was like our song. Whenever I'd hear it, I think of her. And of course it's a ho it's, it's used a lot in the holidays. And so it would be, it was just became a very special, and, and you know, music is so healing, right?

So like, we would watch that, the music and it's, and I would hold her and, you know, you, you're, that's healing those, that's communication and, and all of the, and touch and love and all of the, all of the healing things. And so at some point I came across, um, so I came, came across this book.

Annie Toro Lopez: And, right? And so I, I, I know I didn't play the piano at the time, like I doubt, you know, this was years ago. She was little and it had, it has as the p the pieces, you know.

Stacy Griffin: Oh, I was wondering when I saw it, 'cause I was like, there are no words. What did they did? They decide to tell a story, but it's the pictures with the basic, this is what was going on and then the music.

Annie Toro Lopez: Yeah. So that's beautiful. So we, um, in our family, like we, here's like another, so it's, there's a narrative in the book, so it sort of tells this story in the book. Obviously you need like something and Right. So then this narrative in the book. And then, and then, um, so I had, um, in our, for our, in our family, like we don't really, we stopped giving gifts a long time ago. Like we don't give each other gifts. We do, um., experiences. We usually adopt a family and then we give each other experiences. And so I worked on, I had to learn the, I learned, learned to read music, learn to play the piano while I was reading music, not just outta my head like real know it goes this way.

And so I did that first and then I learned this. I just learned the very simple. And that was her Christmas gift. So that was when I gave her for Christmas that year. And my husband too, because he had given me the keyboard. But since then I've lo I've learned the longer version.

Annie Toro Lopez: It's moving and touching and beautiful. And carries people and heals people and all of the things that music does. And, and, and I think that there's so much, I mean. I guess for, I mean, there's, there's magic there. There's, there's connection there. There's, you know, what people would call God there, there's what, there's the flow of, of that, that love and that energy and that connection.

Becky Miller: One of my favorite things that I would do, um, in high school and, and we did it in college too, um, was that helped perform in the Messiah around Christmas time. Having people singing as well as all the other instruments. Like it is...

Annie Toro Lopez: It so powerful.

Becky Miller: So incredible. Yeah,

Annie Toro Lopez: So powerful. Love that. That's, that's phenomenal. I love that. We do, they used to do it here and I don't know if they still do and I always kind of wanted to, and I honestly never have. But um, they used to do a "Messiah" singalong here with the Colorado Orchestra and you could just come and people had the, I still have my, I still have my "Messiah" music.

Becky Miller: Me too.

Annie Toro Lopez: I still have it. I still have it. We sing it. Yeah. And, and you know, and just, just having that, um, uh, yeah. That's powerful. That's really powerful. We used to, we did, when I was in high school, we did a madrigal dinner. Did you guys see that? It was like, uh...

Stacy Griffin: Love, madrigals.

Annie Toro Lopez: It was so much fun. We sang madrigal music and did the whole, and we had a, like, you know, everybody, we voted for King and Queen and, um, there were like the whole server, you know, all the king and queen, all the way to the, you know, seniors, down to the freshmen where the servers, and it was, and you'd come out singing, you know.

"Wassail, Wassail" or like, you know, "Boar's Head" or whatever. We sang all those throughout the auditorium. We'd stand throughout the auditorium singing. It was really fun.

Stacy Griffin: Music is really life changing. Mm-hmm. So let, let me tell you really quick about this. My very first solo was a Christmas concert and I was singing, "My Favorite Things" from Sound of Music.

Annie Toro Lopez: Mm-hmm.

Stacy Griffin: That, that was my very first soul. It's a very simple song. It's not...

Annie Toro Lopez: Yeah. But it's, but it's a good. But everybody loves it and so yeah. It's a feel good song. Yeah.

Stacy Griffin: So for me, my love of holiday music has always existed throughout my entire life. My family raised us with, you know, every kind of Christmas music imaginable. My mom and dad had all of the. Vinyl. We were in the land of vinyl. I had all of the albums from all the different 1960s and seventies Christmas albums, and we would listen to them and we had a lot of really, I, I can't think of the holiday season without thinking of music.

Annie Toro Lopez: Absolutely same.

