Christmas Songs & 'Helpful' Cats

Hello Friends,
Well, I'm getting 'proper festive' now. Yuletide....perhaps my favourite time of the year. This week, I've been doing things with cranberries (more of that next time), finishing my gift-wrapping, sorting out jars of my preserves for people's hampers & generally getting in the mood. I wish I could say that Albert Whiskers has been helping, but his contributions been dubious at best. At least kipping among the presents as I tried to wrap them meant he wasn't diving onto paper & string.

As I attempted to finish the last hand-knitted gifts, I kept coming across soggy lengths in my yarn where he had been sitting at my feet chewing it. No yarn out to play with? No problem, he will just fish something out of my knitting basket with his paw & toss that around. Helpful? Hmmm. Yesterday, his common sense all but deserted him. Such is his determination to check everything on the floor just on the off chance it might be a 'Dreamie', I spotted him pick something up in his mouth & chew it for a few seconds before spitting it out........it was an open SAFETY PIN!! What a nice little festive spend at the Vet that would have been!

I've had lots of Christmas sounds on this week. Having spent many years singing in choirs, I listen to a wide range of carols & other Christmas music too, but there are lots of times when I  want to listen to Christmas songs........& I think I'm slightly more tolerant of cheesy pop at this time of year, too. What are your favourite Christmas songs? These are my top ten festive favourites:

*Jethro Tull - Ring out solstice bells - I never tire of this winter folk/rock classic, even though back in 1976, I remember thinking Ian Anderson was a weirdo. As an adult, this has become my favourite 'pop' song of the season. Now, watching the video, I think 'Yep, I'd take him out for a drink. We could stand on one leg at the bar & talk about Yule-y stuff'. I've included a link just for this song, as it's my No. 1.

*The Pogues & Kirsty MacColl - Fairytale of New York - Great song, great lyrics, especially the lines, "I could have been someone. Well so could anyone". RIP Kirsty, a talented musician who died too early.

And in no particular order:

* Slade - Merry Christmas, Everybody

*Wizzard - I wish it could be Christmas ever day.
OK, these two suffer from over-playing, but I have to include them, as I so clearly recall seeing them on Top of the Pops in 1973. What a year that was for Christmas songs! At home, we had neither a TV or pop-culture (both parents being totally classical musicians) so I relied on my friend's house next door for TOTP. If we'd fallen out that week, I had to make sure we were speaking again by Thursday night! Good songs like these made the seemingly endless 'Tomorrow's World' programme seem almost bearable.

*David Essex - A Winter's tale - No reason, apart from it being a well-crafted song, well sung, which has good DIY karaoke value when I'm making the mince pies.

*Greg Lake - I believe in Father Christmas - I always enjoy hearing this classic, as well as murdering it annually on my piano - sorry, Greg!

*Donna Summer - Winter melody - I think this one gets a little overloooked in amongst all the others. It's neither a stomper, like Slade & co, or a missable piece of cheese, I like the laid back intro & accompaniment & it's another good track for a sing-along. 

*Mariah Carey - All I want for Christmas - This is at the more cheesy end of my festive song-list, but it's a great one for singing along too, & while my vocal range isn't as many octaves as Ms Carey's, shove a couple of gin & cranberry juices in my general direction & I won't care about that! I always think the line 'I don't care about the presents underneath the Christmas Tree' is the lyric least likely ever to be sung by my sister, who likes presents extremely really very very much indeed!

*The Darkness - Christmas Time (Don't let the bells end) - It's a bit of a 'break-up' song, really, but it's such a fun track full of all the rock cliches I insist upon for a top Christmas song, & the video never fails to make me smile. "You went away upon boxing day, Now how the hell am I gonna make it to the New Year"........I don't know, Justin....my concerns are more to do with how the heck you're going to pour yourself out of those trousers!

*Status Quo - It's Christmas Time - A 2008 recording but with all the feel of a proper traditional Christmas pop song, with guitars & hair (though admittedly not so much of the latter these days). A totally unpretentious sing-along track, so let's raise a glass to the Quo - still rockin'!

Now for the bottom of my Christmas Song Barrel:

-Gary Glitter - Another rock & roll Christmas  (Earworm)
-Elton John - Step into Christmas (Massive earworm)
-Mud - Lonely this Christmas (Just No)
-Wham - Last Christmas (Sorry, I know this won't be a popular choice for the Barrel Bottom, but I have had more than a sufficiency of this cheesy festive offering. I've never liked it, & I don't care if the video does have lots of snow in it, it's just not for me).
-Little Drummer Boy - As sung by David Bowie & Bing Crosby (or indeed by anyone else)......
......& finally, my worst Christmas song of all time......I was going to say 'to date', but I am confident that in all probability, there will never be another I loathe as much as this. It's......
-Mistletoe & Wine - Cliff Richard Why? I find this tune an earworm which, when finished destroying your ear, commences actually boring into your skull. The lyrics are wince-inducing, especially the dubious use of English as we know it displayed in the line "Children singing Christian rhyme". This would make sense in the plural, but would then require a change to 'mistletoe and wines", which sounds more like a festive header at the off-licence. Suffice it to say that I would rather be shut in a lift with a lively arachnid & only sprouts & whisky to sustain me, than ever hear this song again!

I'm going to play 'Ring out Solstice bells' again now, to expunge that thought from my head!

What are your best & worst Christmas songs?
Until next time, when I shall be bringing cranberry joy!
C x