Christmas Music on Demand

How great is the internet? When I was small back in the late 60's and early 70's I would look all over for traces of Christmas at times of the year other then December. I would never have any luck. In fact it seemed like the moment the clock would strike midnight on the 26th of December that ALL of the music disappeared completely.

Oh there would be some station on the radio dial from a college somewhere that might have a "late" Christmas radio show on the next weekend with about 2 hours of Christmas music but that would be it. Christmas music was gone till next year outside of my Chipmunk Christmas albums that I would still play.

But not anymore. Once I was hooked up to the internet I was able to not only find Christmas radio stations that only played Christmas music but played Christmas music ALL the time! I would find sites with Christmas Countdowns (I even have my own here) and Santa workshops with actual tours of the place! If I only had that when I was younger.

But back to the music. There are some great sites with stations that play Christmas music 365 days a year like well "Live365" that has several Christmas music stations. They have at least one station that I found that also plays Christmas radio shows from the past. I love listening to them because they take me to a time before I was even born. The same Christmas spirit is there though.

Live365 also has stations that play other holiday music such as halloween music. These stations also run all year. They have different niches of music also. You could listen to Caribbean Christmas music on one station or Christian Christmas music that focuses on the religious songs about Christmas.

Some of the stations you have to upgrade to hear though. They have a VIP membership that does cost money. There are many Christmas stations you can hear for free though.

Another great spot to hear Christmas music 24/7/365 is Pandora. This site lets you make your own stations by simply asking you to put a name of an artist or song title into the search box. They then tailor a station after that song or artist similar to that kind of music. So if you would like to have your own radio station or stations with Christmas music (I have about 7) you can try out Pandora.

There is an option to pay to become a full member there also but again you don't have to be one to listen to the music. And being able to customize the station is really cool.

OF course there is YouTube where you can simply search for a Christmas song or video and see or hear it and get your Christmas fix quickly. The internet has indeed changed our options for finding Christmas music in the middle of June.

So even though the TV stations aren't "signing off" in the middle of the night anymore (something I used to love to see) and the nights aren't nearly as quiet, there is a good side to the world becoming noisier. I now get to hear Christmas music anytime I wish and have it feel like it really is Christmastime.

When you listen to your records that you always have in your house it isn't the same as having someone actually playing these songs on the internet. The popularity of these stations also shows me that I'm not alone in enjoying this.

Christmas music 365 days a year and on demand. I guess noisier can be better......sometimes.

A touch of the true meaning of Christmas

This is a post that I wrote on my Squidoo a few years ago. I thought it should be posted on here also. I want this blog not only to be about Christmas in general but also about the memories and celebrations that make it my favorite holiday.

And this is some memory. An honor really. Probably one I've never been able to live up to. Hope you like it:

Playing "Guess Who" in the Sunday School Nativity play at Christmas

Ever since I can remember I have never been comfortable being on a stage or speaking in front of alot of people. I figured sooner or later I would mess up and be laughed at. That is one thing I'm sure I'm not alone in.

Anyway it was Christmas time, I was about 5 yrs old and in Sunday School they were going to have a Nativity play. I was one of the younger kids so I figured I'd be a donkey, stable boy, or maybe a shepherd. To be honest thinking back now I probably wasn't even thinking that. Most likely I was probably hoping not to be in it.

Well I would be in it all right. I don't know if it was because I was one of the youngest or what. I do know this: I was quiet. I was usually a very quiet child. They decided (the people running the play) despite my being quiet to give me a central role. Not just "a" central role. THE central role. Not one of the three wise men, not even Joseph. No. I was going to play HIM. Yep. Little, shy me was going to play as great a role as could ever be played.

My mother obviously couldn't believe it or then again maybe she could. I didn't at age 5 really realize what a glorious honor this was. I still don't know why I was picked but it was what it was.

In this play He would be a baby but would speak. They would basically from what I can remember stand everyone in a line across the stage and have each of us say a line or two. When my turn came I of course messed it up (gulp). It was something to do with "daily tasks". I remember a guy named Bartholomew (I have no idea if I'm spelling that right) whispering me the right phrase from the side of the stage. Come to think of it there may have been more then one line. When you play Him though one mistake is too much.

I really don't remember much more from that time. Of course I was about 5 so how much could I. But just thinking about it is humbling. It is an ironic twist that me, someone who to this day is not comfortable in front of a group was on a stage playing the greatest part I could possibly play.

No one can ever take it away from me. I was about 5 years old but on that night, I was chosen to play my own Savior. Not fully realizing then what an honor it was. I'm no better then anybody else in the grand scope of things but come to think of it that may have been the greatest night of my life. Getting to represent the one who gave me eternal life on a little stage in Sunday school.

In this life I could never play a greater part .

Christmas Eve and.........The Yule Log!

When it first comes on it is announced with "Joy to the World" by Percy Faith. It then continues with holiday music for up to 4 hours on TV's all across the tri-state area. All while a blazing fireplace is shown on the screen.

This for me is one of the centerpieces of my Christmas Eve memories. The WPIX Yule Log would come on TV at 9:00 on Christmas Eve and run till midnight. The music would also be simulcast on WPIX FM radio. It was when the Yule Log came on that Christmas Eve had REALLY arrived for me. The world had finally fully delved into the magic world of Christmas and it seemed like even the laws of nature changed for the rest of that magical night. Especially since it ran (and still does) without commercials. Talk about laws of nature changing!

The Yule Log on television first ran in 1966 on WPIX channel 11 in New York. A man named Fred Thrower came up with the idea and once it was aired it just took off. In fact it was pulled I believe in 1989 but there was such an outcry from folks that it was put back on!

