I know Christmas is coming too early when I hear "Feliz Navidad" for the first time in mid-November and my first reaction, instead of singing in exaltation, is to hiss, "Jesus Christ. Already?!" My family was never big and outlandish about Christmas, but my mom was pretty solid about nothing being erected until after Thanksgiving. It also never really started to feel like Christmas until school was out, so I've never gotten the full Christmas spirit until about a week and half before the 25th. Of course as an adult I don't get "out" until the 23rd, but that just means the freedom glee will feel that much sweeter I suppose.
Nowadays I avoid commercial radio until I'm good and darned ready to hear the songs that I love, because let's face it, there are only so many times you can hear your favorite Christmas songs before it starts to feel a bit too drawn out. I tuned up my Pandora holiday station yesterday and discovered that one too many people have attempted "Santa Baby." For certain holiday standards every one has their favorite for various reasons (more on that below), but admittedly there are a few songs that should be left untouched. Nobody coos like Eartha Kitt. Nobody and all the "p" in the world ain't gonna help those darn Pussycat Dolls.
I wondered yesterday why so many of today's artists felt they had to "reinterpret" holiday classics. It works when you're Diana Krall, but it gets iffy when you're that person who didn't finish first on American Idol. Why not write something new about Christmas I wondered, but before I could even debate about the fact that it's unlikely there's anything new to reveal about the holiday spirit, some song came on by some girl group I'd never heard of and I immediately cursed my previous thought. I like to cite the Thumper Edict on things like this - if you've nothing nice to add then don't sing nothin' at all. Stick with your breathy pop/R&B songs Toni Braxton. All that being said there are quite a few Christmas songs I absolutely adore, but these five are the ones that make me warm and fuzzy and excited to revel in the holiday cheer:
- Celebrate Me Home - Kenny Loggins
- The Christmas Song - Nat King Cole
- Silent Night - The Temptations
- Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree - Brenda Lee
- White Christmas - Otis Redding or The Drifters
1. This one just makes me smile. I play it anytime I head home, but around Christmastime it feels super special because I remember all the times I couldn't wait for my sister to arrive from various Army posts that always felt too far away.
2. The opening bars of this song with the strings literally makes me warm inside and then cocoa-smooth vocals just ease you right into visions of you sinking into your favorite armchair. Back home. Where the people you love are there. And it's warm. Fireside/near the vent/under your old favorite blanket warm.
3. The Temptations' version of "Silent Night" is to black people what Vince Guaraldi and Charlie Brown Christmas music is to white people ... and what "Feliz Navidad" is to Mexicans ... and what "Grandma Got Runover By a Reindeer" is to whoever thinks that's awesome. Their version is a classic; it's not Christmas until it gets played at least 12 times on the radio station on the way to and from the grocery store, on the way home or to the airport or the train station or on the way to grandma's. Over the years everyone has taken a turn singing a verse in my family and it is ALWAYS hilarious for whoever gets Mr. Otis's second verse and the falsetto verse. First place still goes to my daddy who wound up sounding like a sad hound who was in the midst of being run over by a car, and second place goes to my former brother-in-law Rob whose falsetto was beyond false and left us cryin' and hollerin' for miles on I-85.
4. Home Alone.
5. I've been thinking about Otis Redding a lot lately. I continue to wonder what music would've been like if he'd had more time. His version of "White Christmas" makes me want to find somebody to hold on to - the organ, the horns, that single guitar, all of it is just sensational. And there is just something about the way he sings "little bitty" that I just love. The version by The Drifters is good plain fun, and it makes my mom do her happy head bop which I love, too.
In recent years I've discovered "Purple Snowflakes" by Marvin Gaye, "The Christmas Waltz" by Frank Sinatra and "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?" by the fabulous Ms. Nancy Wilson. I never cared too much for "Frosty the Snowman" but Ella Fitzgerald could sing me the alphabet on repeat and I'd buy it; I listen to anything she sings at any time though so Christmas doesn't even warrant an exception. I also really love Aretha's "Winter Wonderland" purely for the way she begins all sassified with "Sleigh bells ring, are you listenin'?" She has that churchified way of singing things that makes her incomparable. Lastly, there is a sacred part of my Glen Arden Girl heart reserved for "Jessye's Carol" that is wrapped in green and silver and red and gold.
Oh and I totally checked out Mariah's "Merry Christmas" cd from the library because I loaned it to someone in high school and realized that when that album came out me and Jennifer Black sang the dickens out of every song for months, especially "O Holy Night." It was ridiculous, and listening to it now I just wish Mariah could find her way back - what a fun album. And I know it's asking for magic but if you're an artist today and you want to make an album, you need to come with it like she did. Really make it fresh and spirited. "All I Want For Christmas Is You" makes me feel like shoppin' and huggin' folk and walkin' around singin'. Aimee Mann's Christmas cd was a fun one, though.
So I know you don't hear what I hear come Christmastime, but what must you hear to spread the holiday cheer?
