Kristin Chenoweth: ‘Jesus Was The Gift All Mankind Needed’
By Movieguide® Contributor
Kristin Chenoweth is one of many who know that the true meaning of Christmas doesn’t have anything to do with presents. In a Guideposts essay, the actress wrote about the gift that taught her what the holiday is all about.
Chenoweth recalled the item she wanted more than anything when she was 16 years old: Gloria Vanderbilt jeans.
“I imagined all the heads that would turn as I walked down the halls of my Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, high school in my sleek new Vanderbilts,” the actress shared. “I wasn’t a mean girl or anything. In fact, I was a pretty good kid. But something about those jeans got ahold of my imagination and wouldn’t let go. I had to have them!”
However, on Christmas Day, Chenoweth opened the present from her parents to see…a cheerleading jacket.
“I knew the jacket was a big deal: made to order and expensive,” she explained. “And we weren’t a rich family…I knew it was something I’d need to have later in the year. Getting your letter jacket is a big high school moment, right up there with getting your class ring. But for a Christmas present? When I was totally expecting those Gloria Vanderbilt jeans? Really?”
As Chenoweth hid her disappointment and thanked her parents for the jacket, she caught sight of the nativity scene displayed in their home.
“Jesus wasn’t the Messiah—the gift—that many people expected,” the actress said. “Not that king who would reign from a palace, the powerful figure Herod feared would lead mighty armies with his sword.”
She continued, “On that first Christmas, Jesus entered our world in so humble a way that no one could have imagined it. Yet he was the gift all mankind needed.”
Chenoweth shared that she “grew up” that day, learning that “what is given in love should be accepted with love.
“Ever since that Christmas, I’ve tried to look at what seem like disappointments differently,” Chenoweth explained. “Sometimes you don’t get what you want. Sometimes what you get is even better. A blessing, in fact. A disappointment can be the way you are shown the direction you are meant to go in, not necessarily the one you want. Sometimes disappointments morph into miracles.”
Chenoweth loves the Christmas season, and has even recorded a Christmas album. Movieguide® previously reported:
Actress and singer Kristin Chenoweth said that A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS is at the heart of her new Christmas album, “Happiness Is… Christmas.”
“I wanted to do another Christmas song because, frankly, it makes me happy,” Chenoweth toldGuideposts Magazine. “The music makes everybody happy. And when I was looking at the song selection, I knew that I wanted to do something that had to do with my deep DNA, which is Charlie Brown.”
“The name of the record is ‘Happiness is … Christmas,’” she added. “So what we did is we melded two songs together from CHARLIE BROWN the movie, and another song from the musical…”
The mashup includes lyrics like “Happiness is two kinds of ice cream / Building a snowman, climbing a tree,” alongside “Christmas time is here / Joyful everywhere,” Chenoweth explained.
“It’s a very special way to open the record,” she added. “And it goes from there to the Carpenters to Kay Starr to the blues.”
Aside from covering some holiday classics, Chenoweth’s album also includes an original comedic song called “Santa, I’ve Got a Bone to Pick with You.”
“We have an original piece called ‘Santa, I’ve got a Bone to Pick with You.’ And it’s basically about all the times that we thought we were getting something and we didn’t. So anyway, we wrote a kind of funny [song] for that.”
Chenoweth said that her hope for the album is to help listeners discover new music and celebrate old classics this Christmas season.
“This album of mine, it’s eclectic. And I hope people walk away going, wow, ‘My Dear Acquaintance,’ Peggy Lee. I didn’t even know that song,” she said. I hope they walk away knowing a lot of the music and then learning some too.”
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