So that we don't forget those who have not a family to celebrate these days. Merry Christmas everyone, and specially to them. Featuring Nirva Dorsaint.

Thanks to DanMex who let me know this song by posting a home video version of it. You can watch it here: This Christmas.

Joy to the world
Let heaven and nature sing
Let heaven and nature sing

Now Johny's never got his wish on December 25
That's what he said when he left the orphanage
9 years old, but Johny was an old soul
Gonna spend his first Christmas in a real home
Showed me a picture that he drew the night before
Was a picture of a man standin' outside a door
I asked him who it was, he said someone I only see in dreams
Comforts me when I cry myself to sleep

Father of the fatherless
Be with your sons and daughters this Christmas
This Christmas

Believe in angels?
Johny asked me starin' at the sky
I said I do and saw a sparkle in his eye
Big brother for the weekend respondin' to the season
Took the chance that givin's better than receivin'
Two nights, a new family, some holiday cheer
We laughed and sang
Came on a midnight clear
We gave, received, and as we headed to close
We looked to the heavens and it started to snow down blessings

Father of the fatherless
Be with your sons and daughters this Christmas
(You ain't livin' till you choose to give love and joy and peace to one of His)
Father let us not forget
The children who are all alone this Christmas
(You ain't livin' till you choose to give, you ain't livin' till you choose to give)

      (James 1:27)
Religion that God our Father
Accepts as pure and faultless is this
To look after orphans and widows in their distress
Merry Christmas everyone

Joy to the world
The Lord is come
Let heaven and nature sing
Let heaven and nature sing
Let heaven and nature sing
Let heaven and nature sing

Believe in angels Jonnie asked me starin' at the sky
I said I do and saw a sparkle in his eye
9 years old, but Jonnie was an old soul
Gonna spend is next Christmas in a real home

Father of the fatherless
Be with your sons and daughters this Christmas
(You ain't livin' till you choose to give love and joy and peace to one of His)
Father let us not forget
The children who are all alone this Christmas
(You ain't livin' till you choose to give, you ain't livin' till you choose to give)
Father of the fatherless
Be with your sons and daughters this Christmas
Let Heaven and nature sing
Let Heaven and nature sing
Father let us not forget
The children who are all alone this Christmas
(You ain't livin' til you choose to give, you ain't livin' till you choose to give)

You ain't livin'
You ain't livin'
Oh, Father, this Christmas don't leave them all alone
This Christmas

Merry Christmas Everyone

JOY= Happiness.
The lines "joy to the world..." are part of a very famous traditional English Christmas carol.

ORPHANAGE= A place for children who have no parents.

WAS AN OLD SOUL= (soul = spirit) He was not a child, he had a lot of experience on how hard life may be.

GONNA= (coll.) Is going to.

COMFORTS= Brings me peace and makes me feel good when I'm bad.

I CRY MYSELF TO SLEEP= I cry until I fall asleep.

THE FATHERLESS= All the children without a father.
"Father" here refers to God, so he is "Father of the fatherless", He is a father for those who have no father.

STARING= Looking intensely.

A SPARKLE= A sudden light.

BIG BROTHER= In America some young people volunteer to act as a "big brother" (= older brother) for children who need an older boy reference (usually because they have no father and lack a male reference in his family). For girls you can say "big sister". In this song, TobyMac is volunteering to be little Johny's big brother for the weekend, so he can leave the orphan house and spend Christmas in a real family. The other use of "Big Brother" as a reference to an all-controlling government comes from the novel "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley, a world totally controlled by the dictatorship and full of notices reading "Big Brother's watching you"; the sadly popular reality show "Big Brother" on the televisions of half the world makes a reference to this meaning (but this has nothing to do with the meaning in this song).

RESPONDING TO THE SEASON= Doing what one should do at Christmas time.

CHEER= Happiness.

BLESSINGS= Good things (especially coming from God)

AIN'T= (coll.) Are not.
This form may be the negative for the verb "to be" and "to have" in the present.

WIDOWS= Women whose husband died.
Especially in old times (or in many parts of the world today) women didn't work outside home, so if their husband died they had no money at all. That is why in the Bible there are many references to take care of widows and orphans, because they were the weakest and most vulnerable part of the society.

FAULTLESS= Without fault, perfect.

DISTRESS= Hard situation, suffering.

This is the story of a man who takes a little orphan home for Christmas so the child can celebrate it in a real family. This may be the beginning of an adoption process or simply one of those social programmes where orphans are send to a family for some days on a special occasion but then they have to come back to the orphan house (this happens specially if they do have a father or a mother but they can't take care of them, for example because they are drug-addicts or a prostitute or something).