Christmas music the holiday in some way. Many tunes adopted into the Christmas canon fall into the generic Winter classification, as they carry no Christmas connotation at all. Others were written to celebrate other holidays and gradually came to cover the Christmas season. Borrowing from the title of the Robert Burns standard "Auld Lang Syne," Dan Fogelberg's "Same Old Lang Syne" (1980) tells a Christmas Eve story and is now frequently played during the holiday season. Perry Como famously sang Franz Schubert's setting of "Ave Maria" in his televised Christmas special each year, including the song on "The Perry Como Christmas Album"
Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush the 10th bestselling novel during 1896. The stories in the book recount some of MacLaren's experiences as a Free Church minister in rural Perthshire and blends humour and pathos with racy Scots dialogue. Maclaren mentions the Drumtochty Forest in the book. William Hole illustrated an 1896 Hodder & Stoughton edition of the book. In the U.S., Clifton Johnson illustrated an edition of the book as well as MacLaren's "The Days of Auld Lang Syne". He also illustrated works by Scottish author J.M. Barrie. Charles H. Gabriel wrote the music and produced songsheets for the song and dedicated it to Mclaren.