Red snow? A most unexpected modern standard for the holidays

By DAVID BAUDER
AP Media Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — When he sat down at his parents’ house to write a simple, melodic song for his band Fleet Foxes’ debut album, Robin Pecknold had no idea he’d be writing a modern-day holiday standard. But unexpectedly, that’s what “White Winter Hymnal” has turned into, a staple for choirs at school assemblies across the nation. It’s a song with ethereal beauty and lyrics — like a falling child turning “the white snow red as strawberries in the summertime” — that make no one think of “Jingle Bells.” Composer Robin Pecknold marvels at the randomness of it all, and even he has trouble explaining what it’s about.