Halloween is the best holiday of the year. There’s nothing to it, really, except costumes, decorations, candy, and silliness. And then, you wake up on November 1, and all the stores are filled with Christmas paraphenalia, and… It’s Christmas time. Yeah… that’s my old dog Max from yesteryear! Good boy, Max. Good boy!
FYI, this is not a Christmas list.
Picture this: It’s sometime between Halloween and Thanksgiving in 2019. You and your wife have graciously offered to take your daughter Emma and her friend to see Waitress on Broadway and then have dinner afterwards. Of course, you and your wife aren’t seeing Waitress. You’re going to MoMA while they’re at the show. You wander MoMA for an hour or two and look at awesome art. You are dumbfounded by Edvard Munch’s art. Not just The Scream, but The Storm!
Naturally, you made reservations at a restauraunt in the Village, and naturally, you drove into the City. You tell your wife to wait for the girls outside of the theater. You’ll get the car, and if you have to drive around the block a few times, it’s not a big deal.
Then, as you get in your car, you are struck by this overwhelming sensation that it isn’t quite Christmas yet. And you are inspired to create a playlist. While you are driving. A manual transmission in New York City.
This was me. Driving in circles — not for 10 minutes, but for at least 30-45 minutes, searching up all the songs that have meant “Christmas Time?” to me for years and years. Erasure, Laurie Anderson, Echo & the Bunnymen, The Smiths, Sisters of Mercy. Comfort food for my ears. No people were hurt, nor was any property damaged in the making of this list. I swear.
By the time I picked Ginny and the girls up, the playlist was complete!
My “Christmas Time?” list wasn’t random, nor was it spontaneous, even if its ultimate creation was a little hazardous. This all started in October or November of 1991, and I was living in Demarest Hall at Rutgers. One fine Saturday, I went to Cheap Thrills and bought the new Erasure album — Chorus. I went to the local drug store to buy cigarettes, and a stack of Christmas lights jumped out at me. So I bought them, too.
I went back to my dorm room, put up the Christmas lights, and played my Erasure CD. It was at that moment that I realized I had my own personal genre of “Christmas Time?” music.
All of these tracks scream “holiday season” to me, even though none of them have anything to do with the holidays. They are more about where I was, when I was there, and how I was feeling when I heard the song.
So, this is NOT a Christmas list for you, nor will it ever be.
What are your “Christmas?” songs?
Track List
Erasure – Chorus
B-Tribe – ¡Fiesta Fatal!
Bon Iver – For Emma
Laurie Anderson – Strange Angels
Everything But The Girl – Missing
Pat Metheny – Spiritual
DJ Shadow – Building Steam With A Grain Of Salt
The Sisters Of Mercy – More
The Smiths – The Headmaster Ritual
Pink Floyd – Learning to Fly
Cowboy Junkies – Ring On The Sill
Pat Metheny – Electric Counterpoint: III. Fast
Echo And The Bunnymen – Nocturnal Me
Laurie Anderson – Coolsville
Clannad – Rí Na Cruinne
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