Stacy Griffin: It's, it's just such a predominant part of the holiday season for me.

Annie Toro Lopez: Absolutely.

Stacy Griffin: So I'm gonna ask you a question.

Annie Toro Lopez: Okay.

Stacy Griffin: Why do you think it's so important to have music at the holiday season? Why, why do you think that's so important? What makes music special?

Annie Toro Lopez: Yeah. I think, you know, um, that's a, that's a good question. Um. I think music is about connection, and I think that we seek connection more than ever at the holidays, and I think that's part of the reason it's so painful for some people, because they don't have connection, and they are lonely.

And so loneliness, I think that's why loneliness, you know, and, and, and I think. Music can alleviate even loneliness because you are feeling that connection. You have connection to the past. You have connection to your memories. You have connection to each other who you, you know, you could, you could pass someone and be singing "Jingle Bells" and they can pick up the tune too. Like you're not alone in that, right? You're never alone in that.

Annie Toro Lopez: All of those songs that we've heard in so many different ways and permutations and instrumental and vocal and all of the things that they, there's a reason for that. Like there's a reason that they just keep re-digesting those and, you know, reinventing them and reintroducing them because it's connect, we, we're connected to them in a really profound way that becomes a part of our culture.

It's so much deeper than even our, you know, it's so much deeper than even our own family or own our own playlist, right? Or you know, whether it's vinyl or Spotify or whatever. But how we, and mine was always the Boston Pops, the Christmas with that was like one of my favorites.

That and the Chipmunks of course, right?

Becky Miller: Of course.

Annie Toro Lopez: But, but all of those songs that we hear over and over and over, you know, kind of ad nauseum at this sometimes. Um, but they're, they're not about, you know, just that, that, that song, but they're about all of the, all of the times that it's reverberated, right?All those, all the music that reverberates throughout that season, I think. I think it can, it can, you know, it can, it can go both ways, right?

I mean, I think it can, the holidays are just hard for some people, and I, I, I think it's so important to acknowledge that so that people hear that they're, they're seen and that they, um, that people, you know, know that it's hard, that it's not, you know, everything isn't, especially like now, let's face it, like it's, it's a tough time for people.

Annie Toro Lopez: So, but. I think that, but I do think that music can, can bring us, you know, joy can bring us healing for sure. You know, I use music to heal. I, I, um, I shared with Stacy one of my playlists, one of my many playlists, right? And, and, um, and I think that again, like, you know, as far as the holidays, like it's, it's a, it's a, It can be healing it, it's connection. So yeah.

Stacy Griffin: Agreed. I think, yeah, I think that connection is really powerful. I was gonna say that the holidays are hard when you've lost people that you love that aren't with you anymore, and there is that. It all comes back to what we always talk about with having a growth mindset and having that attitude.

You can, you have to mentally get yourself into the space where you realize, okay, I'm going into this season without my mother, without my sister, without my best friend, whoever it is you may have lost.

Annie Toro Lopez: Mm-hmm.

Stacy Griffin: I'm going into the season without them. What can I do to commemorate? The love that's still there. 'cause the love never goes away.

Annie Toro Lopez: Exactly.

Stacy Griffin: And the grief. The grief is always there too, but how we choose to acknowledge it, mm-hmm. Is a choice that we make. I think that so often in life, music can be so healing, as you mentioned, but if we don't actually let ourselves be healed, yes. It's a conscious decision we have to make.

Annie Toro Lopez: It's. It is. And that's what we've talked about before too, like, and that I talk about a lot, is, you know, taking control of the voice in your head. And, and I think that that's just, you know, I've really, really done some deep, deep digging for myself. What does, you know, what does resilience look like? Like people talk about resilience and people talk, you know, and they kind of throw that word around, but it's like, okay, well. How do I be resilient, right? Like, how do you do that? Like how, how does that look like on a day-to-day or moment to moment basis? You know? And we talk about making choices that are, you know, making choices that are good for us. But again, like what, how, what does that take?

And I think that what it takes is to speak, you know, taking control of the voice in your head and speaking to yourself. As if you were your best friend, like talk to yourself in the way that you would talk to and encourage other people.

