Tag: christmas eve

Advent song for Christmas Eve: The Christmas Song

On By Laura MorganIn Christmas, Music

Oh hey, hi! Are you all set? Still need to do some shopping? I had to go out for a red cabbage and extra booze earlier so I know how you feel. I have stolen a march on the big day, though, by half-prepping most of tomorrow’s food already, though I have some reservations about the part-done potatoes. It was Mary Berry’s idea, though, so fingers crossed and best foot forward, and so on.

Anyway, I hope you are all set, and are now settling in with a glass of sherry and the Christmas movie of your choice. But before you do that, turn the lights down and have a listen to this completely gorgeous 1963 recording from Smokey Robinson and the Miracles from the album Christmas With The Miracles.

Merry Christmas! Let’s hope its a good one, without any fear.

Advent activity #24

On By Laura MorganIn Christmas, Films, Music, TV and radio1 Comment

There is no instruction behind door number 24 on Edie’s advent calendar: it simply says IT’S CHRISTMAS EVE!, which is true. You probably have either much too much to get done today or nearly nothing to do at all, and in either case you can accompany the doing of it with a Christmas Eve playlist which I have made just for you. It’s a bit wistful in tone, which seems right for Christmas 2020, and it features four acoustic guitar tracks by Will Moore, who is also Edie’s dad (and my brother), which means we’re still sticking approximately to the theme.

The rest of the songs are ones you know (well, you’ll know them all, just not necessarily these versions) and we begin with the John Denver/Muppets version of Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, which is GUARANTEED to make you smile. The video is lovely and below, but listen on Spotify too because the sound quality is much better and the piano is beautiful . (I always said Rowlf was the most talented Muppet.)

Merry Christmas to you, and remember – one day soon we all will be together, if the fates allow; until then, we’ll have to muddle through somehow.

Advent song for Christmas Eve: River

On By Laura MorganIn Christmas, Music

This had to be our final choice just for the video, although it is also a beautiful song. But there’s nearly nothing more Christmassy than Christmas Peanuts, and Snoopy is obviously the best character of all and Snoopy ice skating is just about the best thing there has ever been, and even though this is a poor-quality video it’s still lovely to watch. But not so lovely that you won’t also be struck by the purity of Joni’s voice or the simple perfection of the song and arrangement.

Before I leave you to your preparations I would like to note that this wasn’t, in the end, a list of songs by my favourite women singer-songwriters, because some of my favourite women singer-songwriters simply never went near a Christmas song, so with apologies for the lack of Nina Simone, Joans Baez and Armatrading, Billie Holiday, Janis Joplin, Dolly Parton, Barbra Streisand, Laura Nyro, Sheryl Crow, Amy Winehouse and Taylor Swift, I will be posting a playlist later today of all the songs we’ve had that are on Spotify, and maybe some extras just for fun. Merry Christmas! I have high hopes for 2018, you guys.

December 18: Christmas Eve

On By Laura MorganIn Christmas, Music

No, I know it isn’t Christmas Eve today, but traditionally we celebrate Advent Sundays with a bit of crooning, and this is as close as Ringo gets to that. He even holds back on the drums, a bit. Not much. (But he makes up for his restraint in the first half of the song by coming in with an extended solo at about the two and a half minute mark.) This is a sweet song, though! I hope you enjoy it too.