As he launches into a new national tour of Christmas concerts, DAVID ADAMS speaks to Colin Buchanan about what people can expect, the power of Christmas carols, and the part of the Christmas story that’s really resonating with him at the moment…
Australian family entertainer Colin Buchanan is holding a series of concerts at venues around Australia in the lead-up to Christmas. The 58-year-old father of four and grandfather of three spoke to Sight about what people can expect at the concerts, the power of Christmas carols, and the part of the Christmas story that’s really resonating with him at the moment…
Good to speak with you again. You’re about to embark on a national Christmas tour. What can people expect?
“Well, it’s a lovely opportunity to create a concert around my Christmas songs – I’ve not really done that, certainly not as a tour before – so, of course, I can inject my Christmas material, a few favourites along the way. But I love that Christmas affords us an opportunity; it has this dual sense of celebration just as a society, regardless of how you understand the origins of Christmas, if you like, but there’s a sense of celebration and it’s wonderful to plug into that. And there’s sort of an openness, I think, to Christians presenting what it is that we believe about the significance of Christmas in the birth of Jesus. So I’m blessed in that I’ve plugged into both sides because I’ve got all my Aussie Christmas songs – particularly Aussie Jingle Bells [which] has just been a huge part of Australian Christmas culture – and then I also able to sing my songs about the birth of Jesus and there’s a great exuberance that comes from just sharing it together. So it’s a ‘Colin show’, you know, with all the mayhem and madness and fun and it’s a bit of a Christmas party as well.”
Colin Buchanan gets in the festive spirit. PICTURE: Supplied.
IN SHORT – COLIN BUCHANAN
A favourite Christmas carol…”Joy to the World – Google the lyrics and look at everything that has been packed into the beauty of the poetry. It’s remarkable. It’s a titanium song, that one.”
An inspiring Christmas character?…”I think Mary. I think she’s been my current inspiring Christmas character.”
A place that’s special to you at Christmas?…”Even though it’s not Christmas, we’ve been to the south coast of New South Wales a lot in summer [just after Christmas]. It’s a really nice thought.”
What made you decide to do hold the concerts this year?
“COVID brought a big reset for everyone, you know, it brought a great interruption, and I was probably thinking anyway ‘What are some different things and different ways that I might try what I do because I’ve been doing it in a similar way for long time’. So I think this this this came off the back of that and I thought ‘Well, you know, God willing, the opportunity is there to travel and to have big events together’. And I’ve really missed momentum of regularly doing that so we’ve taken the first opportunity in a sense – the first Christmas where there haven’t been restrictions, we hope – to try something new…It is a bit of an experiment.”
You mentioned Aussie Jingle Bells which, of course, will be a highlight. Any other particular Christmas songs you’ll be singing?
“I think the Christmas carols are some of the great greatest hymns – greatest songs really – ever written and so…there are quite a few carols but they form a cameo. I do love, you know, the Christmas story – it’s something that is great to craft songs around. I’ve got two Christmas albums and there’s a strong narrative theme, obviously, because it is a great story, and then there’s a strong, if you like, theological theme, of what does this story mean?…[T]hat’s rich subject matter and there’s a great deal of joy and wonder, so I’m hoping to capture something of [that].
“I will say, too, of having just recently had our first grand-daughter [Elsie], that holding a newborn as Mary did with Jesus – well, that’s brought a real richness to approaching the Christmas concert in choosing the songs and even just, as I sing the songs, thinking about the mixture of the Christmas story [including] the frailty of the baby – just potential and beauty and sort of a reverence – and then there’s the power and the big story of God’s plan through the Christ-child, through Jesus, and that’s a grand, sweeping, worldwide, eternity-wide plan. So they’re great things to sing about.”
What’s your favourite part of the Christmas story – something that really resonates with you?”
“[Prior to this interview] I was working on a song that is a Christmas song – not for this tour, actually, but as [part of a collaboration with Keith Getty]. But I’ve been looking at it from that personal [view] – ‘come and join the angels singing praises’, ‘come and join the shepherds seeking Jesus’, ‘come and join the Wise Men giving a gift’. And it finishes with ‘come and join Mary who’s filled with wonder’ and, looking at it again this morning – at Mary receiving the message that she would be the mother of the Christ-child and…at God’s big purposes intersecting with in her life, I just love the end of all this story where there’s been angels and shepherds and all that stuff and it just says ‘Mary treasured these things in her heart’. You just have a picture where it all sort of zooms down to a mother holding a baby and her personal response to that, what’s happening in her heart, is something that lodged itself in this grand story. And I think that’s beautiful.”
What’s a typical Christmas look like for you? What do you do on the day?
“Well, you know, it’s a family gathering. I love to get up early and we do have the Santa presents which have persisted…we love that. This year will be the first Christmas we wake up with no-one else in the house because our son is getting married in just over a week’s time which is very exciting. So, yeah, we generally go to church the night before, we go to a Christmas Eve service, so our Christmas Day is very much a family day. We take it in turns in our extended family so sometimes it’s our house and you know, [there’s] all the food and the smells and the energy and excitement is happening for the feast…Generally there’s a couple of days of that…It’s one those things that dragging out is not a bad that, it’s a great thing.”
What is 2023 looking like for you? Any new albums in the wind?
“I have a country album that I’m keen to release but I also returned from a recent Nashville trip and the team from CityAlight, who I’ve done some collaboration with – particularly on Jesus Strong and Kind, a song that’s found great traction here and overseas – [approached me] and they said ‘Let’s do a little EP of that, let’s do some more’…So that’s something that will be happening in the beginning of the new year and we’re writing for that now…
“[I’m also] currently asking for churches to apply for me to do concerts on my tours…We had some great success with that last year and it was really nice. It meant that I did some tours in areas that I otherwise hadn’t travelled to – regional areas – and I really loved that. So, yeah, we’re just trying to get the word out about that…These Christmas concerts are a little less grassroots and a bit more big venues so I’m looking forward to it. I’ve always had that partnership with churches which is a really precious thing.”
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If you had a Christmas message for people this year what would it be?
“The message of the first Christmas was ‘Good News’ for everyone because to us a Saviour is born. We’re no strangers to bad news and we tend to think of the bad news as particularly unique to our time and I suppose nobody likes experiencing hardship of one sort or another, but I love that the Christmas story remains and that Good News is good news that fills valleys and levels mountains. At a personal level, Jesus has brought hope in my life that is stronger than life or death, that has endured through the seasons of my life, and I continue to seek to follow Him and, not only embrace that hope, but be embraced by that hope and love. That’s the power of it really – He’s a saviour, He saves…It’s that the hope of Christmas endures, I suppose, not as an idea but as God’s presence with us.”
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Colin Buchanan’s BIG CHRISTMAS CONCERT! will be held at venues across Australia from Friday, 18th November, to Monday, 19th December. For venues and dates – and to buy tickets, head to https://colinbuchanan.com.au/blogs/shows.
