Music Makes the Holidays Better!

I love Christmas…and actually Hanukkah (primarily the Dreidel song)...music. I’m sure there is some bastion of Kwanzaa songs somewhere, but I have yet to hear any of it in stores or on the radio. Most songs and artists I can deal with, I may not buy the Mariah Carey Christmas CD, but a few of the songs are passable as background music for the Holidays. Of course this time of year makes me embrace my favorites and dread the other tripe and crap variations of holiday classics.

My all time favorite CD, the one I force my family to listen to so much that my Mom has to commander the CD changer is John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together. Oh my God that CD is fantastic! So many memories of Christmas past and enjoyable tunes for Christmas Present and Future to enjoy! I also hit the Mannheim Steamroller CD’s pretty hard, nothing beats often trippy (Carol of the Bells anyone?) electronica and orchestral takes on Christmas. An added bonus is it drives my Brother’s nuts, so it’s got to be played if for no other reason than perverse sibling antagonism over the Holidays.

Mind you I now start my annual dread of my all time least favorite song…Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer. THIS SONG NEEDS TO GO AWAY!!! My own Grandmother, may she rest in peace, had a love hate relationship with the song. Her dark and ribald sense of humor got a kick out of a song about a drunken Grandma getting taken down by Santa, but on the other hand she was a Grandma and thought the song lacked some level of respect. I hate this song. It’s inane and crueler in nature than I’m ok with this time of year. It also gets stuck in my head. Even as I type this blog, the chorus of the song is playing in my head and I am not okay with that!

As always I’m on the look out for good Holiday music. This year it was a lot of old school 50’s and 60’s swing interpretations by Sinatra and others. Plus of course the Chipmunk Song, a song I forgot I loved until I heard it again. My wish for all is happy listening to Holiday or whatever music you’d like this year…and if you can go out and buy John Denver and the Muppets: A chirtsmas Together, I figure all of humanity should listen to that one.