The Christmas Shoes
I just got back from lunch and I had to come comment about a song I heard while eating. I was listening to a station that is playing nothing but Christmas music until the day after Christmas day. I admit, the main reason I'm listening is because before Thanksgiving, back when they were playing regular music, they started a contest called the Cash Clock contest.
You e-mail, I'm sorry, g-mail them your name (The station is WGNI and they just go by GNI so they call it G-Mail.) and phone number and everything and every hour they draw a name. And that person has 102.7 seconds to call in and if they make it in time they get a job with GNI and are put on the cash clock. They make $25 an hour and only have to do a few things, like they record an ad ("This is [winners name] and I'm this hour's cash clock winner on GNI! Now back to [DJ who happens to be on's name] with more non-stop Christmas Classics!"), they introduce songs ("This is [winners name] this hour's cash clock winner, and next on GNI is [artist's name] with [song]"), they sometimes do weather stuff (either "This is [winners name] this hours cash clock winner, and now here is [DJ's name] with the weather!" or the DJ says "You're listening to [DJ's name] on WGNI, and now it's time for our hourly weather report with [Winner's name] this hour's cash clock winner! [Winner's name]?" and the winner goes "It is currently [temperature] in Wilmington, with [rain/snow/cloudy skies/sun/wind], tonight will be [rainy/snowy/cloudy/clear/windy] with a low in the [temperature].")
Anyway, point is, I signed up. So that's pretty much why I'm listening. Oh, and each hour they draw a new name, if the person doesn't call in the previous hour's winner stays on for another hour. Thursday's are the Christmas bonus day, $50/hr. One gal was lucky enough to be on an hour the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, they skipped Thanksgiving, but it seems so many people were busy shopping and decorating Friday that she was on for like 5 hours or whatever, last I had heard she was up to $175.
Anyway, before I forget my original point, they played a song called "The Christmas Shoes" by a group called Newsong. It is rapidly moving up in the ranks of my favorite Christmas songs. It's very touching. The song originated with a story circulating the internet, the band caught wind and wrote the song based on the story, a woman heard it and wrote a book which made the NY Bestseller List and sold out it's first printing in like, a month. Then CBS turned it into a movie that aired last year, and starred Rob Lowe.
The story revolves around a man and a boy, which this is what the song is about, I'm sure the book and movie go into more detail of their individual lives. But this is the meat and bones of the story. It's Christmas Eve, and the man, having a crisis of Christmas faith, is at a store, I think like a Sears, Kohl's or Belk's type store, picking up some last minute gifts. He's waiting in line behind a young boy, who is there all alone. The boy is dirty, his clothes are faded, dirty, and tattered, he's pacing around a bit in line and has in his hands, a pair of shoes. Finally the boy gets up to the counter and puts up the shoes and says, (and this is the chorus of the song, which is told from the man's POV with him quoting the little boy here, and I'm quoting them both) "Sir, I wanna 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. See Mama's been sick for quite a while, and I know these shoes will make her smile. And I want her to look beautiful if Mama meets Jesus tonight." I teared up just typing that, so if there's a mistake from there out I apologize. So the little boy empties his pockets, and he and the clerk count up all his pennies he brought, but the clerk says there's not enough. The boy is upset and turns to the man behind him and asks (and I'm paraphrasing the song here) what he can do, because he just has to have those shoes! Mama always made Christmas good in their house though most years she just did without. He wants really badly to buy her these Christmas shoes (repeat chorus), so the man gives him the rest of the money he needs and the little boy thanks him so much and says he knows his mama will look so pretty in them and the man says he'll never forget the look on the boys face and that he supposes he say a glimpse of Heaven's glow just then. And he realizes that god sent this boy and him together to remind the man what Christmas is all about (The chorus plays again after this realization, but it's not the man singing this time, instead they have a choir of children, which is even more heartbreaking.)
In case you hadn't already guessed, Newsong is a christian group, but that doesn't stop me from loving this song. It's so heartbreaking. I cry, no, I sob everytime I hear it, and I just get worse and worse as it goes and when the children sing I completely break down. Today I had to push my food away because I was sobbing so hard, and when it stopped and I could clear my eyes there was a puddle of tears on the table. Same thing happened yesterday at this desk when I heard it, and there ended up being a tear puddle on the desk.
