An older adult male wearing a white collared shirt in a festive indoor setting with string lights and decorations. 3:46
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Darius Rucker sings at a children's hospital

An old man playing Santa Claus hands out candy canes and smiles for free. Other people rush around with their lists to buy gifts that will end up wrapped under the tree. more

That's the busy town at the top of "What God Wants For Christmas," which Darius Rucker sings at the MUSC Children's Hospital with string lights and a decorated tree around him. Then the song pulls up at a red light. He's sitting there, looking at a manger scene and watching snowflakes kiss the baby. "And it makes me think," he sings.

A bald man with a goatee smiles, wearing a dark jacket over a white shirt beside a decorated tree. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
Darius Rucker smiles among the holiday decorations at the MUSC Children's Hospital.

The thought becomes the chorus. He wonders what God wants for Christmas, "something that you can't find in a store." Maybe peace on earth. Maybe no more empty seats in church.

After the chorus, the song turns the question around. He asks what you give someone who gave his only son. Then he tries an answer and sings, "What if we believe in him like he believes in us."

An older adult male wearing a white collared shirt in a festive indoor setting with string lights and decorations. The headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
An old man playing Santa Claus hands out candy canes and smiles for free.

Rucker spent years as the lead singer of Hootie & the Blowfish before this song landed on his Christmas album, "Home For The Holidays." He told Rolling Stone that making a Christmas album had been a lifelong dream. Nothing on this song's wish list costs a cent.

Near the end the list gets bolder, with every Bible free of dust and the devil given up. Then it comes back to plain kindness: "more sister, more brother, more lovin' one another." The last line drops the wondering. By now, he sings, we ought to know what God wants for Christmas.

A woman with dark hair in a black top looks ahead, with greenery and white flowers behind her. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
A woman looks ahead as the song reaches its biggest wishes.

Some of the people who were there that day, and their families, have written about it since. One person who was in the video says it still makes them cry. Another says the man with the white beard handing out candy canes is their great-uncle. And one parent writes that the little boy who gives Rucker a high five at the end is their son, who now gets to relive that day every year.

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