I was definitely honored a few years ago when Vox called one of my Spotify playlists “the only Christmas playlist you’ll ever need”. That playlist, what I called my Great Big Christmas Variety Shuffle List, has become pretty popular since. The focus of that playlist (now at just over 4000 songs), was typical FaLaLaLaLa music–lots of sentimental music of the 50s to the 70s, heavy on strings and crooners. However, I’m not one to rest on my laurels and wanted to create a list that was even more eclectic in terms of musical diversity. Enter my latest playlist, my Enormous Extra Eclectic Christmas ..read more

After several years of Covid Christmases it finally feels like we’re approaching a sense of normalcy for the holidays. We’ve been going to live Christmas music performances and are planning on having our annual Christmas party for the first time since 2019. It feels like it’s been a long time coming…. But then a big part of the holiday season is the sense of anticipation and the feeling of being in a suspended period of time, separate from the rest of the year. We await the coming of the sun (or the son, for some) and a transformation from darkness to light. I look forward each year to diggi ..read more

The 25th of the 12th The Mike Sammes Singers Fontana TFE 17065 1958 Side 1: 1. The Twenty-fifth of the Twelfth – 2:55 2. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas – 2:59 Side 2: 3. Christmas Chopsticks – 2:45 4. White Christmas – 3:06 kingofjingaling · The 25th of the 12th The Tale of the Tune The Christmas music of the Mike Sammes Singers has been some of my favorite Christmas music since I was a kid and their album White Christmas was one of the few pieces of holiday vinyl we had in our household. So when I started diving deeper into collecting Christmas music I was ..read more

    Christmas means many things to many people. For some it is deeply religious. For others it’s a time for raucous celebration. Others revel in moments of contemplation and hope. For me, it’s a time to take pause as the days reach their briefest and the chilly nights extend themselves. In those times it makes sense to take stock of where and who we are and yet hope to be. It’s a time to sit around the fire (both real and virtual), sharing stories that reflect all of our dreams and memories. And the music provides the soundtrack (and a fair number of the stories). May this litt ..read more

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A while back I was contacted by Alex Rawls of the 12 Songs of Christmas podcast who wanted to delve into the history behind FaLaLaLaLa. It was a great conversation. Alex is passionate and knowledgeable about music, Christmas and otherwise, and it was a pleasure reminiscing with him. Here’s some of what he had to say: Starting in the mid-2000s, mp3 blogs were a way to share a musical passion and find the community that shares it. I wrote about two such mp3 bloggers who share their love of Louisiana music for 64 Parishes, and this week on the show I talk to Brad Ross-MacLeod, also known on ..read more

See my post on the 1956 Line Material booklet for history about the company and a brief overview of these book/record combos. This is the sixth of the Line Material Christmas booklets that I’ll be sharing out this season. It seems that the books came to increasingly rely on longer stories as the series progressed. The earlier books seem to have more short pieces and whimsical illustrations. The books seem to have become more serious as time progressed. There is a reliance on some of the same authors (and even some of the same pieces) used in previous books. This is the third time that we meet ..read more

See my post on the 1956 Line Material booklet for history about the company and a brief overview of these book/record combos. This is the fifth of the Line Material Christmas booklets that I’ll be sharing out this season. I have to say that the tales in this book have a fairly darker tone than those from previous years. There’s a story where the animals fight about who will pull Santa’s sleigh, one where the Littlest Snowman sacrifices himself to make snow for his little town, and the tale of an amateurish Christmas pageant. Perhaps most ominous of all is the tale of a mouse who is brutally d ..read more

See my post on the 1956 Line Material booklet for history about the company and a brief overview of these book/record combos. This is the fourth of the Line Material Christmas booklets that I’ll be sharing out this season. This booklet leans most heavily on several extended stories as opposed to the briefer pieces which seemed to be more common in the previous years’ booklets. There are lots of messages about restored hope, plenty of good Christmas time themes. It’s well worth reading them all. TABLE OF CONTENTS The Littlest General (story) – Charles Tazewell The Day Santa Rode the Caboose (s ..read more

See my post on the 1956 Line Material booklet for history about the company and a brief overview of these book/record combos. This is the third of the Line Material Christmas booklets that I’ll be sharing out this season. And, to me, this has some of the best content as far as audio and visuals go. The booklet contains the standard variety of poems, short stories, song lyrics, and illustrations. To me, the paintings that accompany the lyrics of The Kinds of Christmas are just such great representations of abstract mid-century advertising art. And they really capture the different landscapes r ..read more