ADVENT DAY 22: Christmas Music

In this episode of the Church Potluck Advent Calendar, Dale is joined by the always evocative and thoughtful Dr. Michael Bailey for a wide-ranging conversation about why sacred Christmas music so often resonates more deeply than its secular counterparts. Dr. Bailey offers a gentle but compelling reflection—not rooted in nostalgia or piety, but in musical depth—suggesting that the power of sacred Christmas music lies in how the Incarnation itself shapes the music’s emotional and spiritual weight.

Drawing on his upbringing in a Unitarian context, where Christmas music wasn’t divided into “church” and “secular,” Dr. Bailey explains how sacred Christmas music nonetheless became profoundly meaningful to him—not through doctrine or argument, but through beauty, longing, and what artists like Nick Cave describe as duende: that mysterious ache or yearning present in great art. Advent, he suggests, carries this same longing, making Christmas music uniquely capable of holding joy and sorrow together.

This episode invites listeners to listen more closely to the music of the season and to consider how Christmas songs—especially sacred ones—echo the deeper human yearning for God with us.

The views expressed on Church Potluck are solely those of the participants and do not represent any organization.