The actual fireplace that the log is burning in on the film is the fireplace at Gracie Mansion in New York. There was a second filming of the Yule Log for WPIX that was filmed in Los Angeles in 1970. The film of the log burning is actually only about 7 minutes in length. It is simply looped again and again with the different songs and instrumentals playing in the background.

The electronic history of the Yule Log isn't nearly as old as the actual history of the log. It can be traced back to BEFORE Christianity when the Winter Solstice was celebrated by peasants who would burn the log to keep away evil spirits. The thought was that since the Solstice was the shortest day of the year with the least amount of daylight that the evil spirits were more prevalent. Well burning the log was supposed to help keep the evil away. The word "Yule" itself comes from Norse words "Yul" or "Jul".

As the centuries have gone by the Yule Log has become intertwined with Christmas. Note the Winter Solstice connection with December 25th. Almost the same day. In parts of Europe the ashes of the Log would be kept because they were thought to be protection against such things as lightning and evil.

It's the electronic Yule Log that I know though and the success and popularity of this one has grown over the years. Stations in different parts of the country have put on their own Yule Logs including one I saw a few years ago on WGN where at midnight instead of playing Christmas music they had old time radio Christmas broadcasts playing while showing their own log. Pretty neat but they only aired it one year.

There is a great website that tells all about the WPIX Yule Log along with a forum. The site is called The Yule Log.com. The site has some really nice stuff about the history of the Yule Log (the electronic WPIX one) along with some other audio and video goodies to get you in the Christmas spirit. Even in June.

I'll probably never grow up especially when it comes to Christmas and the Yule Log will always be a part of that. It is now aired in the morning instead of Christmas Eve here locally on channel 11 but maybe someday they'll go back to the "Eve" showing. Either way the Yule Log is back and stronger then ever along with so many other enduring Christmas traditions.

May it burn on TV screens for another 35 years! Long live the Yule Log!

O Christmas Tree- What color is thee?

That moping kid sitting under the silver Christmas Tree is myself on Christmas morning in 1965. I have no idea why I looked so glum. After all this was the Christmas I received my Gaylord Bloodhound that moved by himself. I was probably being told to sit still which on Christmas morning for a 3 year old is not easy.

I doubt it was the silver tree that did it. The silver tree was my first tree and I still have it in my attic even though it hasn't been used in years.

The tree I have now is the tree we bought about 5 years after this photo was taken. It's the usual green and is now over 35 yrs old itself. The decorations on this silver tree consisted of some red balls, some blue balls and Candy Canes. It wasn't the most elegant tree ever but it was ours. And it was the tree I first connected Christmas with.

We had Christmas decorations all through the downstairs portion of the house. That was my mother at work. She always made sure we kids had a magical kingdom to come home to from school at Christmastime.

But back to the tree and the fact that it was silver. Does a tree become less festive if it isn't green? And of course the question that many folks ask when Christmas comes around is whether the tree should be real or not. The artificial tree doesn't do it for some folks.

Remember him? He had to have a REAL Christmas Tree. Even if one had a squirrel in it!

Or how about these artificial trees? A white tree could be made up nice but a purple one?



And of course the always popular.....upside down tree....hanging from the ceiling??????



I guess that is all right as long as none of the balls fall in your soup if you decide to eat under it. And if you are "different" enough to put a tree on your ceiling you'll probably be eating under it.

I just wonder what Santa thinks when he comes down the chimney and sees it. Never fear. I'm sure with all his magical powers he'll figure out what to do. (WINK)

Well we all have our own preferences when it comes to Christmas trees. The important thing is that it is put up with the spirit of giving happiness to others and lets face it, to ourselves. Christmas to me wouldn't be the same without the tree and it certainly wouldn't be the same without the children looking at it and wondering what will be under it come Christmas morning.

Just make sure you can fit more then one ball on it before "killing" it.




Come to think of it, Lucy and company were even able to make that one look great.

There's Always Tomorrow

It wasn't going to take long for me to put this song up. This song more then any other reminds me of when I was young and watching Rudolph on TV.

Rudolph (the TV special) came out in 1964 when I was 2. For me it was a big event when it was time for the special to air on CBS. Rudolph along with the Grinch, Frosty and Charlie Brown were the "big 4" if you will of the Christmas TV specials for me.

Now if I could just find my own Clarice.

Blackmore's Night, "Christmas Eve"

Here is one of the more modern songs about "Christmas Eve" that I love. It really gives me the sense of the magic that Christmas Eve is full of!

Enjoy!

Deck the Halls

Every year around the end of November after Thanksgiving the front page of The News Tribune would have a little box that would state how many shopping days there were until Christmas. What a great sight for a kid that could not stand school and loved getting presents.

That number getting lower and lower meant I was getting closer and closer. It was as if I was on a trip to another world. A magical world of decorations, seasonal music, presents and of course NO SCHOOL!

It seemed as if the world almost became softer it that's possible. Really. It was as if the closer the day came the calmer and quieter the world around me became.

There would be that day I would come home from school knowing that it was the day my mother would do the decorating. When I got home I would open the front door (or be led in) to find the living room transformed into a magic kingdom. There would be garland and cardboard cutouts of choirboys hanging on the banister leading upstairs. There would be musical decorations hanging on the walls. There was a shelf that would have a combination paper and cardboard wrapping around it that would look like bricks to signify our fireplace (we didn't have a real one) for the stockings to hang on.

Those are just a few of the things I remember from some of my early Christmases. I wish to as time goes by to relay more memories and reasons why I consider this the most magical time of the year. I don't know how you all feel about Christmas but I know how I feel and I will with this blog do what I can to explain why.