Becky Miller: Yeah.

Annie Toro Lopez: 'cause we don't talk to ourselves that way.

Becky Miller: We don't. And I think especially like you said, especially during the holidays when we're needing the resilience or whatever 'cause we're trying to get through because we've lost somebody or something.

Because I think. We've talked about it before too. I, I definitely think, you know, we've lost both of our parents. We find the grief in that at the holiday season for sure. But also I think there's a lot of people out there with autoimmune and chronic illness who find grief in the life that they had previously.

And I think that that's where we. You know, like you said, where we have to take control of the voice in our head. And sometimes that's easier. Easier said than done. But I think music is a very powerful, beautiful way to help with that. It is so powerful. It's true.

Becky Miller: So I have a question for you too, 'cause I know, and this is probably a hard one 'cause all of us that love music know it's a challenging one, but do you have a particular holiday song that is your favorite? Like your favorite overall?

Annie Toro Lopez: Oh gosh. Wow. Okay. Um, probably. Okay. My, the one that I can play that I like to play, um, is "Green Sleeves." I do have this...

Stacy Griffin: Ooh, Christmas songs. Yay.

Annie Toro Lopez: Yeah. So I'm gonna cheat here a little. Um. Oh, "Good King Wenceslas" was another one we came in singing during the, um, I love that one too, during the, uh, madrigal dinner.

So we'd come in, you know, it was so much fun. Um, yeah, I love. I love playing, uh, I love playing "Green Sleeves." Like it's something I can play. I think I learned it young. So "What Child is This?" Like, it's such a beautiful, you know, it's so beautiful, but that, that's the one that first comes to mind. And that like, I can feel that when I say that, I feel it my heart.

So I think, you know, I think that's, that's gotta be pretty close to true. I love it was the first, um. It was a first Christmas like song that I wanted to learn when I got my keyboard. That was fun. But yeah. So what about you guys? What are your favorites?

Becky Miller: I have so many I like, but my, I have a lot, but mw favorite overall - Um, like I said, I love the Messiah as a whole...

Annie Toro Lopez: Oh yeah. As far as like a piece of Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Becky Miller: But my favorite is probably, "Oh, Come, Come Emmanuel." I really like that.

Annie Toro Lopez: Yes, I do too. I do too.

Becky Miller: Because it's not kind of a, it's a Christmas song and it is spiritual, and uh, and I know like if you're not Christian, it probably wouldn't be one you enjoyed as much. But, um, I love it has a very old, sort of ancient feel to it too, which I love, like the style of the music.

Annie Toro Lopez: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yes. What about you, [Stacy]?

Stacy Griffin: Well, both of you have picked two of my very favorites. I, I love "Green Sleeves" and, "Oh Come, Oh Come Emmanuel." is one of my favorites, but I love the old carols. Yeah, the really old ones like "Wexford" and "Coventry" and, and "Stratford."

I love, I love the old carols.

Annie Toro Lopez: Yeah.

Stacy Griffin: There's something so beautiful about, it's so beautiful. Them. That's why music is so powerful, is because it's primal. Music is primal. It's something that has always existed, that people have always made. It is a necessary part of anything important in our lives. Really. I mean, think about it.

Annie Toro Lopez: Absolutely.

Stacy Griffin: Weddings, birthdays, it doesn't matter what you're doing. There's music.

Annie Toro Lopez: Yeah.

Stacy Griffin: There's always gonna be music.

Annie Toro Lopez: Yes. And anything ritual? Any ritual. Again, like you said, forever. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Becky Miller: Thank you all for joining us. As we've mentioned a few different times, we love our holiday music. It is a great part of the season that makes us all very happy and it's one of the great ways that we find joy.

And honestly, when you have like autoimmune and chronic illness, it's a very easy way to find joy. Turn on the radio, go to YouTube, whatever it is we are going to have on YouTube, we are going to create a playlist of the songs that we talked about that are our favorite, Annie's favorites, and, um, we'll have that, we will also have a link to the YouTube playlist in our show notes.

We wish all of you a wonderful and peaceful holiday season, and please remember that you are worthy of joy. Disease does not define your life. You do.