'White Wine In The Sun' On A Hot Christmas Day

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SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Tim Minchin, the comic singer and songwriter, came to our studio on a hot, sticky summer day earlier this year and said it reminded him of Christmas - at home in Australia. Mr. Minchin's proudly a skeptic and abhors what he calls the commercialization of an ancient religion to sell Playstations and beer, but I quite like the songs. When he and his wife first moved to London, the winter nights felt cold and lonely. December came and they ached for the Christmases they knew, filled with sun, family and white wine. So, Tim Minchin wrote a new kind of Christmas carol for his family, dreaming of home where at Christmas they drink white wine in the sun.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WHITE WINE IN THE SUN")

TIM MINCHIN: (Singing) 'Cause I'll be seeing my dad, my brother and sisters, my gran and my mum. They'll be drinking white wine in the sun. I'll be seeing my dad, my brother and sisters, my gran and my mum. They'll be drinking white wine in the sun. And you, my baby girl, my jetlagged infant daughter, you'll be handed 'round the room, like a puppy at a primary school. And you won't understand, but you will learn someday, that wherever you are and whatever you face, these are the people who'll make you feel safe in this world, my sweet blue-eyed girl. And if, my baby girl, when you're 21 or 31, and Christmas comes around, and you find yourself 9,000 miles from home, you'll know what ever comes, your brother and sisters and me and your mum will be waiting for you in the sun when Christmas comes. Your brothers and sisters, your aunts and your uncles, your grandparents, cousins and me and your mum, we'll be waiting for you in the sun, drinking white wine in the sun. Darling, when Christmas comes, we'll be waiting for you in the sun, drinking white wine in the sun, waiting for you in the sun, waiting. I really like Christmas, it's sentimental, I know.

SIMON: Tim Minchin singing "White Wine in the Sun" in Studio 4A earlier this year. This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. A good holiday to you. I'm Scott Simon.

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