VIDEO: BWW's 12 Days of Christmas with Guest Editor Richard Jay-Alexander; Day 1 - Barbra Streisand Sings 'Silent Night'

BroadwayWorld.com is, once again, celebrating the Holiday Season with a special 'countdown' which will reveal some favorite holiday-themed performances! For the 5th Anniversary of this Exclusive Feature, we've invited director/producer Richard Jay-Alexander to be our first-ever Guest Editor, to share with us HIS holiday favorites. His list will be composed of holiday songs and boasting performances with artists we know and love from Broadway and beyond. We'll bet that this countdown will surely get you into the holiday spirit, as the big day rolls around on December 25th, but we won't forget Chanukkah and Kwanza either. This is sure to be a 'Must Check-In Daily' event to see what's on RJA's list, while we wish you Happy Holidays from all of us at BroadwayWorld.com!

I was flattered and thrilled that Rob asked me to assemble some clips of Holiday Favorites for BWW's 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS Annual Feature. I've been having quite the YOUTUBE feast over the past few weeks. So ... WHO ELSE could I start with, if not Barbra Streisand?

I've chosen a live clip from her Television Special, BARBRA STREISAND: A Happening In Central Park. It was filmed in Central Park, in New York City, on June 17, 1967 and was a historic event on many fronts. It aired on CBS on September 16, 1968 and became a television event. In it she sang the song we all know as SILENT NIGHT to an enraptured audience - in JUNE! Very Barbra, VERY "out-of-the-box." A trailblazer always, she recorded the album called, BARBRA STREISAND / A CHRISTMAS ALBUM in London and Los Angeles.

It was released in 1967 and the cover photo was a photo taken at the dress rehearsal for "A Happening In Central Park" on June 16, 1967. Barbra's Christmas album was an enormous success and, that year, Billboard had special year-end weekly Christmas Album Charts. Barbra's album spent all 5 weeks on that chart at #1. On the album, she turned "Jingle Bells" upside down and turned a classic Rodgers & Hammerstein song, "My Favorite Things," from THE SOUND OF MUSIC into an instant Holiday Classic, as only she could do. But, then, the first cut on side 2 of the recording had "Sleep In Heavenly Peace (Silent Night)." The rest, as they say, is HISTORY! BIG HISTORY!

Barbra never did a Holiday television special of her own, so to "kick-off" the 12 DAYS ... I am offering Barbra, live in Central Park, singing SILENT NIGHT.