Customer Reviews

The Christmas Shoes

5 star:		(41)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(24)

 

 

Last Christmas, radio stations were playing "Christmas Shoes". Just in case you missed it, here's the Chorus:

Sir, I want to buy these shoes for my Mama, please
It's Christmas Eve and these shoes are just her size
Could you hurry, sir, Daddy says there's not much time
You see she's been sick for quite a while
And I know these shoes would make her smile
And I want her to look beautiful if Mama meets Jesus tonight

So it's worth buying the album for that one song, but every song on this album is GREAT! I love their opening track Christmastime is Here/Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. Sing Noel is one of my favorites on the album. Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree is such fun to listen to! Then they stuck "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch". I like their version of it better than the Go Fish version on their Christmas album "More Than a Story".

You will recognize "Light Your World" - it was written in 1989, and I had never heard it on an album - just on the radio. So that was a wonderful surprise! And I liked what they did with the traditional Christmas carols. Sometimes they're changed so much in trying to make them unique that they aren't at all appealling! You will surely enjoy the lush orchestration on all these wonderful Christmas carols.

The original songs "As the World Slept" and "Christmas Carol" will become a favorites. Listen carefully to the lyrics - unfortunately the liner notes have the lyrics for just one song -Christmas Shoes.

NewSong's rendition of "O Holy Night" is majestic and moving! A fitting end for a great Christmas CD!

May God bless you as you celebrate Jesus' birth this Christmas season!

Please check out my other reviews of Christmas CDs, other Christian CDs, and Chrsitian books.

This CD will be a treat for my sister with its mixture of religious tunes (Sing Noel, As the World Slept, Light Your World), a touching story tune (The Christmas Shoes), and something fun (You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch).
The rather breathless singing style, with the piano and rich string background, are pleasant enough listening.
Sure the Christmas Shoes song has the rather maudlin style of those never-ending stories circulated on the internet and after awhile might get on one's nerves. With an 11 month break between listenings, it should be fine.

There seems to be more cynics at Christmas than any other holiday. They take the songs and hope of the Christmas season and try to degrade it into something that is cheap and dirty. The "Christmas Shoes" is about hope, love and life. That is what this season is about, not about the world degrading the hope of people. Yes the song is sad, but it also about what love can do. Many Christmas songs are like this song, speaking not only of sadness and loss, but also of the hope of the world to see a better year ahead. That is what the Christmas Season is - hope for us all and a sense of love for others.

As for this song being just a Christian song, many people have not listened to the song closely. The song does not mention Christian tenets. It does mention Jesus and God, but as sense of hope for the Characters of the song. The song was not meant to beat anyone over the head.

Listen to the "Christmas Shoes" and other songs on the album for the beauty of the music and the hope that the world can be beautiful, even when life is not always happy or as great as our expectations. The music will lift your spirits if you let it.

Such a bad song. I mean, SO bad. Beyond bad. Mind-bogglingly bad.
Stupid lyrics, lousy music. Just bad.
And for the record, I am a married mother of two and am active in my church. You don't have to be anti-Christian or a child-hater to know an incredibly bad song when you hear one. And since when is being something other than Christian a character flaw, anyway? For people supposedly filled with the Christmas spirit, some of these reviewers seem awfully judgemental and mean-spirited.

when I first heard "christmas shoes" it made me cry. My mom had died recently and it just touched my heart. Glad I had the chance to buy it. They even through in a new case, as the case it is in is cracked.
thanks.

First off, I've not heard the album, nor do I intend to. Not being of mainstream religion myself, I don't often by albums that are specifically Christian. But I still want to comment on the title track of this album in particular.

I've never seen this song as preaching the Christian faith...I certainly didn't know the group that recorded it *was* Christian until recently. Wouldn't have affected how I feel about it anyway. To my mind it's a song about realising that a)Christmas is a time to be thinking of others than yourself and b) That the commericialism shouldn't be what the season is about (no matter WHAT your faith).

Secondly, a lot of people are missing something really important here. The song is a rendition of a much older story...book and movie came *after* song, the story "The Golden Slippers" came before..and no one knows who wrote it. The song changed the events of the story somewhat, in the original the ages of the children are given (5 and 6ish), and the last line isn't the now well known "when mamma meets Jesus"...but "Wouldn't she look beautiful on those streets in these shoes".

Look up the full story, it's only a few paragraphs long, and tells a little more of what the song is actually about without all the things that people here seem to detest so.

When I first heard "Christmas Shoes" on the radio, I honestly thought it was a parody. To me, it seemed to run along the same lines as David Brant's Music video in "The Office Christmas Special," or Eric Cartman's "Swiss Colony Beef Log," from the South Park Christmas Album. All three of these songs are hilarious because their subject matter is about as rediculous as it gets, the music is overly sappy with a chord structure that could be written by a twelve year old, and the singing is so overemotional that one can't help but laugh.

The problem with "Christmas Shoes" is that it's serious. It makes me sad that music like this can be a hit while so many talented musicians and song writers are struggling to get by.

I'm sure the members of Newsong are fine people, but it blows me away that music like this can be taken seriously by anyone.

I was suppose to give this CD as a birthday present, but decided not to,and I am so glad I kept it. But now I am going to order another for my friend I was originally going to give it to as an early Christmas Present because it's my favorite of the year and she will love it too! I especially like #3 Christmas Shoes, #11 Christmas Carol and #6 Light Your World. The story in the songs can really touch your heart. If I had Alzheimers, I would want to be just like Christmas Carol. And these are not your typical Christmas songs. But I also love the renditions of the regular Christmas songs. Newsong made them all new songs! They're great!!

Note to self: Add "heave" to to-do list.

One of the other reviewers pontificated that those who do not like this song "must not be Christian".

Dead annoying, that.

I'm Christian...a devout, practicing one, and I detest this song. Being a Christian does not negate the ability to recognize a cheesy plebian hack job when I see it.

What does being a Christian have to do with it? What a close-minded, judgmental, condescending thing to say.

This song, IMO, is simply a poorly written, poorly executed attempt to pull at heartstrings. If the author's Very Cunning Plan had succeeded, great. But this one fails miserably. Phrases like "you see, sir..." would probably have most of the Saints in heaven rolling their eyes and reaching for the Mylanta.

It's like a lot of Christian Rock. The message might be positive, but a badly written song is a bad song, regardless of its message.

Nothing will make this turkey fly.

I have looked for at least a year and a half for the Christmas Shoes cd by New Song. When I would ask anyone they would look at me like I didn't know what I was talking about. I finally found the cd on Amazon.com and I am VERY satisfied and happy to have found it. :) I recommend anyone to shop Amazon especially for hard to find cd's.