My holiday season was extended slightly when, a few days after Christmas, I received a copy of I Played My Best for Him! The Inspiring Stories Behind the Little Drummer Boy & Other Christmas Favorites for review. It's a slim book, around just 80 pages, and it describes the origins of 13 popular Christmas carols.

Author Olapeju Simoyan -- who is also an addiction medicine physician, professor, photographer and, more to the point of this book, musician -- had released a recording of the same 13 Christmas songs in 2023, and she wrote this book of essays as a companion piece, relating the history of each. Originally published in 2024, the book was reissued a year later with a new forward and postscript.

The book takes its titles from a line in "The Little Drummer Boy," aka "Carol of the Drum," which is discussed in the first chapter in the book. Other carols included in the book are "What Child is This?," "Angels from the Realms of Glory," "Joy to the World," "Angels We Have Heard on High," "O Holy Night," "Mary's Boy Child," "O Come, O Come Emmanuel," "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear," "Silver Bells," "I'll Be Home for Christmas," "Silent Night," and "Feliz Navidad."

Simoyan details the circumstances that led to each song's composition. Some began as poems, while others were written for church services. In at least one case, the music came before the lyrics, and in several instances the words were written without any music at all, but were later set to existing melodies.

Most of the carols included here are of the sacred variety, and the author writes about those with an unapologetic tone of faith and reverence.

The 13 entries are fairly brief, just a few pages each, and Simoyan often includes the lyrics -- sometimes in more than one language, if English wasn't the language in which it was written. She tells readers a bit about the writers and composers behind each carol, and when known she explains what inspired them to write them.

Anyone who enjoys Christmas music will likely enjoy learning the origins of a baker's dozen well-known carols. Frankly, I wish Simoyan hadn't stopped with the 13 on her recording; she easily could have filled a much longer book by researching additional Christmas songs. (Heck, it could probably be a series.)

Simoyan has combined her writing with her other interests in several books, such as The Amazing World of Butterflies and Giraffes are Amazing (photography) and Girls Become Doctors & Much More and Navigating the Methadone Maze: A Guide for Patients & Professionals (medicine). According to materials provided with the book, she has also released a companion devotional, Heartfelt Offerings, which expands on the themes of I Played My Best for Him! with "25 days of reflections, questions and creative activities inspired by beloved carols."