Is It December Already?

At long last I might be able to say that all is more-or-less calm and/or somewhat bright (the children are even nestled all snug in their beds); it seems that the Christmas Marathon has passed the finish line. I find to my astonishment that I haven't posted during the entire month of December, but it's really just a byproduct of my seasonal strategy -- I even decided to postpone my much-loved Christmas letter till sometime around the New Year.

I'm not telling anyone anything they don't already know; I'm pretty sure that if you need a sketch of my December to-do list, you need only consult your own. But as busy as it got, I really made an effort this time not to try to jam 10 pounds of Christmas into a 5-pound Santa sack, so this had to wait... even though I ended up missing my own Third Blogiversary (traditional gift for the Third Blogiversary is apparently "forgetting to post").

One reason December is always hectic for me is that I'm incapable of being Christmasy before its time. My wife did almost all the shopping by November; much of the wrapping was done in (very) early December (The wrapping is also complicated by the fact that -- having done zero of the general shopping -- I'm obligated to pitch in. But her philosophy is: cover each object with paper as quickly as possible. On the other hand, I'm about hospital corners, and creative packaging to disguise the gift, and getting the maximum number of packages out of the minimum square footage of wrapping paper. In keeping with one of my core tenets: The Wrapping is Part of the Gift).

I can't even think about planning to start making a list of things I might later buy until Thanksgiving has passed and it's time to crank up the Christmas music. I have semi-famously written about this topic before, of course -- still one of my favorites, though I have to admit that the Waitresses selection was at least partially an intentional effort to be provocative, somewhat hip, and an out-of-the-box thinker. That was before I demonstrated to everyone's satisfaction that the quickest way to locate me was to look inside the box.

Seriously, drop everything and watch this version of the Waitresses piece...You'll thank me.

The holiday music experience, like everything else in my frighteningly circumscribed existence, was revolutionized this year by my iPod. In fact, I maxed it out several weeks ago, at almost 2000 songs, transferring the over 200 Christmas songs in my CD/cassette/LP collection. And I've been carrying it around with me every chance I get.

In my original post on Christmas music, I concentrated on the traditional (secular) "seasonal favorites" you might encounter, or be assaulted by, in any mall... although admittedly it would have to be a pretty New-Wave mall to be playing the Waitresses. I sometimes have somewhat mixed feelings about Christmas music that does have spiritual significance, however.

Almost every Christian artist has a Christmas album, of course; not to record one would be a little like a baseball player deciding to take a sabbatical while his team played in the World Series. I've collected albums from many of my favorite artists, but it leads to a bit of a conundrum.

Nobody really needs 9 different versions of Silent Night -- as I find from my iTunes that I have (actually, that's from an alphabetical sort; I'm pretty sure I have at least 2 more in there somewhere as part of medleys). Even the artists themselves know this and often end up putting a new spin on an old classic... with not always predictable results. Audio Adrenaline does a version of Little Drummer Boy that is, ah, not for the faint of heart. Rebecca St.James did an entire Christmas album in a rather alternative style, and it's not bad but I often get the feeling when listening that I'm just not quite hip enough to get it. Albeit that might be said about me for anything on the far side of Perry Como.

So I find when looking at an album that I shy away from it somewhat if it's just the Same Old Titles. But on the other hand, it surely doesn't need to be reiterated that I am traditional right down to my argyle socks (not kidding, it's a great wardrobe day when I find a way to work argyle socks into the ensemble) -- so I get kind of scared about an album with mostly unfamiliar titles (i.e. new original Christmas songs) as well. I can't say I'm entirely paralyzed, since I do have over 200 Christmas songs... but as with every other decision in my life, I'm given much pause before triggering the buy.

I am one of the most ardent living fans of Steven Curtis Chapman, so I was able to overcome my reluctance and purchase both of his Christmas albums -- and I find the first one, The Music of Christmas, to be the absolutely flawless combination of classics, reworked classics, and originals. It's probably the only holiday album I own that makes me wish I weren't so completely inflexible that I can only listen to it for one month a year. Technically, as a Christian Jesus' birth and all related topics are relevant to me all year long, but I'm pretty sure a Christmas album in May or June would be a shock to my psychological foundations from which I wouldn't soon recover.

Other songs that are hard to wait for till late November: the first 2 cuts of this album, one of which is Al Green's funky "First Noel"; and a couple of real obscurities, My Christmas by Brett Williams & In Reach, and "Tonight" by Benjamin (The only place I could find this to have you listen to it -- other than, you know, having you all over to the house -- was at Rhapsody, which can be a bit annoying to negotiate but does have the advantage of allowing you to hear not just the whole song but the whole album, which also includes "My Christmas").

Sadly, I sense the statute of limitations expiring on how long I can continue shuffling Christmas... I think I can stretch it through Epiphany without enduring a prolonged and painful personality transplant (or implant, as the case may be).

Postscript: the pieces I've written at past holiday times tend to be my favorites, so I invite you to think of them as holiday specials; you've watched Charlie Brown more than once, haven't you? If you don't mind repeats, these are my absolute favorite pieces...