Roxanne Tellier – Making Your Own Merry Little Christmas

Calendar time between my birthday on December 4th, and Christmas Day, on December 25th, is just three weeks .. 21 days .. The calendar doesn’t lie – it’s 21 days, but somehow, it always flies by like it’s a lost long weekend, and into that time, we have to pack in all the xmas frippery and chaos we can handle.

Those three weeks fly by. The holidays just aren’t the same since my mum and gram died in 1992. Gram, who had hoped, but didn’t quite get the chance to celebrate her hundredth birthday, always had the gravitas and the gravy, roast beef, and Yorkshire pudding to guarantee that our scattered family would be gathering around her for the holidays.

Pat Blythe: Memories of Christmas past, present and future….

Ahhh Christmas. The time of year when I regress into a squealing five-year-old, much to the chagrin and amusement of my sisters. My fellow writer Roxanne Tellier has fired off the first DBAWIS Christmas salvo and a beautifully written piece it is. Santa Gutch was next with lots of musical recommendations for all the tuneful lovers on your list. Now it’s my turn.

Roxanne Tellier – Christmas and Snowbound in the Treasured Past

My mum embodied the Spirit of Christmas. She loved everything about the holiday, and she made every one of my childhood Christmas’ as merry and bright as she could.

She’d grown up in the depression – she knew Christmas wasn’t about money. When times were tough, she’d tell us it would be a “Hoodoo McFiggin” year – that meant the only presents would be things she had to buy us anyway, just to keep us clothed and fed – underwear, socks, boots.  Presents were lovely, but some years, presents could wait.Christmas was about gathering with family, and sharing what we did have, and what we had to spare was love.

Doug Thompson: “TODAY THE PITS, TOMORROW THE WORLD.”

A few months back, not long after Stan Freberg died on April 7^th, I wrote a column about his early career as a voice actor for Capitol Records children’s records and Warner Bros. cartoons, TV shows like “Time For Beany” plus his hilarious 13 week CBS summer radio series as well as his many hit parodies for Capitol.  At the time, I promised (or threatened, I can’t remember which), to write a second column on Stan’s amazing adventures in advertisingland.

Doug Thompson – DOUG’S COOL YULE – MY “12 SONGS OF CHRISTMAS” LIST

Hard to miss that’s it’s the Christmas season.  Department, drug and clothing stores have all been playing Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree”, Bobby Helm’s “Jingle Bell Rock”, Wham’s “Last Christmas” and The Beach Boys “Little Saint Nick”, along with newer Christmas ditties from the likes of Neil Diamond, Taylor Swift, Michael Buble and the omnipresent “White Christmas” from der Bingle (aka Bing Crosby) for what seems like months already.

Roxanne Tellier – But It’s Too EARLY!

I know, I know … it’s too early to be listening to Christmas and holiday music. But on Thursday I spent my birthday serenading senior citizens at their seasonal parties, and I haven’t stopped feeling a little festive ever since.

Roxanne Tellier: Giving Thanks

Yay! It’s Turkey Day! Actually, we celebrated on Saturday, so for me it’s just Fat Pants Day today, but what the heck. It’s the drumstick that counts.

Roxanne: DBAWIS: Celebrating St. Patrick’s Day

Faith and begorrah! St Paddy’s Day is today, and I’m all out of green beer!

Just kidding – green beer is a blight, a slap in the face to any true Irishman worth his or her salt. But there will still be many pubs offering it up on the 17^th. And many wannabe Irish puking it up the next day.

I do love to celebrate the day. My mother’s father was from Ireland, and all of his eight children were lovers and dreamers, happily singing traditional and ‘patriot’ songs, and generally brushing over the fact that their mother was one of the conqueror Brits. In Montreal, a city where so many Irish had settled, St. Patrick’s was celebrated loudly, and with much abandon.

JAIMIE VERNON – WHERE HAVE ALL THE NOVELTY SONGS GONE?

This week Frank & Moon Unit Zappa’s novelty hit “Valley Girl” turned 30 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qb21lsCQ3EM. For those too young to remember, that’s the 1982 song…not the 1983 movie starring Nicolas “I’m A Coppola So Fuck YOU!” Cage.  It’s what we old geezers like to refer to as a novelty song. Novelty songs were, and should still be, tunes reflecting social trends and fads – in the guise of humourous observational commentary, parody or satire.