The Santa Celebration is dedicated to Gloria!
Gloria (in Excelsis Deo)- The Tryfles A Midnight Christmas Mess
Christmas Time Is Here- Jeffrey Foskett Christmas At The Beach
It's Christmas Time Again- Chris Klondike Masuak Rockin' Bethlehem
Merry Christmas All- The Grip Weeds Under The Influence Of Christmas
A Christmas Toast- The Wellingtons Wellingtons Christmas Cheer
I Must Have Been So Good- Vibeke Saugestad ...From All Of Me
It's That Time of Year- Jeremy Hi-Fi Christmas Party Vol. 2
All These Winter Nights- The Higher Elevations Swedesplease Christmas Mix
Merry Christmas- XTC Holiday Greetings From Geffen Records
^Santa Claus Is Coming To Town- The Revillos Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
Teenage Christmas- Eux Autres Another Christmas At Home
Here Come the Good Times- A House Wide Eyed And Ignorant
I Want An Alien For Christmas- Fountains Of Wayne I Want An Alien For Christmas
The Twelve Days Of Christmas- Bill Lloyd The Day After Christmas
All Winter Long- The Doleful Lions Motel Swim
*Santa Claus- Chris Von Sneidern Santa Claus
*Santa's On His Way- The New Royalty Spend Christmas With Me
*Santa Don't Go- Farrah Christmas Present
*Santa Came In Stripes- The Finkers Planet of the Popboomerang
*Santa Needs A Holiday- Strawberry Whiplash The Matinée Holiday Soirée
California Christmas- Sketch Middle California Christmas
Christmas Time- The Boss Martians Santa's Got A GTO Rodney On The Roq's Fav X-Mas Songs
Maybe This Christmas- Ron Sexsmith Music From The OC: Mix 3 - Have A Very Merry Chrismukkah
Christmas Bells Are Ringing- The Connection A Christmas Gift For
Son, You Should Come Home For Christmas- Ben Smith WXPN Local 12 Days of Christmas 2012
Tiny Tree Christmas- Guster The Christmas Gig
>Santa Looked A Lot Like Daddy- Buck Owens Santa Looked A Lot Like Daddy
Christmas Countdown- Broken Promise Keeper Christmas Countdown
Christmasonic- Dom Mariani Hi-Fi Christmas Party
Christmas Lights- The Hi-Risers Christmas Lights 7"
Christmastime With You- The Cheepskates A Midnight Christmas Mess
Snowman Song- The Icicles Cwistmas Twee
The Christmas Wish- Kermit The Frog A Christmas Together
Faster Santa Claus Ho! Ho! Ho!- Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet It Came From Canada Vol. 4
^Power Pop Peak: Original version from 1934
*SacroSet: Santa Songs
>Power Pop Prototype: 1965
Every year my wife Jaime writes the Love Family Christmas Letter (now an e-mail) and she always does a fantastic job. So fantastic in fact that I want to share it with all of you. I asked her if it was okay and she said yes, so take it away Jaime!
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What’s YOUR favorite holiday memory?? The one where you got everything you wanted, all your relatives refrained from passive aggression and you didn’t gain five pounds? My guess is NO.
Ever notice how some of your fondest memories didn’t start out that way? Time has a way of improving the past. Like the year we discovered Santa’s hiding spot: the spooky unused laundry chute off the powder room. Or the Christmas my Mom must have thought I was too old for toys and I found an itchy maroon dickie and a SLIP under the tree, instead of more clothes for my dolls Skipper and Midge. These memories make me chuckle now, but I remember a few tears back then.
And then there are the memories that are great from the get go: Jackson smiling his first official smile at 5 weeks. I was decorating the tree and he was just to the left of me, in his “blue thing” (bouncy seat), arms and legs going like a wind up doll. He made a loud cooing sound and I looked down, ornament in hand, just in time to see the corners of his mouth turn upward. That moment is locked in my memory, twinkling ornament, twinkling lights, twinkling smile. Or the year we saved their biggest gift for last….they had wanted a Wii so bad and, in the throes of Waldorf inspired parental restraint, we were the only house on the block without a video game system. Our poor deprived children! Just when they thought Christmas was over, we nonchalantly said “oh you missed one” and pulled out a nondescript package from Gramma Gigi in back of the tree. The look of incredulity on their faces was priceless. To this day, they say it was their biggest Christmas surprise.
