It's Christmas Time (and Time for a Carol) -- Refreshed

Originally posted December 20, 2009

While there might be people on earth that love Christmas music as much as I do, I doubt that anyone loves it more. How could I not love it when it combines super cheesy (I really want to spell that word cheesey, but I always get a red line under it when I do) music and playing the same songs over and over. And since I only have about a month to get away with it, I try to take full advantage of it.

This was the first post I wrote about Christmas music on this blog, almost five years ago to the day. In that post, I wrote, "I've created my 'must hear' Christmas playlist." Apparently I can and do get tired of *some* Christmas songs. This list would be drastically different if I were writing about Christmas music for the first time today. However, I'm going to leave the list intact and just update my comments. 

The list is split into categories of classic (before 1970), modern (1970-present) and TV (songs I associate mostly with Christmas specials). 

More Songs for the Holiday Season, Part Two

Here are ten more songs for your Christmas collection. You can hear the entire playlist here: The Ultimate-ish Christmas Playlist.

More Songs for the Holiday Season, Part One

I did my first Christmas song blog post in 2009, then I didn't do another one for three years. That's just craziness. So this year, I'm going to do a two-parter. Plus, as a bonus – because Brandon asked for it – I've created a Youtube Christmas playlist with all the songs from all the posts. I may even throw a few bonus ones in there to see if you're paying attention. Part two tomorrow.

Classic Christmas Comedy, Part 2

A little more seasonal silliness to get you in the Christmas spirit.

Classic Christmas Comedy, Part One

It's no secret to anyone who knows me (or reads this blog regularly) that I love Christmas. I've written posts about my favorite Christmas music, as well as one about things to do to make the holiday more fun. I even wrote one about counting your blessings. I can be very sincere and polyanna when it comes to Christmas. But really, who are we kidding? Read the rest of the blog. So tonight (and tomorrow), with no real writing involved at all, here are some of my TRULY favorite holiday stories, sketches, stand-up, etc.

15 More Songs to Add to Your Christmas Collection

It's been three years since my last Christmas music post and it feels like it's time. I might even update the other post with some fresh comments so I can repost it later this week. Back then I didn't know you could embed the videos right into the post so I can definitely do some revising on that one.

The first post contained 26 of my favorite Christmas songs (my favorite versions of those songs actually), but it was by no means exhaustive. And in the intervening three years I've added several new favorites. You'll be shocked to find American Idol contestants dominating this list I'm sure. They are listed by the play count on my iTunes. That feature is notoriously unreliable, but with a couple of exceptions it did a pretty good job of ranking them (if only because some of the lower ranked ones are the most recent additions to my collection).

Happier Holidays!!

Christmas is my favorite time of the year (especially now that I don't have to wear five layers of clothes just to take the trash out). But there's no denying it's not quite what it used to be. Granted, part of that is simply growing up. There's virtually no way to continue to see things with the wonder and joy of a child year after year after year.

Still, some of it is operator error -- and therefore correctable to a certain degree. Here are my suggestions for making the holiday season better. Some of them are simple; some are more complicated; others are simply fantasy.

Counting My Blessings

Things I do well: sarcasm, sassy come-backs, really bad jokes, storytelling.

Things I'm not so good at: expressing gratitude, putting feelings like joy and love into words.

Make no mistake. I'm not the guy you want making the toast at your wedding, unless you were looking for a cross between Henny Youngman and Milton Berle for the job. I tend to get all "guyish" when I have talk about all the things we typically associate with the heart (metaphorically -- angiograms and clogged arteries I usually do OK with).

But I'm going to give it a try anyway. Practice makes barely adequate.