Austin Improv

how early can you start listening to Christmas music without wanting to strangle every fucking person on the planet?

my threshold is two weeks beforehand, though i won't seek it out myself until a week beforehand. this is complicated by my sister who listens to it constantly starting the day after Thanksgiving...with whom i now share an office.

yourselves?

I listen to Fairytale of New York once, on Christmas Eve, while baking a pie.

I started today. But, my collection of Christmas music is soul, zydeco, bluegrass, R&B and raunchy...so, it's fun Christmas music, and hence, more bearable.

I never seek out Christmas music, but I can't enter a store without hearing it once it hits December. I therefore try to buy everything on Amazon.

Nancy wrote:I started today. But, my collection of Christmas music is soul, zydeco, bluegrass, R&B and raunchy...so, it's fun Christmas music, and hence, more bearable.

yeah, my own mix is superb...but if i start listening to it TOO early, then i'm just burned out on Christmas once it actually comes around. doubly so when it's the bulk of the irritating shit they play on Magic 95.5.

I wish it was Christmas today!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wS-k66MKgs[/youtube]

kbadr wrote:I listen to Fairytale of New York once, on Christmas Eve, while baking a pie.

I tried that back home once, many years ago. It was not received well.

On the up side, my dad's "christmas music" for opening presents every year is the the entire Sticky Fingers album, so it's not all bad. (Yes, I do my best to carry on the tradition.)

I start my bid at July 1st. I believe I could do this.
If this is a contest...I believe I could start on Independence Day.

My favorites: Chanticleer and other Medieval Christmas music. "To wish you a merry Christmas" by Harry Belafonte. Too Many Santas, by The Bobs. The last one I can't start much before the week of the celebration, but it's awesome funny.

"Santa Baby" makes me fly into a murderous rage, and, while there is a time and a place for Handel's Messiah, it is NOT the only Classical music one can play during the season.

Oddly, although I'm a wholly secular person, the only Christmas music I can stomach is the religious stuff. "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen," "Silent Night," "The Little Drummer Boy," etc. The secular stuff is almost all crap, particularly if it's all about Santa Claus.

for favorites (once it's the appropriate TIME to listen to Christmas music!)...

O Holy Night (particularly the Josh Groban and Gary Morris versions)
Merry Christmas from the Family (Robert Earl Keene)
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen/We Three Kings (Barenaked Ladies & Sarah McLachlan)
Merry Christmas, I Don't Want to Fight (The Ramones)
Little Drummer Boy (Jars of Clay)
The Christmas Song (Nat King Cole)
Christmas Song (Dave Matthews)
Christmastime is Here (Vince Guaraldi)
Blue Christmas (Elvis Presley)
Happy X-Mas War is Over (John Lennon)
A Lonely Jew on Christmas (South Park)
most arrangements of Lullay Me Liking
and while i haven't heard it in years...the Claymation Christmas Special version of We Three Kings.

monkeyangst wrote:Oddly, although I'm a wholly secular person, the only Christmas music I can stomach is the religious stuff. "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen," "Silent Night," "The Little Drummer Boy," etc. The secular stuff is almost all crap, particularly if it's all about Santa Claus.

the only Santa songs i can go in for are Elvis doing "Here Comes Santa Claus" and Springsteen's live version of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town."

also, despite my better efforts, i adore I Want a Hippopotomaus for Christmas.

and if you've never heard Johnny Cash's "Little Gray Donkey," you're missing out.

BUT NOT FOR ANOTHER WEEK!!!

I'm really digging Paul and Storm's It Might Be Xmas collection.



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Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis is great...but not really Christmas-y.

kbadr wrote:Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis is great...but not really Christmas-y.

Substitute "Joseph" for "Charlie" in the first line and it becomes positively pious.