A Very Sufjan Christmas Update

The holiday season is upon us, and it’s time for another Sufjan Christmas update. 

As you might be able to guess by now, the printed edition of A Very Sufjan Christmas has not materialized yet. Did you guys know that making a book is hard? What’s more, I moved twice this past year: once from Denver to Oregon in the spring and then from Oregon to North Carolina in the fall. I probably don’t have to explain how much time, stress, and mental energy goes into moving–especially across the whole country, but needless to say, it’s been a busy year. 

I’m not trying to make excuses, only to paint a picture of what my 2023 has looked like to help you understand how and why this project has fallen by the wayside for months at a time. Even Swim Into The Sound, my DIY music blog, had a few dry spells throughout the year where no new writing was published. It is also worth noting that this is all happening alongside my full-time day job. 

But believe me when I say that A Very Sufjan Christmas is still one of my favorite things I’ve ever been a part of, and this book is still happening. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been traveling for the holidays, meeting new people, and, in a couple of instances, had the opportunity to explain the concept of this project. It’s not exactly something you lead with, ‘Hey, I run a Sufjan Stevens Christmas blog,’ but once I’m talking to someone for long enough and realize that they’re the type of dork-ass nerd that would appreciate that fact, I’ll reveal it to them. 

The response is almost always one of amazement and reverence, or at least that’s what it feels like to me. These interactions have acted as real-world affirmations that A Very Sufjan Christmas is a cool project, and I genuinely want to bring this work to life in a real way. 

For four years in a row, I assembled 25 pieces of writing from friends, colleagues, artists, and everyone in between. Together, we wrote about all 100 songs in Sufjan’s Christmas catalog, and that’s a fact I still look back on with pride. This project is as much yours as it is mine. Some of you have given me incredible stories and ruminations of holidays past, others have born their soul and used these songs as jumping-off points to something much more profound. Family drama, religious trauma, and funny little elf dances, the content on this site truly runs the gamut, and that’s what I love about it. 

All this to say, hey, the book isn’t coming out this holiday season, but in the new year, I’m determined to bring this project to life in a way that honors these stories and their source material. Printing these essays isn’t something I take lightly or want to half-ass. I’m also undertaking this (mostly) solo with only a surface-level knowledge of book printing, design know-how, and editing prowess. In a way, I’m in over my head, but that’s part of the fun, right?

I hope this all makes sense, and you’ll forgive me for committing to a timeline I couldn’t hold up. Sometimes life gets in the way and that’s something I still struggle to reconcile at times. 

If you’re looking for some seasonal Sufjan fun this holiday, our entire archive of all 100 essays can be found in this hub. Alternatively, if you want a slightly more-designed experience, you can get a taste of the book we’re making through three different sample chapters we put together last year, all of which are available as PDFs for free. Part of me hopes this wealth of fantastic writing can tide people over not just this holiday season, but indefinitely, just as the original 100 songs have for so many years. 

Running this website has been one of the most fulfilling projects of my life, and it’s an honor to have helped bring these stories into the world, all in the name of celebrating our mutual favorite Christmas music. With any luck, by this time next year, I’ll have a more concrete thing to share with you all, but until then, I hope you all have an amazing holiday however you choose to celebrate. These are scary and uncertain times, but every day I consider myself lucky to be here, taking in the world and experiencing the beauty it brings. This feeling is amplified tenfold during the holidays, and I hope you can feel that Christmas Spirit bleeding through in everything I do, say, and write. 

Thank you for understanding, thank you for your patience, and thank you for spending any portion of your holiday here. 

– Taylor