How could I ever forget Nica’s joy over her least expensive gift- a cash register with paper money and “groceries”-she must have played “store” with Gigi all day that year. Or seeing her one Christmas morning, in a hat from the costume box, arm around dear pal Anne, cruising down the street in her motorized pink Corvette at seven years old. Rick was right; we did NEED to buy her that. You should have seen him in Toys ‘R Us, grilling the pimply teen sales clerk about which car was the best, which got the best battery mileage…. Then there was the year all the boys on the street got Green Machines (think fancy big wheels) and we parents met on the street in our bathrobes and coffee watching the guys race down Cooper Street. One year my parents were on hand to witness the joy over their gift for the kids, tucked inside mouse ears were keys to Disneyland. Thank you Grinna and Papadaddy!
This year we got them good. As the kids have gotten older, we like to give experiences instead of more “crap” for their bedroom floors. Weeks ahead of time they were told “we’re all flying to Boston, dropping you off with Gigi, then mom and dad are going to NYC for three days.” They were not pleased as they love NYC almost as much as we do. The night before our trip we had an early Christmas dinner, Jack’s girlfriend Genesis joining us, and presented a few gifts that were “too big to take to Boston.” We got to talking about Christmas memories, and Jackson told his girlfriend: “the sound of the electric train always means Christmas to me and Nica.” Rick and I shared a look and a laugh over that one. I brought this cheap little electric train at Rite Aid eons ago and each year we debate whether to drag it out and set it up around the base of the tree, the train sound summoning them to open presents Christmas morning. It’s a pain to put together but usually I win… and Rick gets down the box! So, anyway after dinner this year we asked them to look under the tree. They found three big gift bags: one with a card showing the letter “I,” another with a heart symbol and a third with the letters “N,” “Y, “ and “C.” Nica said “Jack, l think we’re going somewhere, last time they made us spell it turned out to be a CRUISE!!” Watching them get the letters into the right order and realizing they were going to New York was priceless!
DECEMBER 22: After a full year of tennis and softball (sophomore Nica), baseball (senior Jack) and theater (The Who’s Tommy, The Full Monty- Rick; Rent- Nica; the original musical revue Defying Gravity Gals in We Can Do It!- Jaime) we are currently pretending to be New Yorkers! In the last three days we’ve lugged five suitcases up to my nephew’s four flight walk-up in Chelsea (built in 1840- thanks Garth and Francesca!), seen Broadway shows Sideshow and Constellations (where Jack met star Jake Gyllenhaal!) walked a gazillion miles, tried to bribe Nica to sing at Restaurant Row piano bar Don’t Tell Mama and nearly missed our train to Boston because Rick HAD to visit Dylan’s Candy Bar. You should have seen him, flagging a taxi like a pro, whisking us up to 59th and 3rd to rub elbows with the upper east side crowd buying $30 artisanal
chocolate covered pretzels. After we left I found out I could have been UPSTAIRS at Dylan’s with the moms and nannies drinking chocolate martinis- now THAT’S my kind of candy store! It would have fortified me as we endured the slowest cab driver in NYC to get us back to Chelsea to grab our luggage and then to Penn Station within minutes of our train’s departure. It felt like an adventure on one of those reality shows.
When we find ourselves in crappy situations, Rick loves to rub it in, sarcastically singing the old Carly Simon song “it’s the stuff that dreams are made of ….it’s the reason we are alive.” And ya know, he’s right. As I sit on the train to Boston, I’m already turning the white knuckle afternoon fiasco to make our train on time into an anecdote. AND we’re going to make him walk the length of the train to the dining car to buy us food, so it all works out.
DECEMBER 30: Sitting in Chicago, waiting for our flight to SF, delayed, delayed, delayed due to high winds. Nica and Rick watching Netflix, Jackson reading a COOKBOOK (whoever would guess my son wants to be a CHEF) and I’m finishing up this letter to you. Great Christmas with our East Coast family firmly tucked away in our minds, we even managed to call the kids down to the presents with electric train sounds, albeit emanating from a youtube video on Rick’s computer!
Christmas isn’t always perfect, but it’s usually memorable! We hope YOU made some memories this season.
Love the Loves, Rick, Jaime, Jackson and Veronica …and Sheena and Lacey too
PS: They just bumped us up to first class! It’s gonna be a good year….
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| Jack and Nica in Times Square |
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| Jaime and Jack at Orsi in NYC |
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| Washington Square Park |
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| Jaime and Jack return to her Alma Mater |
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| Jack and his buddy Jake |
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See, I told you she did a good job. Links for the Santa Celebration are below (to download right click and "Save Link As"):
Hour 1
Hour 2
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