Today is December 1st, so it’s time to start preparing for Christmas. Starting today, I will publish one “Christmastime” post per day. I’m not sure how long I’ll keep this up, but it will probably conclude on the 20th (the day I go home), 24th, or 25th. Each Christmastime post will include a picture, a song, and a story. The items will be presented in no particular order, so the first or last song/picture/story isn’t necessarily my favorite.
Carol of the Bells
I have over 400 Christmas songs in my iTunes library. I’m not up to Santa’s 980, but I’m getting there. The song that I probably have the most versions of is “Carol of the Bells.” I don’t have a specific version to list here, but start with one backed by a well-known choir and/or orchestra and you should be in for a good time.
Wired for Christmas
Did you know that my family’s house in Pennsylvania was built with Christmas in mind? For as long as I can remember, we’ve been putting electric candles in our windows each Christmas. For many years, this meant that for the month of December, at the beginning of each night we would have to go to each window and turn the candles on, and then turn them off again before going to sleep. The setup also involved several extension cords and outlet expanders to supply the necessary electricity in the right locations. When my parents were planning on building a new house, they asked for a pretty smart feature: an electrical outlet underneath each window, with all of the outlets on a single electrical circuit.
Now, when it’s time to set up the candles, fewer extension cords and expanders are involved (there are still some due to us putting multiple candles in large windows), and they are all turned on and off by a timer or single manual switch.
This is 1st in a series of Christmasy things.
are the 3 things at all related?
@nelson They are all related to Christmas.
But do you have THIS version? http://bit.ly/pIuL
@Rowyn Indeed, I do! Thanks to the awesomely searchable Gmail, I can tell you that I purchased it from iTunes on December 20th, 2004. I had only first heard of Guster a few months prior to that when they played at JHU. Any other recommendations?
Sufjan Stevens – Songs for Christmas volumes I-V — http://www.amazon.com/Songs-Christmas-Sufjan-Stevens/dp/B000HLDF0O
I’ve been listening to it weekly since May — http://www.mikeleotta.com/blog/2008/05/26/tis-the-season/
My mom also insisted on having electric candles in the windows every year, and we had to do all of the turning on and off shenanigans as well. Eventually my Dad bought a bunch of outlet timers, but after reading this blog post, I think it would have been better if he had just bought a new house instead.
Guster songs I like (assuming that’s what you meant) include:
-Barrel of a Gun
-Careful
-Amsterdam
-Two Points for Honesty
-Center of Attention
-Manifest Destiny
Guster has a pretty distinct sound, in my opinion, which isn’t to everyone’s taste. But they’re fun.