Holidays are coming! — Page 2

"The Carol of the Bells"

Leroy Anderson's "Sleigh Ride"

"We Need A Little Christmas" (especially as sung by Angela Lansbury!)

Any Christmas music played on organ and chimes

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I love Linda Eder's CD "Christmas Stays the Same"
and Carols for a Cure CDs are never far this time of year

You people cursed me. Today when I went to get dinner, the shop had the 24-hour carol station playing for the first time. Now I'm going to have holiday cheer stuffed down my throat for the next month and a half.

My parents have an ancient Steve and Edie Christmas Album. It's so awful it's genius. Edie does this piercing, screechy repetition of "SLEIGH RIDE, SLEIGH RIDE" in the background while Steve sings the verses.

So between that and playing Elvis' "Blue Christmas"--with the similarly piercing Woo-woo-woo-woo's in the background--celebrity Christmas albums are not too cool in my parents' house. Unless it's John Denver and the Muppets.

And I love that Mariah song too!! We used to blast it in college as exams were ending and we were heading home for the break and it's one of those songs that brings really vivid, visceral memories with it. Even though it's Mariah

I am in charge of our school's Holiday CD and we are already hard at work. In addition to making sure everything goes right I am singing "Chestnuts..." and "It's beginning..." not to mention starting the process of getting the rights to Jekyll & Hyde

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So BG2, the gild is off the lily when it comes to the joy of your new job?

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float,
I am NOT a fan of the fan of the job at all. I am just excited that I have an income that will help me to move to NYC.

Two more CDs that I would be remiss in not mentioning, are The Bells of Dublin (the Chieftains and friends), and an obscure Canadian release, The Music of Christmas Vos. I and II by Greg Joy & Mark Bracken. The Bells is a festive compilation of Celtic inspired carols and traditional carols with a Celtic spin. The latter, which I picked up in a tiny Christmas shop in Halifax a decade ago (well, Volume I, at least), is a wonderful collection of carols played on the dulcimer, flute, and other folk-y instruments. It is the perfect background music during the holidays at work.

Oh, and BGs...I was just teasing...

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"Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas"

and

"O Holy Night" because it was my first ever solo. And because I just got asked to sing it on Christmas Eve in church, which is huge because it's considered the biggest honor of the year and I'm the youngest singer in the congregation. And this is the second time I've been asked.

Sorry...end of bragging.

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