I would love to get it on MP3, I tried downloading it, but every time it stops right before the children's choir. So if any of my friends know and love this song and happen to have it... please send it to me!
You e-mail, I'm sorry, g-mail them your name (The station is WGNI and they just go by GNI so they call it G-Mail.) and phone number and everything and every hour they draw a name. And that person has 102.7 seconds to call in and if they make it in time they get a job with GNI and are put on the cash clock. They make $25 an hour and only have to do a few things, like they record an ad ("This is [winners name] and I'm this hour's cash clock winner on GNI! Now back to [DJ who happens to be on's name] with more non-stop Christmas Classics!"), they introduce songs ("This is [winners name] this hour's cash clock winner, and next on GNI is [artist's name] with [song]"), they sometimes do weather stuff (either "This is [winners name] this hours cash clock winner, and now here is [DJ's name] with the weather!" or the DJ says "You're listening to [DJ's name] on WGNI, and now it's time for our hourly weather report with [Winner's name] this hour's cash clock winner! [Winner's name]?" and the winner goes "It is currently [temperature] in Wilmington, with [rain/snow/cloudy skies/sun/wind], tonight will be [rainy/snowy/cloudy/clear/windy] with a low in the [temperature].")
Anyway, point is, I signed up. So that's pretty much why I'm listening. Oh, and each hour they draw a new name, if the person doesn't call in the previous hour's winner stays on for another hour. Thursday's are the Christmas bonus day, $50/hr. One gal was lucky enough to be on an hour the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, they skipped Thanksgiving, but it seems so many people were busy shopping and decorating Friday that she was on for like 5 hours or whatever, last I had heard she was up to $175.
Anyway, before I forget my original point, they played a song called "The Christmas Shoes" by a group called Newsong. It is rapidly moving up in the ranks of my favorite Christmas songs. It's very touching. The song originated with a story circulating the internet, the band caught wind and wrote the song based on the story, a woman heard it and wrote a book which made the NY Bestseller List and sold out it's first printing in like, a month. Then CBS turned it into a movie that aired last year, and starred Rob Lowe.
The story revolves around a man and a boy, which this is what the song is about, I'm sure the book and movie go into more detail of their individual lives. But this is the meat and bones of the story. It's Christmas Eve, and the man, having a crisis of Christmas faith, is at a store, I think like a Sears, Kohl's or Belk's type store, picking up some last minute gifts. He's waiting in line behind a young boy, who is there all alone. The boy is dirty, his clothes are faded, dirty, and tattered, he's pacing around a bit in line and has in his hands, a pair of shoes. Finally the boy gets up to the counter and puts up the shoes and says, (and this is the chorus of the song, which is told from the man's POV with him quoting the little boy here, and I'm quoting them both) "Sir, I wanna 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. See Mama's been sick for quite a while, and I know these shoes will make her smile. And I want her to look beautiful if Mama meets Jesus tonight." I teared up just typing that, so if there's a mistake from there out I apologize. So the little boy empties his pockets, and he and the clerk count up all his pennies he brought, but the clerk says there's not enough. The boy is upset and turns to the man behind him and asks (and I'm paraphrasing the song here) what he can do, because he just has to have those shoes! Mama always made Christmas good in their house though most years she just did without. He wants really badly to buy her these Christmas shoes (repeat chorus), so the man gives him the rest of the money he needs and the little boy thanks him so much and says he knows his mama will look so pretty in them and the man says he'll never forget the look on the boys face and that he supposes he say a glimpse of Heaven's glow just then. And he realizes that god sent this boy and him together to remind the man what Christmas is all about (The chorus plays again after this realization, but it's not the man singing this time, instead they have a choir of children, which is even more heartbreaking.)
In case you hadn't already guessed, Newsong is a christian group, but that doesn't stop me from loving this song. It's so heartbreaking. I cry, no, I sob everytime I hear it, and I just get worse and worse as it goes and when the children sing I completely break down. Today I had to push my food away because I was sobbing so hard, and when it stopped and I could clear my eyes there was a puddle of tears on the table. Same thing happened yesterday at this desk when I heard it, and there ended up being a tear puddle on the desk.
I would love to get it on MP3, I tried downloading it, but every time it stops right before the children's choir. So if any of my friends know and love this song and happen to have it... please send it to me!